Award-winning! Smart Work 2026: Iittala Comprehensive School’s Kulttuurikopla

Kulttuurikopla is an initiative developed and implemented at Iittala Comprehensive School in 2022. The original idea was born during an Erasmus project called Wow experience, where we worked with Icelandic, North Macedonian, and Norwegian colleagues to explore how cooperation between professional artists and schools could be further increased and deepened.

Kulttuurikopla consists of volunteer pupils from grades 5–9 who are interested in culture and its various forms of expression. There are many tasks, and they have evolved over the years. One of the most important and visible roles is welcoming guests to the school. Over the years, these guests have included performing artists, international visitors, education department officials, and teachers and pupils from other schools. Kulttuurikopla members also receive guests arriving for the school’s traditional celebrations and guide them to their seats.

Kulttuurikopla members are adept at presenting school facilities and activities, promoting various performances, hosting events, and interviewing performers and visitors. The group researches visitors in advance and prepares their own questions and hosting content based on what they have learned. Kulttuurikopla meets under the guidance of a teacher about two to three times a month, or more often if necessary.

Tasks related to various performances:

• hosting cultural visits (receiving artists, introducing them to the audience, and managing catering, etc.)
• informing the whole school about events, creating brochures, pre-event tasks, and feedback forms
• documenting events by taking photos, posting social media updates, and writing articles for the newspaper, etc.
• assisting with technical arrangements, carrying performers’ equipment to the venue, and managing sound and lighting

The group’s duties also include organising “experience breaks” (elämysvälkät). During these breaks, our school’s pupils perform in various groups or as soloists. The teacher helps the members find performers. Experience breaks have featured bands, solo musicians, poetry reciters, and storytellers. Kulttuurikopla members host and set up the space for these breaks, which are held about three times a term. They also sell sweets and juice to the audience. The room is usually packed during these breaks, so they are a fantastic way to boost our school’s sense of community!

Kulttuurikopla members can be identified by vests featuring a logo they designed themselves. You can often spot this “vest gang” at our school. For two years, the members have also presented their activities at their own interactive stand during the “Towards Upper Comprehensive School” fair.

The goal of Kulttuurikopla is to increase the visibility and impact of culture in our school and to actively develop its own activities in new ways. In Kulttuurikopla, you can learn project-based work and cooperation skills and gain confidence in performing. We strive to find meaningful tasks for everyone based on their own strengths. Responsibility is given to each member as much as they are ready to carry, sometimes even at very short notice.

Developers

Saija Virta, teacher
Hanna Kökkö, teacher (no longer employed by the City of Hämeenlinna)