Mission, vision, history

We want to see an art field that is more representative of, and accountable to, its constituents, and that functions in ways that are safer, fairer, and more comfortable for all kinds of bodies, identities and agencies.

We work to 

• establish and promote a working culture that amplifies underrepresented artistic voices 
• abolish unpaid and underpaid labour in the art field 
• insist upon equal, safer, and healthy working environments in the arts  

Rather than emphasising pressured forms of production and promotion, we concentrate on incubating, nesting, and nourishing our artistic collaborators. 

We think about accessibility in terms of physical, spatial, verbal, lingual, and structural access, working towards an arts organisation that is understandable from a variety of perspectives.

Our vision is to be the peak body advocating for intersectional feminist values and working conditions, resulting in an art field working sustainably, and thoroughly occupied and built by different kinds of bodies and identities.

Feminist Culture House grew from Support Structures Collective, which was founded by Anna-Kaisa Koski, Katie Lenanton, Neicia Marsh, Orlan Ohtonen, and Selina Väliheikki in 2018. The aim of Support Structures was to research and understand how we could build a thoroughly feminist art organisation.

In 2019, we registered FCH as an association. Our association board consists of the founding members of Support Structures. At this point Anna-Kaisa left to work elsewhere, but stayed on as a board member. We received a Kickstarter grant of 6 months from Kone Foundation.

In 2020-21, we operated with organisational funding from Kone. During 2021, we worked for 6 months with Yasmin Ibrahim, as she developed our equity training program. During this year also Selina and Neicia both found permanent work opportunities elsewhere, but continued to guide us in an advisory capacity as board members. Katie and Orlan continued working as FCH co-founders and co-directors, and after the remaining full time organisational funding was over, Orlan also found a new permanent position in another institution, and left the FCH core working group and board.

Gladys Camilo and Paola Jalili, who had been collaborating with FCH in different projects over the past years, joined the core working group and board in 2022. They both curated the exhibition Flower, Strain, Kiln, Pigment in Titanik (Turku) and, together with Katie, stewarded the Studio Visit Ethics project (2023).

Currently, Gladys, Katie, and Paola work one day a week together as FCH, while trying to secure funding for the future.