Impact Festival (Vaikuttamisen festivaali) 2016–2018 was a three-year initiative funded by the Kone Foundation. The festival produced and researched artistic methods to create states of impact. The initiative examined different levels of impact from the public opinion to personal experience. The focus was both on bold and radical creations as well as on the processes required to produce them in the festival organisation.
Two independent but interconnected lines of development ran through the initiative: discursive events that dig deeper into future visions through different networks, expert meetings and think tanks, as well as performative events that aim to bring new viewpoints to everyday realities and test the limits of impact through public artistic interventions.
The work presented in the framework of Impact Festival in 2016 was Finland – Developing Country of Social Relations programme and New Solidarities and in 2017 First Nations programme by Pauliina Feodoroff. In 2018, the programme included We Should All Be Dreaming by Sonya Lindfors and Maryan Abdulkarim, Mammalian Diving Reflex: All the Sex I’ve Ever Had and Kilo of Art workshop.
The initiative critically examines the notion of impact and its assessment from the point of view of cultural agents. New, qualitative measures of impact will be developed in collaboration with Cupore and the ArtsEqual initiative. Arts Equal is led by University of the Arts Helsinki, and Cupore is hosting its artistic research group Socially Responsible Arts Institutions and Artists. Impact Festival was partly realised within the framework of Urban Heat programme, funded by the Creative Europe Programme of European Union.