Cultural operators introduce people to live action role play, international arts activities and several different forms of art at meanwhile use spaces in Tampere and Nokia 

The third round of applicant selections has taken place. This time, cultural operators were offered free premises for temporary cultural activities in Nokia as well as in Tampere.

Altogether thirteen cultural operators were selected, six of whom will be placed in spaces in Tampere and seven in Nokia. There was a total of 35 applications. 

This round included a new site in Ratina, Tampere: large office premises with a view of lake Pyhäjärvi at Voimakatu 11. The concept selected for this meanwhile use space is Games as Art Centre, which will transform the space into a playground for live action role play games. 

In addition, business premises located at the street level of the Pyynikki swimming pool will be taken over by a multi-arts collective, Tampere Intercultural Art, which will support the international art scene in Tampere. 

Gallery Muuntotila in Hiedanranta will welcome three dance artists for three successive periods: Essi Koivula, Linda Kuha and Tuija Touhunen. Settling into Lielahti Manor’s room number 205 will be author Heikki Kovalainen. These spaces in Hiedanranta will be used both as performance venues and workspaces. 

In Nokia, the city’s old upper secondary school and Art House will provide room for visual arts, plays and dancing as well as hobbies for early retirees. Additionally, an active local chess club will receive a hobby space in Nokia. 

More detailed descriptions of the selected applicants can be found below. 

Background on the Meanwhile Use Scheme 

The operating model of the Meanwhile Use Scheme was conceived in conjunction with City of Tampere’s and Pirkanmaa region’s joint European Capital of Culture bid by circus director and community artist Meri-Maija Näykki, and it has been further development since 2021 as part of the regional development project Operation Pirkanmaa managed by the City of Tampere. 

The Meanwhile Use Scheme offers temporarily vacant spaces for use by cultural and arts operators free of charge through an open call. This model can temporarily ease the need for working and performance spaces for people in the culture and arts industry. The meanwhile use spaces also provide an opportunity to create new, site-specific art or to run pilots of new kinds of operations. 

These operating model is developed and further expanded by sharing the accumulated experience of the process. Now, for the first time, this third round of applications also included premises from the city of Nokia. Several other partner municipalities in Pirkanmaa are also interested in implementing the meanwhile use scheme in their own premises.  

Selected operators from the third round of applications  

Games as Art Centre 
 

Games researcher Leland Masek from Tampere University will further the facilitation of artistic live action role play games in the Pirkanmaa Region with his concept Games as Art Centre. The meanwhile use premises at Voimakatu 11 will a function as a centre for these activities. Local and international live action role play game designers will be invited to organise public events, play games and speak about their work. The audience will also be able to participate in live action role play games and the centre will also organise games for children. 

 
Location: Voimakatu 11, Ratina 
Active: 3rd July to 31st December 2023 
Link: Leland Masek | LinkedIn 

 
  
Tampere Intercultural Art: TIcA Space – An intercultural hotspot, art showroom & artist coworking space  
 

TIcA Space is the first official headquarters of the Tampere Intercultural Art collective exploring opportunities for cross-cultural arts activities in the city centre. In the autumn, the collective will organise language-aware and culturally sensitive art exhibitions, tours, workshops, and bazaars etc. in the meanwhile use space. TIcA Space will also function as the artists’ workspace, and a stop motion animation studio will be built on the ground floor. 
 

Location: Pyynikki business space number 5, Pyynikki swimming pool, Pirkankatu 10 
Active: 15th August 2023 to 31st December 2023 
Link: https://www.facebook.com/TampereInterculturalArt/ https://www.facebook.com/TampereInterculturalArt/

Essi Koivula: A dance artist’s workspace, performance space and workshop space 

 
Essi Koivula will use the meanwhile use space as her personal workspace, a performance space and a workshop space. She will intertwine her artistic interests and goals with the manor’s history and the activities of its current users. Koivula’s concept combines independent work and provision of activities that are open to all. The activities will also reach out to people at the manor and the Lielahti area. 

 
Location: Gallery Muuntotila at Lielahti Manor, Tehdaskartanonkatu 38, Hiedanranta 
Active: 16th October to 31st December 2023 
Link: essikoivula.weebly.com  

 
Linda Kuha & Bas van der Kruk: Dance performance ‘Life is an introduction to death’ 

 
Life is an introduction to death, the performance to be prepared in the meanwhile use space, will be a carnival-like, conceptual and physical introduction to the end of life and a celebration of it. Choreographers Linda Kuha and Bas van der Kruk explore the concept of an introduction and the inevitability of death. No one knows what, if anything, happens after death. What does a life-long introduction tell us about death and dying? 

