SaunaConnect, Learn, and Build creative futures at AWAKE 2025 final conference
Mark your calendar for October 2nd of 2025 and separate some time from 9:00 – 16:00 for our AWAKE final event: Arts, Culture, Health and Entrepreneurship in Lapinlahden Lähde Auditorio & Online. We will have a very insightful day full of program, international networking and valuable information about creative livelihoods in arts & health. If you are serious about making arts and health not just a passion but a sustainable part of your livelihood, you should join us.
Why This Matters Now?
Over the past two years, AWAKE: Arts & Wellbeing as a Creative Business and Future Livelihood has explored what it means for artists to build sustainable careers in sectors that are rarely structured for creatives. The field of arts and health is becoming more prominent and growing in policy, public interest, and grant funding. With this new growth come important questions:
- How do you develop models that are financially viable?
- How do you measure impact?
- How do you collaborate with institutions in health, care, and inclusion without losing your core artistic values?
If you are an artist wondering how to fund your idea, a creative entrepreneur navigating impact assessment, or a health or wellbeing professional looking to include artistic methods in your work, we encourage you to separate some time and join us in this full day event.
What You’ll Gain: Keynotes, Case Studies & Real Tools
One of the highlights is the launch of the casebook Growing a Viable Entrepreneurial Model at the Intersection of Arts & Wellbeing, presented by Annabelle Türkis. It features five actionable examples explored through AWAKE, sharing concrete stories of challenges and solutions. This book is a very valuable free resource if you want to take a peak into how some Art entrepreneurs have managed to make a living though different models.
The keynotes are equally powerful. Resourcing Arts and Health: Funding and Cooperation for Wellbeing Initiatives by Katri Leppisaari and Kati Nuora, explores funding models, cooperation strategies, and how creative ecosystems can work effectively with health systems. Artist-Led Arts & Health Organisations by Dawn Prescott (Lime Arts, UK) reveals the transition from an individual artist’s practice to leading programmes that reach tens of thousands annually.
The panels and conversations will bring multiple perspectives into the same space: artists, administrators, funders, and health sector professionals. The panel moderated by Ville Pellinen and the conversation with Miina Savolainen, interviewed by Clara Bourgeois, are designed to sharpen understanding of resilient business practices in this emerging field.
This event will have also hands-on workshops such as From Vision to Value, Future Entrepreneurial Skills in Arts & Health Settings, and How to Measure the Social Impact of Arts & Wellbeing Projects give participants practical tools and insights that can be applied directly to their own work.
Who Should Be There?
This event is for artists and creative practitioners who want more than one-off projects and are seeking sustainable models and meaningful collaborations with health and wellbeing sectors. It is valuable for social entrepreneurs, arts organisations, and cultural centres who want to scale up or professionalise their work. It is also essential for policymakers, funders, and institutional actors who need evidence, frameworks, and impact assessments to guide decision-making. AWAKE also invites anyone who is curious about blending art and care, art and healing, or art and community.
See you on October 2nd! Registration ends 30.9.2025
In a world where the boundaries between care, creativity, and commerce are increasingly blurring, the real work is not just in having an idea but in making it viable. In the AWAKE project, we are not offering hype, but substance: models, tools, examples, and human connections that can help you move your practice forward. Reserve your seat here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXrf5H0xZFHtWPPeDFKQ612DqP-sZ90LoAexe8BcJLhp9OFg/viewform
Location: Lapinlahden Lähde, Helsinki
Date: October 2, 2025
Time:
- Sessions: 9:30 – 12:35
- Workshops (onsite only): 13:50 – 15:00 / 15:20 – 16:20
- Closing: 16:20 – 16:40
If you have any questions about the event you can contact [email protected]