Mirja Hiltunen
Mirja Hiltunen (Doctor of Art, MEd ) is professor of Art Education in the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, docent in University of Oulu on Community-based art education and applied arts, a Visiting Professor of Art Pedagogy, Aalto University, School of Arts (2017-2018). She has devised a performative art strategy as part of her work in art teacher education and has been leading community-based art education projects in Lapland for twenty years. The place-specificity, performativity and socially engaged art and art education are particular interests to her. She has presented numerous international research papers and published her work in art education journals and books and art exhibitions. Research output
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Highlights from research publications
Toward Place-Specific and Situational Arctic Visual Culture Learning in Finnish Art Teacher EducationIn this article, we tackle critical and socially engaged issues on Arctic visual culture (AVC) education in Finland, which are, in this article, considered culturally sensitive topics in Finnish art education. The article emerges from research interests in (1) place-specific issues in art teacher education, as they relate to the critical study of AVC, and (2) Arctic art and Sámi art and craft, the current development and discussion in Finnish contexts, and their importance to art teacher education. Our approach is drawn from the field of Finnish art education and previous knowledge of culturally sensitive, socially engaged art education approaches practiced in two Finnish universities. Through this collaboration, we further develop research and practices related to the topic. The context of the collaboration is a 3-year multidisciplinary and nationwide project, Arctic Reformative and Exploratory Teaching Profession, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Mirja Hiltunen, Mira Kallio-Tavin & Annika Sohlman (2021) Toward Place-Specific and Situational Arctic Visual Culture Learning in Finnish Art Teacher Education, Studies in Art Education, 62:3, 266-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2021.1936428 |
Love Talks and Neighbourhood: Promoting encounters, tolerance and social inclusion by means of art in daily life and the living environment in Finnish Lapland |
This article will introduce the Love Talks and Neighbourhood (later Love Talks) project, part of the AMASS, Acting on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture project. Love Talks was realised in Finnish Lapland in 2020, as part of an effort by local artists and art education students to explore how arts initiatives can build tolerant, community-focused neighbourhoods, while reflecting on how such activities can be scaled up to larger initiatives. The artists and art educators involved in the project took on the roles of teachers, developers, enablers, curators, facilitators, producers and creators of a new dialogic operational culture. The project asked whether socially engaged art can provide new tools for social interaction and increased collaboration. Can it lead to a new dialogue, critical discussions and new forums for participation? This paper highlights the importance of paying attention to how activities are organised and realised in the diverse and often challenging environments characteristic of socially engaged art and community-based art education. It explores how to promote encounters, tolerance and well-being through the use of art, and the role of culture and art in promoting social inclusion, capacity building, networking and participation in daily life and living environments.
Hiltunen, M., Koskenniemi, P., & Sarantou, M. (2021). Love Talks and Neighbourhood: Promoting encounters, tolerance and social inclusion by means of art in daily life and the living environment in province of Lapland. Malta Review of Educational Research, 15(Supplement Issue), 97–117. http://www.mreronline.org/issues/supplement-issue-on-socially-engaged-art-and-global-challenges-december-2021 |
My Stage – sharing and creating a story of our past, present, and future in Finnish LaplandHiltunen, M, Mikkonen, E. Niskala, A., Douranou, M. & Patrigani, E. (2018). My Stage – sharing and creating a story of our past, present, and future in Finnish Lapland. Synnyt/ Origins:1/2018, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.54916/rae.118888
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This article addresses the ‘My Stage’ participatory theatre project for women with an immigrant background in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland. One of the fundamental ideas underlying the project was the conviction that multidisciplinary dialogue can be helpful in supporting social integration processes in an increasingly multicultural society. Based on our experience and research, we propose that participatory theatre workshops can offer a creative space for these dialogues. In this article, we analyse those experiences by combining social work and socially engaged art education approaches. We address ethnic, cultural, and gendered ‘otherness’ and aim at understanding the impact of unequal power relations, social privileges and hierarchies in the integration processes. The main research question that connects social work and art-based research in this project is “to what extent does taking part in art and design workshops promote social integration?” The empirical data was collected using ethnographic and participatory theatre methods. The multidisciplinary team of authors behind this text includes a theatre practitioner plus, service design, art education, and social work researchers, as well as a workshop participant.
