In 2022, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland awarded a special grant to the Silence Art Organisation's 10X Circus Commission project to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was an ambitious pilot initiative aimed at testing the applicability of a commissioned work model within the circus arts sector.

The starting point for the project was the financial risk associated with creating new circus productions - a risk typically carried by the artist unless public or private funding is available to support the creation of a new work. Silence wanted to experiment with the commissioned work model, which is already well established in the field of music, if it works as a potential funding method for circus arts as well.

A commissioned work means that an entity - such as a festival, arts organisation, municipality, or similar - commissions a work from an artist or group of artists and pays a commissioning fee. This arrangement does not create an employment relationship between the artist and the commissioning party, but the fee enables the artist to focus on creating a new work without taking on personal financial risk. If desired, the artist can also seek additional commissioners or apply for supplementary funding for the work.

During the project, 10 new circus works were created, four of which were multidisciplinary, combining music and circus. Of the works, five were solo pieces, and five were created by duos or teams of three artists. Among the employed artists, eleven were Finnish and five were international professional artists. The following artists were employed through the commissioned works: Ailu Valle, Aqqalu Berthelsen, Aleksi Niittyvuopio, Marcello Nunes, Nelli Kujansivu, Matias Salmenaho, Erika Ahola, Heini Koskinen, Hanna Pakkala, Mike McCallum, Antti Paalanen, Jenny Mansikkasalo, Carla Carnerero, Aino Savolainen, Maija Hynninen and Jani Nuutinen.

THE PROJECT WAS FUNDED BY ARTS PROMOTION CENTRE FINLAND

Cupido - A Multidisciplinary Commissioned Work

Cupido is a multidisciplinary commissioned work by composer Sebastian Hilli (b. 1990) for chamber orchestra and three soloists: music (clarinet), movement (circus), and light. The piece was realized within the 'Reidar 100' collaborative project, administered by Art Organisation Silence, with support from the New Classics Fund (Uudet klassikot). It premiered at Culture House Korundi in Rovaniemi in May 2025.

The core objective of the project was to bring together the expertise and distinctive features of an independent arts organisation (Art Organisation Silence) and a statutory-funded cultural institution (Lapland Chamber Orchestra). The collaboration aimed at mutual learning regarding each other's operational practices, dismantling barriers between organisations operating under different funding models, and creating new multidisciplinary approaches for the orchestral field.

The commissioned work celebrated the centenary of the birth of visual artist Reidar Särestöniemi by drawing inspiration from his life, art, letters, and the rich colors of northern nature.

Northern Network for Performing Arts 2018-

The Northern Network for Performing Arts was initiated in 2018 in Tromsø by Art Organisation Silence (Taiteilijayhdistys Hiljaisuus ry) together with RadArt (NO), Cycle - Music and Art Festival (IS) and Nuuk Nordic Culture Festival (GL). Hiljaisuus ry played a key role in launching the network and has also served as its coordinator. The network brings together artists, organisations, festivals and communities from the Nordic High North to strengthen collaboration in performing arts, enhance international exchange, share knowledge and provide a platform for encounters.

Nomadic Village - Nature-Inspired & Communal Accommodation Concept (2022)

Through the Nomadic Village project, Art Organisation Silence conceptualized and prototyped the initial phase of a lightweight accommodation concept tailored for Kaukonen village, developed under the design leadership of designer Maxim Narbrough. The concept addresses the critical need for visitor accommodation during the Silence Festival while creating a unique, nature-integrated experience that can be shared with other event organizers across Lapland. More than just extra beds, the Nomadic Village functions as a vibrant communal hub that brings visitors together through shared cooking and washing facilities, offering diverse tent structures designed for individuals, couples, families, and small groups alike.

The prototyping phase led by Narbrough proved essential for identifying the technical challenges of custom structures, unveiling clear pathways to optimize future design and construction cost-effectively while fully preserving artistic freedom. Ultimately, the design and manufacturing process deepened the organization’s expertise at the interface of art, design, and practical engineering, demonstrating the capacity of a small arts organization to deliver scalable innovations that benefit both the cultural sector and the broader northern tourism industry.

Project was funded by AVEK

Sustainable Art Organisation of the Future (2021-2023) was a multi-year development project aimed at building resilient and sustainable practices for an arts organization from artistic, ecological, community, and communicative perspectives. Carried out amid the crisis years, the project kept the organization alive, clarified its expertise, and enabled the creation of a stable structure for ambitious and multidisciplinary future work.

