Generally accessible to most Finns, services related to culture, sports and activities for the young are widely used. People are particularly satisfied with libraries, an attitude which is reflected in the high utilisation rate. The economy permitting, people are willing to allocate more tax funds to the improvement of cultural services. People are prepared to give more money than today to youth work, sports activities, and libraries, in particular. There should be substantially more funding for dance art in the state budget, proposes a working group evaluating its development and funding needs.
Municipalities ought also to increase their funding of dance art.
In its report, presented to Minister of Culture Suvi Lind n , the working group wishes to bring attention to the status of dance art in Finland and hopes for the creation of a dance art policy. The European Commission granted funding to 55 co-operation projects from European countries with a total of 367 participants. Support was granted to specific and innovative projects, cultural co-operation agreements, and special cultural events with a European dimension. The call for applications was directed at projects, which had not applied this year for funding from the currently running Kaleidoscope, Raphael and Ariane programmes, or the Connect initiatives. Nomadi Productions awarded the State Prize for Dance The State Prize for Dance 1999 goes to Nomadi Productions founded by dancers Alpo Aaltokoski, Jyrki Karttunen, Arja Raatikainen, and Katri Soini.