ABSTRACT
Cultural centers are often seen as a tool for the municipality’s cultural planning and development efforts. A vast majority of cultural centers are located in urban areas. The majority of the private cultural centers in Finland were founded after the state initiative in the 1980s. In North America, cultural centers, called performing arts centers, are seen as a part of the ‘creative and cultural industries, significantly influencing the cultural and economic vitality of communities’. The field of cultural centers seems to be swiftly changing as these different types of cultural centers emerge. When the initiative to found cultural centers and maintain them is on a non-governmental basis, cultural centers are called private. While interviewing people from different cultural centers, it became clear that there is not much collaboration or contact between the public centers and the private centers. Some respondents mention working on a few productions at public centers, and some centers share artists on tour.