 
Location: Gallery Muuntotila at Lielahti manor, Tehdaskartanonkatu 38, Hiedanranta 
Active: 2nd January to 15th February 2024 
Link: Linda Kuha (weebly.com) 

  
Tuija Touhunen & Mia Tiihonen: Joint exhibition 

 
The working partners’ purpose is to process and construct an interconnected artistic whole in the space within three months and open it to the public for one month. One part of the new exhibition will be performative actions. The artists are inspired by the setting, surroundings, and layers of time at the manor. Working on the installations is a dialogue between the space and the artists. 

 
Location: Gallery Muuntotila at Lielahti manor, Tehdaskartanonkatu 38, Hiedanranta 
Active: 16th February – 14th April 2024 
Link: tuutitouhunen (webnode.fi) / miatiihonen (wordpress.com) 

  
Heikki Kovalainen: A writer’s workspace 

 
The writer will use the workspace to polish two novel manuscripts for publishing, one of which concerns the Finnish far right and the other the composer Jean Sibelius. Additionally, every two weeks, Heikki Kovalainen will organise open discussions in the entrance hall of Lielahti Manor, which will also include presentations and lectures about literature. Local authors and cultural operators will be invited as guest speakers, and the events will also act as a display window for the projects that they are working on at that time. 

 
Location: Room 205 of Lielahti manor, Tehdaskartanonkatu 38, Hiedanranta 
Active: 7th August 2023 to 7th February 2024 
Link: https://www.facebook.com/heikki.a.kovalainen 

 
Ulla Ruokolainen: An artist’s workspace and exhibition 

 
Ulla Ruokolainen is a visual arts professional with a degree in clothing design. She will use the ground floor of the Art House as her workspace, for open art workshops, and as an exhibition space for the Käsiala (‘handiwork’) art exhibition. Open house days will also be held in the space. 

 
In addition to her personal and unique visual handiwork, Ruokolainen ponders humanity’s relationship with nature, connections and intersections between different things, such as the borderlands between internal experience, subconscious and realism. Her style has features of surrealism, expressionism and abstract art. 

 
Location: Nokia Art House, first floor, Souranderintie 7, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 
Link: https://ulla-r.webnode.fi/ 

  
Tiina Knuuttila: A visual artist’s workspace  

 
Knuuttila hails from Nokia and isa a self-taught visual artist, who produces ceramics and oil paintings. The meanwhile use space will primarily function as a workspace for producing oil paintings. Knuuttila will also arrange art exhibitions and events in the space as well as open house events for people who are interested in seeing the artist at work.  
Knuuttila’s first solo exhibition will be organised in August 2023 at Virta library and culture house. 

 
Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st January 2023 

Nokian Näyttelijäyhdistys ry.: Practice space for a play and improvisation  

 
Nokian Näyttelijäyhdistys ry (actor association of Nokia) organises performances and hobby activities at the adults’ amateur theatre Etunäyttämö. Etunäyttämö has had 1-2 plays per year in its repertoire since 2015 (excluding the Covid-19 years). The meanwhile use space will be used as a place for practicing different activities. The space will enable the association to offer more extensive and continuous hobby activities to its members and possibly also non-members than had previously been planned. 

 
Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 
Link: nokiannayttelijayhdistys.fi 

Pasi Karppi (Elämän kertoja T:mi): Rehearsal space for a play 

 
Karppi is a full-time actor from Nokia, whose repertoire currently holds two touring performances: a monologue and a two-person performance. The meanwhile use space will provide a place to rehearse the two performances. Karppi will also organise open rehearsals for the public on the subject of how to construct a performance. 

 
Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 
Link: Elämän Kertoja tmi (facebook.com) 

Mariitta Tähtinen: A place for dance practice 

 
Tähtinen has practiced oriental dance actively for over 30 years and has worked both as a performer and a teacher. Her current performance group, Mirame, is an ensemble of four women from Nokia. Mirame performs in nursing homes and day centres in Nokia. The dance practices will be arranged in the meanwhile use space in the mornings or the afternoons. The group also intends to hold performances for small groups and the elderly. 

 
Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 
Link: Facebook 

  
Chess club CC Nokia: Practice space for chess 

 
An informal group of chess enthusiasts will convene in the space. The chess club’s activities are provided free of charge and will help people to continue their chess hobby. 

Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 
Link: CC Nokia 

 
Early retirees: Informal hobby group  

 
The space will host an informal group of early retirees, who are not members of retiree associations in Nokia. The group consists of older men. The activities are provided free of charge, which makes it easier to get together and share recreational activities. 

Location: Old upper secondary school, Kylmäojankatu 3, Nokia 
Active: 19th June to 31st December 2023 

Information

Sami Siltanen

Tuottaja | Producer

Tel. +358 44 481 1329
sami.siltanen@tampere.fi