The main research question that connects social work and art-based research in this project is “to what extent does taking part in art and design workshops promote social integration?” The empirical data was collected using ethnographic and participatory theatre methods. The multidisciplinary team of authors behind this text includes a theatre practitioner plus, service design, art education, and social work researchers, as well as a workshop participant. |
Documents of Community-Based Art Education
Mirja Hiltunen’s working method can be characterised as social activist art. For more than twenty years, she has developed interactive art activities that bring communities together, where artistry is shared and the signature of works is often impossible. The art activities have been used to find interaction between northern villages and contemporary art, as well as methods to develop community-based art education in the context of art teacher education at the University of Lapland.
On March 20/3/2015, an almost complete solar eclipse was experienced in Utsjoki, which is the most northern municipality and the only where Sami are in majority n Finland. Ohcejoga Utsjoen Ursa ry organised, in co-operation with Utsjokisuu’s Village Association and Utsjoki's schools, an event called Utsjoki's eclipse and ice-fishing. Hiltunen and two arts students from University of Lapland were involved in carrying out winter art workshops as part of the ensemble. The three-day event, kind of social sculpture, ended with the Village Association's ice-fishing competition at Lake Koahpilas. Installation's Part I, Solar-fishing, sums up the experiences from these days. Part II of the installation, Annunciation day, goes back in time to 22/3/2014, to a personally deeply meaningful moment of the vernal equinox, at the deathbed of artist’s mother. The series is completed in the installation Vernal Equinox that is presented at the Carolium gallery. The grayscale of the video form March 2016 equinox refers to the balance, the circle and continuity of the traditions of the season and continuity of life.
The materials tells their own stories. The parts of the ensemble are combined by the ideas of the connection between the eclipse, brightness and darkness, from experience, from the dazzling late winter snow and the under-ice darkness revealed by the ice-fishing hole, the flash of light from the dark side of an Arctic char and stepping over the border to the great unknown. The material is a message as itself. It can be in contradiction to the form and meaning or might underline them. HIltunen has combined materials like wool and silk, used in Gàkti, the traditional clothing worn by the Sámi, photographs and fishing line - or steel, what refers to the hospital and terminal care.
On March 20/3/2015, an almost complete solar eclipse was experienced in Utsjoki, which is the most northern municipality and the only where Sami are in majority n Finland. Ohcejoga Utsjoen Ursa ry organised, in co-operation with Utsjokisuu’s Village Association and Utsjoki's schools, an event called Utsjoki's eclipse and ice-fishing. Hiltunen and two arts students from University of Lapland were involved in carrying out winter art workshops as part of the ensemble. The three-day event, kind of social sculpture, ended with the Village Association's ice-fishing competition at Lake Koahpilas. Installation's Part I, Solar-fishing, sums up the experiences from these days. Part II of the installation, Annunciation day, goes back in time to 22/3/2014, to a personally deeply meaningful moment of the vernal equinox, at the deathbed of artist’s mother. The series is completed in the installation Vernal Equinox that is presented at the Carolium gallery. The grayscale of the video form March 2016 equinox refers to the balance, the circle and continuity of the traditions of the season and continuity of life.
The materials tells their own stories. The parts of the ensemble are combined by the ideas of the connection between the eclipse, brightness and darkness, from experience, from the dazzling late winter snow and the under-ice darkness revealed by the ice-fishing hole, the flash of light from the dark side of an Arctic char and stepping over the border to the great unknown. The material is a message as itself. It can be in contradiction to the form and meaning or might underline them. HIltunen has combined materials like wool and silk, used in Gàkti, the traditional clothing worn by the Sámi, photographs and fishing line - or steel, what refers to the hospital and terminal care.
Higlights from Artistic Publications
VERNAL EQUINOX Carolium gallery, Praha (2016)
Selected publications
Hiltunen, M., Kallio-Tavin, M., Sohlman, A. (2021) Toward Place-Specific and Situational Arctic Visual Culture Learning in Finnish Art Teacher Education, Studies in Art Education, 62:3, 266-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2021.1936428
Hiltunen, M, Mikkonen, E., Laitinen, M. (2020) Metamorphosis: Co-creation of knowledge in interdisciplinary art-based action research addressing immigration and social integration in Northern Finland. In G. Coutts G. & T., Eca (Eds ) Learning through art: International Perspectives. InSEA Publications.
