Rita Heino, Salli Berghäll, Nina Numminen, Jan-Peter Kaiku: Enabling and supporting action

Planning and organising teaching and artistic activities in a university context involves a wide range of work, executed both jointly and separately by various actors. It takes place before, during and after the activity. This work is not necesseraly visible to students or teachers, but it allows them to focus on what is essential, namely learning in teaching and artistic situations. It is often said that this work is successful when it is not visible. That’s when things are going as they they should.   

The ethos of differentiated administrative work is to enable and support action. It is based on anticipation, action, evaluation and continuous improvement. In the Dance Art, Dance Performance and Choreography programmes, the coordinator, producer and planning officer are the people who work closely with teachers and students on a regular basis and throughout the studies.   

Over the last 40 years, the job titles and roles of administrators have changed and have been given different emphasis, according to the requirements of the situation and the context at hand. The greatest feature has always been that they are carried out in close collaboration with teachers and students, towards a common goal.  

Since we are talking about learning in different situations during the course of studies, as individuals and as part of a group, not everything can always be fully anticipated and prepared. The fact that we as representatives of the institution are exposed to new thoughts, ideas and approaches is also relevant on the administrative side. It is a richness to be able to work with ever-new cohorts, changing guest teachers and our own teaching staff, to reflect on solutions and the best ways to take processes forward, and to be supportive in practical work. The intensive periods of artistic work in the curricula challenge you to indulge in process-oriented work. Within the framework created by the institution, works including swimming pools and seas of candles, as well as performances with thousands of kilos of clay, have also been made possible. Lessons have been learned from all this on both sides of the stage.  

Initially, the dance and choreography programmes operated in their own spaces, relatively independently, until the year 2000, when they moved into joint facilities with other training programmes. The move to joint facilities changed things in many ways. It increased collaboration on all levels and required new ways of foresight, coordination and agreement. With the creation of the University of the Arts in 2013, the number of collaborators increased even more.  

Today, strategic objectives guide activities and link the university, academies and training programmes in different ways, both to the objectives and to the operating environment. “We celebrate the mycelia, not the mushroom!” summarised the Rector in his speech at the University of the Arts’ 10th anniversary celebrations. In our academic and administrative work, we can see the common goal of nurturing and strengthening this mycelia.