ARSNET Project

The employment issues of the cultural sector have received a lot of attention during the last few years. In 1998 the City of Turku started a project to develop the cultural field in this respect. A large-scale project called Arsnet was launched in August 2000. This three-year project is funded by the European Social Fund and by the City of Turku.

The goal of the Arsnet project is to improve the employment situation and financial profitability of cultural professionals, by bringing together cultural know-how and needs The support services that Arsnet provides will make finding and accessing cultural know-how easier so that cultural consumption will rise.

Cultural know-how in the market and in work. During the project a new kind of operating model for market entry and employment services in cultural work shall be tested. The operating model comprises of the Arsnet Performance Service which actively marketing and selling the skills of cultural professionals and of the Arsnet Gallery register, a know-how bank of cultural know-how on the Internet. Once this operating model is completed and tested, it can be expanded and transferred.

Arsnet Performance Service. This service will market and sell performancetype cultural services and thus works as a new kind of employment service for the cultural field. The operating principle of the Performance Service is to recognise the needs of potential buyer groups and market to each group those cultural services that meet their very needs. In addition to precisely targeted marketing, the Arsnet Performance Service will use the Arsnet Gallery as an operating tool.

Arsnet Gallery. The Arsnet Gallery is an electronic know-how bank. Its primary task will be extensive marketing and presentation of cultural actors from the Turku Region. This will be done on the basis of buyers' needs, so that the presentation of each cultural actor is sufficiently illustrative and versatile to make the buying decision possible. The presentations will be achieved by using the latest multimedia technology. Arsnet also tries to lower the threshold between supply and demand through a clear and concrete supply. That's why the knowhow recognition and branding process is one of the project's key functions.

The Arsnet Gallery will prevent the local know-how drain that is unfortunately so pervasive as cultural actors move away from the Turku region to seek for work. Information about regional cultural professionals will spread via the Arsnet Gallery to where the demand is, without them having to relocate to sell their skills.