The project created space for artistic thinking directly within the organizational structures by developing employer practices, equal pay, and commissioned work models, as well as establishing multi-year positions based on artistic expertise in executive leadership. Communication and year-round visibility were developed in collaboration with media experts, following a comprehensive brand analysis that shifted the focus from selling products to acting as a non-profit, knowledge-sharing arts organization. Community sustainability was strengthened by deepening local presence and village tourism networks, enhancing regional and northern international cooperation, and reinforcing ties with the broader artistic community. Ecological expertise was accumulated by participating in sector development initiatives and mapping the organization’s carbon footprint and handprint.

The project's most significant output was the comprehensive renewal of the organization's operating model, rules, and future development strategy, along with establishing a leadership model consisting of executive directors and artistic directors. Although no artistic works were produced directly within the project, the structures and processes it enabled supported the work of over a hundred artists. As part of the project, expert presentations were organized and a final publication was written, detailing the development processes and proposing a model for a sustainable arts organization.

THE PROJECT WAS FUNDED BY KONE FOUNDATION

Festivallinks 2.0 – Enhancing Sustainability for Small and Independent Festivals

One of the greatest challenges for classical and contemporary music festivals today is reaching and growing audiences for live performances. Festivallinks 2.0 is a European cooperation project co-funded by Creative Europe designed to foster long-term sustainability for small and independent festivals through artistic collaboration, audience research, and capacity building. The project unites five partners across four countries: four independent European festivals - Classical Beat(Germany), Silence Festival (Finland), Sansusi Festival (Latvia), and Bach Festival Dordrecht (Netherlands)- coordinated by LUSTR (Netherlands), a cultural agency specialized in audience development. The participating festivals share distinct operational traits: small core teams with fewer than 8 permanent staff, an intimate audience reach under 5,000 tickets sold, independent artistic governance, and locations situated on the geographic peripheries of major cultural capitals. Festivallinks 2.0 builds upon the successful foundation of its first iteration (2018–2020), which established peer-to-peer exchanges and birthed the innovative ARTSCORE audience research tool.

The project's first core objective focuses on capacity building, enhancing the operational capabilities of small festival teams to overcome shared challenges through structured peer exchange and specialized expert meet-ups in Dordrecht and Latvia. Its second objective centers on artistic creation and collaboration, stimulating joint creative decision-making where festival artistic directors select four composers to create adaptable compositions performed by local musicians across all four festivals, culminating in 16 performances and a curated online concert. Finally, the third objective accelerates the transition toward audience-centric organizational models through the upgraded ARTSCORE Impact Dashboard, which aggregates and analyzes audience data year-over-year into actionable visual reports that will ultimately be made available to peer cultural organizations across Europe.

FUNDED BY THE CREATIVE EUROPE PROGRAMME OF THE EUROPAN UNION

LOKS – An International Co-Creation Across Four Festivals and Four Composers

LOKS is a collectively composed work by four international composers- Krists Auznieks, Oene van Geel, Sophia Günst, and Lauri Supponen - created as part of the EU-co-funded Festivallinks 2.0 project. Taking audiences on a journey across four festivals in four different countries, the piece draws its title from the Latvian word for "arc" and traces the arc of the growing season from the sowing of a seed to the abundance of harvest across four distinct performances. The first iteration is brought to life at the Silence Festival by the acclaimed Finnish contemporary music group Uusinta Ensemble, after which the premiere continues at the Bach Festival Dordrecht in the Netherlands, followed by performances in Germany and Latvia. In this multi-layered work, each quartet carries the phantom presence of the other three, evoking a full 16-piece orchestra experienced simultaneously across multiple locations.

Commissioned through the Festivallinks 2.0 framework, LOKS reflects a deep artistic collaboration between four European festivals: the Silence Festival, Bach Festival Dordrecht, Sansusi Festival in Latvia, and Classical Beat in Germany. In line with the project's mission to strengthen joint creative processes, the festival artistic directors jointly selected the composers and coordinated with local performing artists to deliver a total of 16 performances across the four nations. All performances are recorded and curated into a comprehensive 160-minute online concert streamed simultaneously by all participating festivals for audiences across Europe.