Image: EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art will host the opening event of Outsider Art Festival 2026 on 21 August, bringing the festival’s launch program to the museum’s second floor for a free afternoon of encounters, performances, guided tours and concerts. The event runs from 3 pm to 7 pm and is presented as part of EMMA’s summer and autumn collaboration calendar, with the festival centered this year on the theme of hope.
According to EMMA’s event listing and newsletter material, the opening celebration includes the presentation of awards, among them the OAF Award and the 2026 Vimma Award, which is presented by Kynnys ry and the Tukilinja Foundation. The festival also features a public-facing program designed to combine discussion, performance and participation, with the museum describing the occasion as an opportunity to celebrate outsider art within a shared cultural setting.
The schedule begins with ‘OAF Hope Talks’, a conversation on inclusive curating moderated by Heini Merkkiniemi of OAF. That is followed by the opening celebration itself, which includes speeches, the opening of the ‘Länsimetron’ exhibition and artist bouquets, as well as the awards ceremony. Later in the afternoon, VHS-klubi presents its ‘Laserlevyraati’, a TV-studio simulation built around old 1990s karaoke videos from laserdiscs, with live piano accompaniment, jury scoring and audience sing-alongs.
The program also includes ‘TOIVO’, described by EMMA as a freely experienced and participatory work curated by the OAF team. EMMA says the work asks visitors what gives them hope. Two sensory-friendly guided tours of the museum’s ‘Nykyaikaa etsimässä’ exhibition are scheduled during the event, led by guides from Autismisäätiö, Ammattiopisto Live and EMMA. The day closes with a concert by Aizhan Sultan, whose performance draws on Kazakh singing improvisation and is listed as taking place from 6 pm to 6.45 pm.
Aizhan Sultan is introduced in EMMA’s event text as a singer, songwriter and doctoral researcher originally from Kazakhstan and now based in Finland. EMMA says her compositions are inspired by nomadic culture and traditions and combine traditional and contemporary Kazakh music. The museum’s description also notes the use of throat singing, the shanqobyz and live electronics by Saku Liimatainen. The listing says Sultan’s work focuses on decolonization in Central Asia and radical inclusion.
The festival opening is free of charge and takes place during EMMA’s regular Friday free-admission hours from 3 pm onward. EMMA’s club newsletter says the festival launch is one of four cooperation events marking the start of the museum’s autumn season, alongside Espoo Ciné’s ‘Cinéstesia’ seminar on 25 August, a Pixelache Helsinki screening on 16 September and the PUBLICS symposium ‘Positioning A Symposium on Curatorial Learning in the Nordic-Baltic Region & Beyond’ on 25 September. Outside the festival event, the newsletter notes that EMMA’s autumn collaboration program extends into these later dates, while the Outsider Art Festival 2026 opening itself is scheduled for 21 August at EMMA in Espoo.
