Maria Huhmarniemi
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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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Highlights from research publications
Paradigm shifts in northern art, community and environment studies for art teacher education
Art Education Students Making Sculpture Using Willow Branches in 2006. Photo by Timo Jokela.
Huhmarniemi, 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). New genre Arctic art in the city of Rovaniemi: Promotion of de-Arctification and pluralism. In S. Miettinen, E. Mikkonen, M. C. Loschiavo dos Santos & M. Sarantou (Eds.), Artistic cartography and design explorations towards the pluriverse (pp. 64–73). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003285175-7 |
Maria Huhmarniemi’s On the Way Home (2021). from a series of digital photographs.
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poster of the Voice of Artists exhibition, discussed in the article.
Huhmarniemi, M. & Sharova, E. (2022). Art from the margins and colonial relations: to listen or to ban the Indigenous voices from Russia? In L. Heininen, H. Exner-Pirot & J. Barnes (Eds.), Arctic Yearbook 2022: The Russian Arctic: Economics, Politics and Peoples. Arctic Portal. https://arcticyearbook.com/arctic-yearbook/2022/2022-scholarly-papers/436-art-from-the-margins-and-colonial-relations-to-listen-to-or-to-ban-artists-voices-from-russia
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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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Art-based events for conflicted communitiesIn the Arctic, environmental conflicts over land use and the exploitation of natural resources cast shadows over communities. Artists’ and art educators’ responses can play a meaningful role in resisting harmful developments. Emerging artistic and pedagogical interventions follow principles of socially and environmentally engaged art and art education. This visual essay describes a contemporary art event that opposed plans for an iron ore mine next to Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park in Finnish Lapland. An art-based action-research strategy was used to develop resources for communities in conflict. It focuses on describing the cyclical nature of art interventions. Analyses of activities show that art-based resources in environmental battles can foster cultural resilience, impact values, enhance hope and allow for campaigning that uses art to communicate environmental concerns. Further research into artistic interventions that open dialogue between parties in conflict is required.
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A workshop entitled Bark Boat of Hope was designed and facilitated by art education students Mari Parpala and Emilia Laatikainen. Photo by Mari Parpala, 2019.
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Huhmarniemi, M. (2021). Art-based events for conflicted communities: Engaging and educating through art. International Journal on Education through Art 17(2), 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1386/eta_00065_3
Sustainable Future for Creative Tourism in Lapland
Crafters selling their products, telling stories, and giving workshops at a small-scale market event in a music festival in Lapland. Photos by Mari Parpala, 2019.
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In this chapter we present practical ideas and potential strategies for developing the use of arts-based methods in creative tourism. Arts-based methods have come to be widely discussed and promoted in various disciplines such as the social sciences, education, and tourism research and their strength is seen in their ability to engage participants’ creative expression and to obtain participation and knowledge that is not verbal. In the fields of art education and community art, the impact of art-based methods is seen on human growth and well-being, the sense of belonging, the enhancement of kinship, empowerment, and the ability to create meaningful symbols. Inspired by this, in this chapter we consider the potential of arts-based methods and creative tourism experiences for enabling learning and transformation.
Huhmarniemi, M.; Kugapi, O.; Miettinen, S. & Laivamaa, L. (2021). Sustainable Future for Creative Tourism in Lapland. In N. Duxbury; S. Albino & C. Pato Carvalho (Eds.), Creative tourism: Activating cultural resources and engaging creative travellers (pp. 239–253). Cabi International. |
Higlights from Artistic Publications
Participation to an exhibition "Counter Cartographies: Living the Land"Counter Cartographies: Living the Land presents contemporary artworks that examine our relationship to land, proposing alternative ways of thinking about and experiencing the landscape around us. Artists draw attention to the way culture, identity, emotion, ancestry, displacement, power and colonization shape and inform our understanding of land.
Alien Hiker was shown in the exhibition 8.10-2021— 5.9.2022 in the Anchorage Museum, Alaska. |
Maria Huhmarniemi, Alien Hiker, 2010 (29 X 40 cm X 70 cm). "The work is a series of landscape photographs from Austrian Alps, in which scarves wave in the wind like flags.
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Roots, blanket embroideryRoots is a blanket embroidery with hand-dyed wool yarn on black wool fabric. The work depicts the roots of the tree and the folding of the craft as a pillar of the experience of rootedness. The work is inspired by the experience of regional tradition and the value of craftsmanship. The work is part of the Embroidered Stances art project.
Roots was presented in the Roots exhibition, Gallery Valo, Rovaniemi, 2022 |
