Professor Arto Haapala was a long-term member the governing body of the Alfred Kordelin Foundation. In addition, he has served a total of 12 years as the chairman of the Finnish Society for Aesthetics. Professor Haapala has also actively developed the activities of the International Institute of Applied Aesthetics: one of the Institute’s central functions is the organisation of international summer conferences, which have provided many significant ways of academic interaction.

In addition to Finland, the study of aesthetics is also popular in the other Nordic countries. Haapala has participated in many pan-Nordic projects. The main organisation for cooperation in the Nordic countries is the Nordic Society of Aesthetics, which is currently based at Aarhus University in Denmark. Haapala is also a board member of the international umbrella organisation the International Association for Aesthetics and the European Society for Aesthetics.

Professor Haapala worked as the vice deacon of the Faculty of Arts between 2004 and 2006, where he was responsible for library matters. At that time the Main Library was no more than an idea, but it provoked passionate opposition as did the notion of a unified university library. At the same time, Haapala also worked as the director of the Institute for Art Research at the Faculty of Arts.

Professor Haapala also worked for many years on the executive committee of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced studies, and as its chairman between 2004 and 2008. He has been a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters since 2002 and was the chairman of its division for philosophy and aesthetics between 2004 and 2008.