Maria Huhmarniemi
Maria Huhmarniemi (D.A.) is an associate professor in the University of Lapland. She studies by socially engaged art, crafting and dialogical interventions. Her interest is in enhancing sustainability through creativity, transculturalism and education. She makes political art and develops arts-based methods for societal needs. Huhmarniemi is a docent at the University of Eastern Finland, in the field of social pedagogy, especially community-based art education. Huhmarniemi has published research publications and participated a number of group and joint exhibitions as an installation artists and artists-researcher.
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DissertationArtists in the landscape of berry wars and reindeer husbandry: Contemporary art as a forum for environmental politics
This research produces new knowledge about collaborative research between contemporary art and multidisciplinary environmental research as well as research on northern culture in Lapland. The study mainly serves art education and applied visual arts. In art education it is topical to develop art integration, in which environmental conflicts are themes studied through art in schools. In applied visual arts the collaboration of artists and other researchers are to be developed. In addition to art education and applied visual arts the present research can also benefit the art world, art-based environmental research and science communication.
The present research is part of the expanding field of art-based research. The approach of art-based research has become more common in various disciplines, such as education and the social sciences. Art-based action research (ABAR) is a research approach developed in the Department of Art Education at the University of Lapland. It is used mainly to develop methods for community art, environmental art and applied visual arts. The cyclic research process includes making drafts and development plans, conducting literature reviews, creating artistic work and engaging in evaluation, conceptualization and reflection. In the present research the artistic components included in the dissertation form a structure for the cycles. Read the research here. |
Highlights from research publications
Paradigm shifts in northern art, community and environment studies for art teacher educationHuhmarniemi, M.; Jokela, T. & Hiltunen, M. (2021). Paradigm shifts in northern art, community and environment studies for art teacher education. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4(1), 100181, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100181
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In Northern Finland, where this study takes place, nature is a typical setting for recreational activities and employment. At the University of Lapland, attention has been given to art teacher education that supports the continuation of the Northern ecoculture and enhances human–nature connectedness. In this article, we discuss art, community and environmental (ACE) studies developed through international collaborations and joint, long-term action research based on the arts. These studies are part of art teacher training and an international master's degree programme in Arctic art and design. This article explains the paradigm changes that have impacted the aims and methods employed in ACE studies since the 1990s. The discussion is framed by a Western theoretical shift from environmental aesthetics to new materialism, post-humanism and decolonisation. We conclude that ACE projects can enhance revitalisation and increase capacities to retain cultural pride and local ecocultures. Art education that is carried out in a place-specific manner, in cooperation with local communities, is one way to keep traditions alive and foster environmentalism in the North. The article has international relevance for developing art teacher training in Arctic communities but also in other remote locations in which strong bonds between nature and culture are maintained.
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New genre Arctic art in the city of Rovaniemi Promotion of de-Arctification and pluralisImaginaries of the Arctic cause so-called Arctification that does not resonate with experienced realities of the region as a multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual place. This chapter is based on long-term art-based action research aiming to influence contemporary art, art education, transculturalism and inclusion in the Arctic, especially in the city of Rovaniemi. The research is based on need to consider the richness and the variety of the circumpolar world and to the discussion on pluriverse, new genre public art, and new genre Arctic art. The chapter concludes that socially engaged art can promote the identification of minority cultures, encounters amongst members of different cultures and representations of multiculturalism and transculturalism in public space and visual arts. Public art as an identity symbol of locality can counteract Arctification. Arts can create an understanding of the pluriverse and promote openness to multiculturalism, as well as present the Arctic as home to a rich variety of cultures.
Huhmarniemi, M. & Hiltunen, M. (2022). Promotion of de-arctification and pluralism through Arctic art. In S. Miettinen, E. Mikkonen, C. Loschiavo dos Santos & M. Sarantou (Eds.), Artistic cartography - Exploration to pluriverse. Routledge. |
Huhmarniemi, M. & Sharova, E. (2022). Art from the margins and colonial relations: to listen or to ban the Indigenous voices from Russia? Arctic Yearbook.
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Art from the margins and colonial relations: To listen to or to ban artists' voices from Russia?The Voice of Artists exhibition was shown in an art gallery in Lapland, Finland, as a statement to consider artists´ societal and political roles as opposition to centralised power. At the same time, many Western organisations banned Russian cultural and academic collaboration due to the Russian invasion in Ukraine in the spring of 2022. This article discusses the Voice of Artists exhibition project and considers the possibilities, ethics and obstacles for non-governmental art associations when collaborating with Russian artists in the Arctic Region. The study is a continuation of arts-based action research to foster sustainability through international collaborations in arts and education. The theoretical background of the article is based on studies on critical and political contemporary art in Russia, colonial relations in Russia and art history when national romanticism endorsed and appropriated the North and the Arctic region. Power structures in Russian culture are Moscow-centred, and there is a need to decolonise and strengthen regional structures in arts and culture organisations, foundations and policies. Human-to-human contact without interference from the state seems fruitful in providing new dialogue and new knowledge.
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