Art exhibitions, Nordic movie nights and author meet and greets have been a fundamental part of Hanasaari’s art and culture programme from the start. These events are open to everybody who is interested in different forms of culture. Our priority is to introduce the Swedish culture, Swedish visual artists, writers and Nordic cinema.

The cultural offering in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area has increased over the years, and has thus generated a need to raise the profile of Hanasaari’s programme activities in this area. Based on the study that mapped the networks between Finland and Sweden’s culture institutes, new initiatives have been taken. One of these is a series of seminars on culture policy to overview interesting current questions of cultural policy from a wide angle. The series has discussed the possibilities of culture and art to play a part in the well-being of the aging population and their significance in preventive care, the cultural strategies in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and reports on the cultural policies of Finland and Sweden. The series will continue in the autumn of 2009 when we will look into the operational landscape of Universities of Art from a cultural policy perspective, and the success factors of cultural tourism.