The Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved the proposal of the Ministry of Culture to appoint Anu Kippasto as the next Estonian cultural attaché in Helsinki.
A total of 19 people applied for the post of cultural attaché in Helsinki. According to Director General of the Ministry of Culture Paavo Nõgene, competition was fierce but Anu Kippasto surpassed other candidates with her wide scope and long-term experience in cultural management. “Relations between Estonia and Finland are certainly of an exceptional nature. Being neighbours and brother nations, we are closely tied by strong language and culture links, this makes the job of cultural attaché even more significant. In the coming years, the greatest challenges for the new cultural attaché will involve events tied to the 100th year Jubilees of Finland and Estonia, in 2017 and 2018 respectively. I believe that Anu Kippasto’s experiences will prove to be very useful in organising events for worthy celebrations.
Anu Kippasto, who will begin her representative duties on December 1, emphasises that in Finland it is important to collaborate with young people, future talents of their field and friends of Estonia. “A great way to do this would be to launch and support collaboration projects by students of art universities,” explained Kippasto. “In the coming years, my biggest task will certainly be participating in joint culture projects for Estonia 100 and Finland 100, initiating and supporting the organisation of thematic events. Interest towards Estonia will also be greater as Estonia will assume the presidency of the European Union in 2018; this will place more responsibilities on a cultural attaché as well,” she added.
In the years 1992-2000, Anu Kippasto worked in Hungary as a lecturer of Estonian language in Eötvös Loránd University and Lajos Kossuth University. She was the director of the Estonian Institute in Hungary during the period of 1993-2013 and has been working as the coordinator of the Estonian studies abroad at the Estonian Institute since 2013.
The tasks of the cultural attaché involve introducing Estonian culture, maintaining and promoting cultural relations between to countries and facilitating cultural export. The competition to fill the post of cultural attaché in Helsinki was announced due to the previous cultural attaché, Liisa Ojaveer, moving on to a new job. Liisa Ojaveer had worked as a cultural attaché in Helsinki since 2008.
Estonia has cultural attachés in six countries – Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Finland, Russia, and a part-time cultural affairs coordinator in New York.
Additional information:
Kadri Jauram
Head of Foreign Relations Department at the Ministry of Culture
telephone: 628 2323
[email protected]