Minna Salami appointed as the Institute’s Interim Programme Director, Arts & Society

Minna Salami has been appointed as our Interim Programme Director, Arts & Society. She is a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish author, speaker and social critic with extensive knowledge of cultural life and social discourse in the UK, Finland and globally.

A leading voice in contemporary feminism, she is the author of Can Feminism Be African?: A Most Paradoxical Question and Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone, among other works. She also writes Kaleido, a publication about society, ideas and culture through a multi-perspectival lens.

Additionally, she is an Open Society Ideas Workshop Fellow and formerly Senior Fellow and Programme Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE.

"I’m delighted to be joining the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland as Interim Programme Director for Arts and Society. I look forward to working with the team and our partners across Finland, the UK and Ireland to build on the programme’s strong foundations, develop meaningful collaborations and bring imaginative perspectives to the urgent questions shaping our societies", says Salami.

“There are smiles all around at the Institute as we welcome Minna Salami to the team as Interim Arts & Society Programme Director. Her deep experience, breadth of vision and infectious energy will be invaluable as we empower creative voices and foster meaningful connections between Finland, the UK and Ireland”, says Aleksi Malmberg, Director of the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.

Salami will start her role at the Institute on 8 October 2026 and is leading the Institute’s Arts & Society programme during Programme Director Sara Kärpänen’s parental leave.