Observation of Change is an art project based in Nordic collaboration with a nature restoration project "Observation - An observation of change" at the Junkerdal area in Saltdal municipality, Norway. The restoration aims to help nature and tackles issues of collaboration between humans and more-than-human elements of nature. The artistic approach brings artists into a dialogue with scientists and reflection on changes in nature in the Nordic Arctic region.
The project is initiated and coordinated by artists Birgitta Linhart (SE) and Maria Huhmarniemi (FI) in collaboration with gallerist Anja Kath Lande, ecologist Rannveig Margrete Jacobsen and National Park manager Johan Rova. Invited artists include art-sci collective Mette Gårdvik – Karin Stoll – Wenche Sørmo (NO), photographer and graphic designers Laila Ingvaldsen (NO), photographer Esa Pekka Isomursu (FI), comic book artist Johannes Pekonen (FI), and performance artist Tommi Yläjoki (FI). Institutional partners of the project are the Adde Zetterquist art gallery, Nordland National Park Centre, Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the University of Lapland, Nord University, and the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design network. The results of the project will be exhibited in 2025 at the Adde Zetterquist art gallery in the Junkerdal, Havremagasinet in Sweden and in the University of Lapland. The project is co-funded by the Nordic Culture Fund. The funding given by the Nordic Culture Fund is 300 000 Danish krona.
VillaInno / the Wool-Inno project (2023-2026)
The Wool-Inno project is driven by a growing interest in wool, wool yarn and wool handicrafts, and an awareness of the importance of sheep grazing to biodiversity and the cultural landscape. This wool phenomenon is also creating demand for new products and services from Lapland. The Wool-Inno project is driven by the need to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Lapland, such as craft entrepreneurs, to innovate and develop wool-based products and services in a commercial and sustainable way. The Wool-Inno project aims to produce new products and services and to improve the growth and innovation capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises in Lapland in the context of crafts and cultural tourism. By sharing and renewing the cultural heritage of crafts, to project will increase the use of wool and produce sustainable development. The project will increase the use of sustainable wool.
Three doctoral candidates at the University of Lapland will work in the project: Minna Kovero, Lola Cervantes and Tanya Kravtsov. Associate professor Maria Huhmarniemi leads the project and Elina Härkönen and Elina Luiro work as experts.
The project is funded by the European Union. The funding by the European Union is €321 699, with a total budget of €402 111. The project is carried by the University with a number of local partners.
New Genre Arctic Art Education (2022-2024)
Project is funded by the Unviersity of Arctic.
sheilin-bough: collaborative place-making and inter-cultural storytelling through intangible cultural heritages of food in the north (2022-2023)
This project will bring the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Lapland together to collaborate through our shared expertise in creative and participatory practices. We aim to engage the participants in their respective landscapes through making, cooking, and storytelling to develop inter-cultural understanding of the key issues facing inhabitants in the Arctic and the north: sustainable food futures, and environmental and social justice. The project aims to build a collaborative platform on which to build an international network of place-based practitioners with an interest in the intangible cultural heritage of food, from cultivation and preparation to communal consumption. Grantee is the Glasgow School of Art, from the Arctic Connections Fund, Scottish Goverment
EALA: engagement, alliance and learning for arts in Scottish and Arctic contexts and commons (2022-2023)
EALA will facilitate the co-creation of new Open Educational Resources based on existing and new narratives (written, visual, audio) of Arctic and near Arctic commons and contexts. Using creative methods, site working, archives and community and narrative expert input, Scotland’s “near Arctic” policy and wider ‘Smart Arctic’ ambitions will be explored through story-telling, cultural making and critique. The project has identified four thematic sustainable transition interfaces - Energy, Assets, Landscape and Art - to underpin the OER artefacts. EALA is a Scottish-Arctic alliance between Scotland and Finland for effective educational resource capacity building (OER), enhanced knowledge mobility and efficient partnership working. Grantee is the University of the West of Scotland, from the Arctic Connections Fund, Scottish Goverment
At the forefront of the climate crisis: science and arts-based interventions in youth climate activism and climate citizenship building (2021-2024)
The project will design and implement advocacy campaigns on the climate crisis together with young people. Through a joint effort between researchers, artists and young people, the project will create site-specific artworks for pilot communities and opinion-forming campaigns on social media platforms that showcase young people's concerns, hopes and dreams in facing the climate crisis and finding solutions to mitigate it. The project is funded by the Kone foundation. Researchers are Jarmo Rinne, Aki Lintumäki, Korinna Korsströn-Magga, Timo Jokela, Mirja Hiltunen and Jaana Poikolainen.
