Category: Foundation

Helsingin Sanomat and the University of the Arts Helsinki will organise a training programme in cultural journalism and arts criticism in spring 2027. Aalto University and the University of Helsinki’s Department of Cultures will also participate in the programme.

In addition to Helsingin Sanomat, the programme is funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation and the Tiftö Foundation.

Applications will open in October 2026. The programme will begin in January 2027 and run for 20 weeks. It comprises 10 ECTS credits, which can be recognised as part of higher education studies.

A total of 20 participants will be selected from across Finland.

Read more in Helsingin Sanomat

2025 was a year of movement for the Tiftö Foundation: works were loaned to museums, a new artwork was created on Vallisaari island, and nearly four hundred guests gathered in the foundation’s spaces. Not a bad year for art.

Vallisaari called — Hans Rosenström answered

The year’s most significant support went to the Helsinki Biennial 2025, which the foundation has been backing since 2023. In 2025, the support was channelled to artist Hans Rosenström’s work created specifically for the Biennial on Vallisaari — an island you can’t reach on foot, but ferries run every hour from the Market Square.

Rosenström’s piece is a fine example of what the foundation’s support can do at its best: make new art possible.

Others received support too

Beyond the Helsinki Biennial, Valoseura Flash received a grant for its project connected to Oulu’s year as European Capital of Culture 2026, and four visual artists also received direct support from the foundation.

Works toured the world

The Tiftö collection grew by four new works. Meanwhile, eight works from the foundation’s collection and Rafaela Seppälä’s private collection were loaned to 11 museums — seven of them abroad.

One of our forms of support is lending artworks . It’s a simple but powerful way to keep art moving and visible.

The doors were open

Throughout the year, the foundation’s premises hosted a series of networking events and meetings. A total of 403 people walked through the door — 165 of them international guests. That’s a lot of handshakes and coffee.

In 2026, the foundation will continue seeking partnerships that keep art where it belongs: visible and meaningful.

The Tiftö Foundation supports visual art through collection and loan activities, grants, and international collaboration.

At the first Tiftö Foundation board meeting of the autumn, it was decided to invite artist Jarmo Mäkilä to join the board. We warmly welcome him and his expertise to our board.

© Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Toni R. Toivonen’s works are on display at The Presence of Absence Matter and Traces – Imprints of Life in Time exhibition, Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt) on 12.10.2024–2.3.2025.

The exhibition The Presence of Absence revolves around the theme of humankind’s endless confrontation with the idea of change and transience and their forms of representation in art. The title alludes to matter as a presence in which traces of the living are inscribed.

© Photo: Toni R. Toivonen

Jarmo Mäkilä – I am a Multitude exhibition is on display at Villa Gyllenberg Art Museum on 23.10.2024–2.3.2025.

The central themes of the works, which evoke conflicting and strong emotions, are time and ageing, the development of the self and the importance of memories and the subconscious. Mäkilä’s enigmatic paintings, sculptures and installations are mental landscapes occupying liminal spaces, on the borders between the inner and the outer.

© Photo: Jussi Tiainen

A painting by Joonas Ahlava, Growing Garden 1.1, 2019 (UV print on plywood, 157x16x16 cm), has been added as a donation to the collection. The artwork combines Japanese, Western, and Scandinavian symbolism. The artwork is the artist’s first in the foundation’s collection.

© Photo: Joonas Ahlava