For ten years now, the Culture Card has provided tips and benefits for the culture services offered by the City of Turku. The number of culture-loving card holders has already exceeded 64,000!

More information about the Culture Card

The Culture Card is a free-of-charge benefit card that provides you with e-mail updates about Turku’s abundant cultural offerings and a wide range of changing benefits. The Culture Card feature can be added to a library card of the Turku City Library and the Vaski libraries of Southwest Finland.

One card, a wealth of experiences

The origins of the Culture Card lie in a budget decision made by the Turku City Council in 2004. In this decision, the council decided to investigate the adoption of a benefit card that would be available to all residents and valid in the cultural institutions in Turku, for the purpose of increasing the use of the City’s culture services. The Culture Card was integrated into the City’s library card in March 2007.

According to Minna Sartes, Director of the City’s Recreation Division, the aim of the Culture Card is to increase the use of culture services and, consequently, the wellbeing and activeness of people, as well as to reach new customer groups.

“The Culture Card has allowed us to reach tens of thousands of people interested in culture, who are provided with regular information on the City’s diverse range of culture services. Customers have been very active in making use of the benefits, participating in theatre performances, concerts, courses and lectures, among others. For many card holders, the email newsletters serve as a reminder of current cultural events and an incentive to participate in the events. It’s great to see culture having such a positive impact,” says Sartes.

Discover something new

Local resident Anssi Junnila got his free-of-charge Culture Card almost immediately after moving to Turku some three years ago.

“I appreciate receiving information about culture services directly to my e-mail. In fact, I wouldn’t mind receiving Culture Card newsletters more frequently. And the newsletters could stand to offer information on an even wider range of culture services,” ponders Junnila.

Mari Säisä, who has been living in Turku for 13 years, praises the Culture Card for its diversity, as the newsletters also provide information on cultural events that she herself wouldn’t even think to search for.

“The newsletters often help me discover something new and interesting and inspire me to visit places that I’ve never been to before,” states Säisä.

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