ARCTA FAST - Eventbased Education model (2020-2022)
The project is a development and research project in the field of creative industries education. In Lapland, creative professionals are graduating from three different school levels. In this project, the University of Lapland, Lapland University of Applied Sciences and Lappia Vocational College are working together to develop training unities that will provide skills for implementing art for various kinds of events in Lapland.
Forest Ecosystem Services for Creative Industries (2021–2022)
This project fostered collaborative design, pilots and evaluation of arts-based services in forest environments through co-creation by artists, creative experts and entrepreneurs in the tourism, welfare and care sectors. The overall aim of the research was to develop arts-based methods linked to cultural ecosystem services for creative enterprises in the province of Lapland in Finland. Artist-researchers piloted arts-based activities in forests, and experiences were discussed together and presented in a joint exhibition. The project was led by Professor Timo Jokela and the project manager was Antti Stöckell In addition, several doctoral candidates and members of the staff of the Art Education programme were involved in the project. The book presenting the project is published in Finnish. Project was funded by the Regional Council of Lapland.
Look North
Look more often to the North – Look North – project seeks new forms and channels for cooperation with cultural and public communities in crossborder interaction. Project includes collaboration with local children and young people in tackling environmental problems through art and creation. Arkhangelsk ArtSchool is the Lead Partner or the project and collaboration includes Russian and Norwegian partners. The project is funded by the Kolarctic CBC Programme 2014-2020.
Shifting Ground: Mapping Energy, Geographies and Communities in the North (2020-2023)
Shifting Ground: Mapping Energy, Geographies and Communities in the North is a research creation study that looks at the impacts of resource extraction in the circumpolar North and globally. Energy resource development has a profound effect on the landscape and lives in these remote communities, with long-reaching impacts that are increasingly felt worldwide. While growing concerns over climate change have drawn attention to Northern geographies, conventional representations of these places have long been wedded to the desire to exploit and profit from natural resources, colonize land, displace Indigenous communities, and assert sovereignty. Through Shifting Ground, we respond to the urgent need for innovative modes of knowledge exchange to creatively engender new expressions of place, personhood and human-land relationships. Artistic research-creation provides an opportunity to better understand the mapping of resources in terms of its social, affective, and cultural dimensions. By linking local specificities and global concerns, this project aims to strengthen cross-cultural and transnational community partnerships, deepen dialogue about climate change, and generate alternative artistic representations (mappings) that have been hitherto obscured, ignored, or downplayed in conversations and action around energy transition. The project is part of the collaboration in the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design -network and coridated by the professori Ruth Beer Emily Carr university in Vancouverista, Canada. The contibution by the University of Lapland is coordinated by professor Timo Jokela. The art and research will be carried out in Alaska, Canada and Lapland. Home page News in the Emily Carr website: Description of the project in Finnish
Acting on the Margin - Arts as a Social Sculpture” (AMASS) H2020 (2020-2023)
The project will address the specific funding theme “Societal challenges and the arts”. The principle investigator for AMASS is Professor Satu Miettinen and the project manager is senior researcher Dr Melanie Sarantou. Nacer researchers Professor Mirja Hiltunen and senior lecturer Dr Maria Huhmarniemi are part of the project team. Artistic experiments that utilise service design, art education and arts-based methods play a central role in the AMASS approach to addressing societal challenges in the European margins. The consortium members include Charles University in Prague, Corvinus University in Hungary, Paco Design Collaborative in Milan, University of Leeds in the UK, University of Borås in Sweden and Associação de Professores de Expressão e Comunicação Visual (APECV) of Portugal, University of Malta. Visit the narrative platform of the project