Save the Kalervo Kallio Atelier House – No More Cuts to Our Cultural Heritage!

Introduction:

The state is reducing its arts and culture budget, and municipal cultural appropriations are shrinking even further. In the prevailing climate, even foundations, whose specific mission is to protect cultural heritage, have begun to sell and dismantle that which has been built and protected across generations.

The fate of the Kalervo Kallio Atelier House is a concrete example of this development, and swift action is needed to save it!

What is Happening?

The Atelier House is a culturally and historically significant building, the former home of sculptor Kalervo Kallio (1909–1969), which has served for decades as a space for artists without significant issues. The building is a protected site and part of a significant chain of cultural buildings in Helsinki, alongside such sites as Alvar Aalto’s studio and Eila Hiltunen’s atelier house.

The Kalervo Kallio Atelier House Foundation, which served as a home and workspace for artists for five decades, merged with the Finnish Artists' Studio Foundation (STS Ateljeesäätiö) at the beginning of 2025. The stated purpose of the merger was to secure the continuity of the house’s operations.

Currently, seven professional artists work in the building; some have lived and worked there since the 1980s, while the newest resident has been there for just over three years. Expenses have been covered by the artists’ rental income and occasional grants, and without the merger of the foundations, operations would have continued on the former stable basis.

The merger plan explicitly stated:

"Plot 91-30-32-18 and the atelier building located on it must be preserved for artistic use, and may not be sold, otherwise transferred, or destroyed without the permission of the Ministry of Education and Culture."

This text is also included in the statutes of the STS Atelier Foundation. However, only six months later, the STS Atelier Foundation decided to apply for a sale permit from the Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM), received the permit, decided to put the house up for sale, and set a market-price asking sum that the artists cannot independently match to continue the building’s operations in artistic use.

Why is this decision unjust?

1. Loss of original intended use: Selling on the open market means the building will likely be permanently lost to artistic use. This directly contradicts the purpose assigned to the Kalervo Kallio Atelier House and the STS Atelier Foundation’s own statutes.
2. Destruction of an artist community: An artist house is not just a building, but a living and internationally active artist community. Over the decades, more than 70 artists have worked and performed in the house for various periods. In the last five years alone, over two thousand people have participated in events organized there.
3. Lack of grounds or reliance on assumptions: The grounds for the sale decision are flimsy: The foundation justifies the sale with maintenance debt and upkeep costs, even though no expert technical inspection was conducted before the decision to sell. The Atelier Foundation only decided to commission a condition assessment on March 24, 2026—after the sale decision had already been made. The cause of the Atelier Foundation's financial problems cannot be a building that was in its possession for only six months before the sale decision. The house has operated for decades without significant financial or technical problems!
4. Lack of transparency: The Atelier Foundation has applied for a sale permit from the Ministry of Education and Culture but refuses to disclose the grounds for the application. The foundation is acting against the principles of transparency and good foundation practice. Furthermore, if the intention to sell was already known during the planning stage of the merger, it is justifiable to ask: has truthful information regarding the true purpose of the merger been provided to the authorities—the Patent and Registration Office (PRH) and the Ministry of Education and Culture?
5. Loss of cultural heritage: While the government cuts cultural subsidies, foundations are selling off their cultural heritage. The result is a double loss: public support shrinks, and private property flows out of the hands of artists. We defend the living space of culture in Finland. We do not want to be part of this development.

We demand:

1. The STS Atelier Foundation must respect the intended use assigned to the building as recorded in the merger plan: the atelier house must be preserved as workspaces and residences for artists.
2. The STS Atelier Foundation must halt the sale process immediately.
3. An impartial and public technical condition inspection must be conducted on the building.
4. The STS Atelier Foundation must disclose the grounds on which the sale permit was requested from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Please sign and share. Saving the Kalervo Kallio Atelier House is not just about one building; it is a matter of principle. It is a question of the kind of cultural environment we want to live in, how we cherish our common cultural heritage, and what kind of working conditions we desire for our artists.

This petition has been drafted by the current tenants of the space, visual artists Tommi Grönlund, Petteri Nisunen, Maini Pääläinen, Landys Roimola, Mika Taanila, Juho Toivonen, and Marko Vuokola.

Landys Roimola    Contact the author of the petition