Eero Holstila: “Art and artists’ know-how play an important role in the development of society”
Holstila, who was selected chair of the Uniarts Helsinki board in January, wants to make room for unpredictable art and to strengthen the cooperation between the university board and collegium.
“The best thing that has happened to Helsinki in the 2010s is the founding of Uniarts Helsinki.”
That is something Eero Holstila says he has remarked to the previous Mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori. He still stands by his words but adds that the university’s full potential has surely not yet been tapped.
“Here in the cold North, the only way we can thrive is by relying on our high-level competence and using it as our foundation for all activities. And when it comes to competence of the highest level, Uniarts Helsinki is definitely our flagship that radiates positive energy into the city.
Eero Holstila is one of the five external members of the board of Uniarts Helsinki, which began its work at the beginning of 2022. In January, the board selected him as the chair. The term of the board is four years.
A background in urban development
Holstila is a sociologist with an extensive career in development duties for the City of Helsinki, now retired from his job as the director of economic development for Helsinki. He finds that one of the main achievements of his career is the introduction of the concept of social mix in the city housing policy, which he contributed to during the very early stages of his career. To this day, prevention of segregation remains an important goal in urban planning.
As the former CEO for Culminatum Innovation Ltd, Holstila learned the ins and outs of cooperation between the city and universities. Later in his position as the director of economic development, his primary focus in development duties was the event sector of Helsinki.
According to Holstila, people in Helsinki did not fully discover the importance of art and culture for the vitality and identity of the city before the beginning of the 1990s.
“During the Finnish Great Depression, we understood that culture is not an expense item but an investment.”
Helsinki applied to be selected as the European Capital of Culture of 2000, and the application was successful. The project had long-term effects: it became clear that it pays off to invest in culture, and the city added making Helsinki “a fun city” in its official strategy. Helsinki’s urban culture has developed tremendously during the 21st century.
Art and artists’ know-how can continue to play an important role in the development of the city and the surrounding society at large, and Holstila wants to contribute to this progress. Art can encourage participation and prevent polarisation, for example. Holstila points out Uniarts Helsinki also as an example of successful internationalisation efforts.
“The campuses of Uniarts Helsinki also have a major impact on the development of the neighbourhoods where they are located.”
Funding for science and art must be secured
Both parliamentary elections and municipal elections fall within Holstila’s term as the chair of the board. Political lobbying has traditionally been one of the duties of the university board and especially that of its chair.
Funding of research and science will surely be one of the themes that will raise debate in the next parliamentary elections. During this parliamentary term, the parties have already committed to the target of raising research and development expenditure to four per cent of GDP by 2030, but the target is still some way off. Uniarts Helsinki stands alongside other universities when defending funding for universities.
But funding for the cultural sector, in particular, still requires more advocacy work.
“Funding for art and culture should be highlighted as an equally central theme as funding for science. Placing Veikkaus Oy’s revenue within the state budget cannot lead to a decrease in funding for the arts,” Holstila says.
Holstila calls for a clear and goal-oriented arts policy and points out that the term cultural policy is too wide and ambiguous to be applied here. The rebuilding programme for the arts sector, which was launched by Uniarts Helsinki, is high on the list of priorities established by both the board and the rector.
In his view, the most successful way of lobbying is making concrete results.
“The most efficient way of ensuring Uniarts Helsinki’s operational resources is to make sure that people understand the significance of the university. That’s why the third basic mission of universities – societal interaction – is important alongside teaching and research.”
Enabling is the key
Holstila finds that the strength of Uniarts Helsinki is the passion and enthusiasm expressed by its community, by both students and employees.
“Uniarts Helsinki is an extremely sought-after university that is tough to get into, with applicants both from Finland and abroad. As a result of this, students are highly motivated. In my position, I want to give room for this enthusiasm and passion. And for art that is unpredictable and leads to a result that you can’t foresee.”
The concept of enabling is at the core of what Holstila thinks the university board should strive towards through its leadership. He finds that the most important duty of the board is to support the university’s top-level management, i.e. the rector, and to enable fulfilment of the university’s primary missions as effectively as possible.
“I like the idea that we turn the organisation upside down in a way: the university board doesn’t give orders from the top down and instead, acts as an enabler and nudges from the bottom up.”
Holstila also finds it important that Uniarts Helsinki’s tripartite university democracy is strengthened.
“The board is given its mandate from the university collegium, which applies to us external board members, too. That’s why I want to develop the cooperation between the board and the collegium.”
A hundred concerts a year
Many people refer to themselves as highly active culture consumers, and the title is well-deserved in Eero Holstila’s case.
Out of all artistic disciplines, Holstila is most in his element when enjoying music. Before the COVID outbreak, he attended about 100 concerts a year. He holds season tickets to both of the major orchestras in Helsinki, but baroque music is the style that is the closest to his heart.
Now, because of COVID, his concert tally has dropped down to 50. Probably live streamed concerts due to the ongoing circumstances?
“No, no, 50 live concerts! Admittedly, 15 of those took place at the same festival, though, at Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.”
Holstila picks out two especially impressive artistic experiences from the past year: a harpsichord concert by Neapolitan baroque musician Enrico Baiano in the Pitäjänmäki Village Church and an exhibition by Professor Tarja Pitkänen-Walter at Kunsthalle Helsinki.
“I entered the world of fine arts through Finnish expressionism of the 80s – through artists such as Silja Rantanen, Leena Luostarinen and Marika Mäkelä. In the exhibition, I realised that Pitkänen-Walter is part of the same continuum.”