Year of creation: 2012
Domain(s):

- oral traditions and expressions
- performing arts
- social practices, rituals and festive events

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- preservation, protection
- promotion, enhancement
- transmission, (non-)formal education
- revitalization

Main countries where active:

Finland

Objectives:
The purpose of the association is to raise awareness and promote understanding of Finnish folk music, folklore and folk art.
The association maintains the Folk Music Institute and a folk music museum in Kaustinen. lt actively safeguards and communicates information related to folk music by way of research, archiving, publishing, recording and education.
The association also upholds folk music ensemble Tallari in Kaustinen, who actively gives performances, and carries out research, recording and education activities.
The objective is to serve all lines of work in the field of folk music and folk dance in Finland.
Since the founding of the Folk Music Institute, the Folk Music Institute has been sustaining, reviving and promoting intangible cultural heritage phenomena related to folk music all across Finland. A special aim has been to advance the preservation of different local traditions as a living tradition.
The Folk Music Institute's mission to promote folk music is nationwide. The Folk Music Institute is located in Kaustinen, where the Finnish folk music tradition has remained particularly strong and alive. During the past few decades Kaustinen has become the center of folk music in Finland. This has provided the Folk Music Institute with an excellent environment for exploring, understanding and identifying the forms and patterns of one of the country's most significant local tradition, and thereby promoting the vitality of the various folk music traditions throughout the country.
Activities:
The Folk Music Institute carries out research, archiving, publishing, recording, education, museum and information activities in the field of folk music.
The Folk Music Institute's archive is one of the most extensive archives of folk music in Finland. The archive provides a comprehensive overview of the development of Finnish folk music over the past 50 years. Every year during the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, the Folk Music Institute records the local tradition and tradition bearers of different Finnish regions.
The Folk Music Institute also houses a library that serves students, enthusiasts and professionals of folk music and folk culture.
The Folk Music Institute produces studies that deal with Finnish folk music and its current phenomena. The research results have been published as theses, phonograms and press articles and, for example, in the context of exhibitions. The aim is for the research results to increase public awareness of Finnish folk music and to inspire educational and leisure activities related to folk music. In the spring of 2017, two full-time researchers are working for the Institute's Research Program.
The Folk Music Institute is the most significant publisher of folk music related books and albums in Finland. The main goals of the Institute's publishing activities are to increase knowledge of folk music and to produce and disseminate material belonging to the field. Publications include 130 recordings and 96 books. The Folk Music Institute edits and publishes the Folk Music magazine in cooperation with the Finnish Folk Music Association. The magazine is the only music publication on folk music in finnish language.
The Folk Music Institute participates in the nationwide folk music teaching and training planning and implementation at all levels from early music education to primarily and secondary schools, colleges, universities, and adult education. The institute participates in both formal and informal education. To achieve its goals, the Folk Music Institute organizes training events, both in cooperation with various communities and institutions and independently. The Institute also compiles and publishes educational material and participates in co-operative projects in the field of education.
The Folk Music Institute has incorporated the Näppärit method of early childhood music education into the basic activities of the Institute. The aim is to safeguard and ensure continuity of the local traditions and Näppärit method in the future. Näppärit is a method of teaching and music education that is based on folk music. lt was created by music educator Mauno Järvelä in the early 1980s. The activity has since expanded throughout the country and has attracted a lot of interest abroad as well.
The Folk Music Institute coordinates an average of fifteen weekend-wide Näppärit courses, directly employing 15 teachers annually with a total of 66 teaching days.
The staff members of the Institute participate in seminars in their professional field, as well as in the steering group, board and committee work in a number of cooperative organizations across the country. At the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, the Institute has a strong role to play in developing cooperation between various interest groups in the folk music field.
The Folk Music Institute manages the Finnish Folk Music Museum. The key objectives of the museum are to highlight the intangible cultural heritage of the Kaustinen region and to enhance its appreciation in the local population as well as with wider audience.
Cooperation:
The Folk Music Institute has a long history of cooperation with local communities, groups and individuals. Its objectives are directly related to the safeguarding and nurturing of the various players in the field of folk music and dance.
Locally, the Folk Music Institute acts as an interlocutor of the various associations and organizations in Kaustinen and supports their work. The aim of the institute is to cherish local folk art so that it will continue to be rich in the coming decades. This is done in close cooperation with local communities, groups and individual tradition bearers. The Folk Music Institute organizes lectures, exhibitions, concerts and seminars, and produces publications in Kaustinen. The aim is to forward the pursuit of leisure activities around local tradition and raise awareness of its importance.
The Institute strives to influence local cultural policy so as to take full account of the values of intangible cultural heritage.
Nationally, the Folk Music Institute seeks to increase the opportunities for local communities to pursue their own heritage. The Institute seeks to ensure the preservation of culturally diverse folk music and dance culture in the future as well. The work is done, for example, by endorsing phenomena related to various local traditions, individual tradition carriers such as "master folk musicians", or groups or communities organized around local tradition. The emphasis on the importance of cultural diversity is also strongly reflected in the publishing, exhibition and research work of the Folk Music Institute.

Year of creation: 1913
Domain(s):

- social practices, rituals and festive events
- knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
- traditional craftsmanship

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- promotion, enhancement
- transmission, (non-)formal education
- revitalization