In 2024, there were over 880 Culture Kids events all around Helsinki, at almost 21,500 possible venues. The children have gotten to enjoy a wide variety of art and theatre experiences, dance, word art, and many other culture events that support their development. Our culture actors have planned over 900 events for 2025. Children born in 2020 or after who live in Helsinki are invited to at least two events organised by their very own cultural sponsors every year until they start school.
The sponsors of 2025’s children are the Helsinki Art Museum, Amos Rex, the Finnish National Gallery – Ateneum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum – as well as Sointi Jazz Orchestra and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra.
Amos Rex wants to create meaningful first experiences with visual arts and art museums for the little ones.
“Our goal is to make the museum into a familiar and comfortable place for the children and their parents that they find it easy to come back to. Our Culture Kids encounters in spring 2025 give the babies and their parents a chance to immerse in the Anna Estarriola exhibition that highlights her persistent attempts at spoken and unspoken communication. To prepare the museum for our young guests, we are improving the lobby services and providing additional training for our personnel,” says Maria Saarikoski, Head of Education at Amos Rex.
The members of Sointi Jazz Orchestra are also excited for their upcoming sponsorship.
“We are looking forward to becoming art sponsors for 2025’s children! We want them to have a gentle, shared experience with rhythmic music. Our World of Music shows are moments that help to create a relationship with music through sound and movement for the children and their parents,” says Rasmus Sointi, artistic director for Sointi Jazz Orchestra.
Sponsors receive fantastic feedback for their events
Helsinki families have been as excited as ever for this year’s sponsor events.
“Sponsor events that are tailored for the child’s current age are a cultural breather for the families. The feedback that we receive for these events remains excellent, which means that they positively influence the families’ wellbeing and balance their everyday lives. The multilingual nature of these sponsor events lets all kinds of families participate, which reinforces the sense of belonging and helps all Helsinki residents find their place in this city,” says Juha Ahonen, Head of the City of Helsinki Culture and Leisure Division.
The families have given the events an average grade of 4.6, on a scale of 1–5. They especially praise the atmosphere of experiences. Many of the parents have also been delighted by the warm welcome shown to the sponsored families at the events as well as their child-friendliness.
The login method to the Culture Kids service changed in spring 2024. For the Culture Kids families, deployment of the Helsinki Profile, the new identification system, means that they will have to re-register their child at kummilapset.hel.fi/en(Link leads to external service).
Children born in or after 2020 who live in Helsinki can be registered as Culture Kids for cultural events at kummilapset.hel.fi/en.(Link leads to external service)
Other sponsors based on birth year
2024: Helsinki City Library and Sports Services
2023: The Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Design Museum, the Helsinki City Museum, the Finnish National Museum, the Society for Cultural Heritage Education of Finland and Science Museum Liekki
2022: Cirko – Centre for New Circus, the Hotel and Restaurant Museum, the Finnish Museum of Photography, Dance House Helsinki, Dance Theatre Hurjaruuth, and the Theatre Museum
2021: The Helsinki City Theatre, the National Theatre, Svenska Teatern, Theatre ILMI Ö, Q Theatre, and Puppet Theatre Sampo
2020: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
The Culture Kids service is administered by the City of Helsinki Culture and Leisure Division and supported by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