Mikkonen, E.; Hiltunen, M. Laitinen, M. 2020 . My Stage: Participatory Theatre with Immigrant Women as a Decolonizing Method in Art-based Research. Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, Volume 5 Issue 1, 2020; The public status: unpublished; in print)
Jokela, T., Hiltunen, M & Huhmarniemi, M. 2019. Art-based Action Research: Participatory Art Education Research for the North. In A. Sinner, R. Irwin & J. Adams (Eds.). Provoking the Field. PhDs in Education: International Perspectives on Visual Arts (pp. 45–56). Bristol: Intellect.
Miettinen, S. A., Erkkilä-Hill, J., Koistinen, S., Jokela, T. S., Hiltunen, M. L. 2019. Stories of design, snow, and silence: Creative tourism landscape in Lapland. In N. Duxbury, G. Richards (eds.) A Research Agenda for Creative Tourism, (pp. 69–84), Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Kallio-Tavin M., Anttila E., Jokela T., Hiltunen M., Lehikoinen K., Pusa T. (2019) Cultural Diversity in Finnish Arts Education Research. In: Ferro L., Wagner E., Veloso L., IJdens T., Teixeira Lopes J. (eds) Arts and Cultural Education in a World of Diversity. Yearbook of the European Network of Observatories in the Field of Arts and Cultural Education (ENO). Springer, Cham
Hiltunen, M, Mikkonen, E. Niskala, A., Douranou, M. & Patrigani, E. 2018 My Stage – sharing and creating a story of our past, present, and future in Finnish Lapland. Synnyt/ Origins:1/2018, pp. 1–19.
Hiltunen, M. 2018. Taidevaihde – aikalaistaiteen toimintatapoja soveltamassa. [ArtGear – Exploring and implementing contemporary art], In P. Granö, M. Hiltunen, T. Jokela (eds) Suhteessa maailmaan: ympäristöt oppimisen avaajina [In Relation to Globe: Environments for Learning] (pp. 83–108), Rovaniemi, Lapland University Press.
Huhmarniemi, M. E. & Hiltunen, M. L., 2018, YTYä esi- ja alkuopetukseen - toimintamalleja ymäristö- ja yhteisötaiteeseen [Art, Community and Environment approach for Childhood and Primary Education], in Rusanen, S., Rintakorpi, K., Kuusela, M. & Torkki, K. (eds.), Mun kuvista kulttuuriin: kuvataidetta esi- ja alkuopetukseen. [From my Images to Culture: Art Education for Childhood and Primary Education] (pp. 109–130), Helsinki: Lasten Keskus.
Tavin, K. & Hiltunen, M. (eds.) 2017. Experimenting fads: Finnish Art-Education Doctoral Studies. An innovative network for PhDs. Aalto University publication series. Arts + Design + Architecture 5/2017. Helsinki: Aalto Arts Book.
Hiltunen M. 2016. Stretching the Limits . In IMAG InSEA MAGAZINE N º 3. Vol.I November 2016, pp. 31-42
Manninen A. & Hiltunen M. 2016 .Dealing with complexity - Pupils’ representations of place in the era of Arctic Urbanization, in Timo Jokela & Glen Coutts (eds) Relate North, Culture, Community, and communication, Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, pp.35-56.
Hiltunen, M. 2016. Astumisia virtaan. Teoksessa. A. Suominen (toim.). Taidekasvatus ympäristöhuolen aikakaudella – avauksia, suuntia, mahdollisuuksia. Helsinki, Suomi: Aalto ARTS Books., 200–212.
Jokela, T., Hiltunen, M., Härkönen, E.(2015) Art-based Action Research – Participatory Art for the North. International Journal of Education through Art.Vol 11 Number 3, pp. 433–448.
Hiltunen, M. & Rantala. P. (2015) Creating art-based approaches in working life development: The shift from success to significance. International Journal of Education through Art. vol 11:2, pp. 245–260.
Hyry-Beihammer E., Hiltunen, M. & Estola, E.(eds.) (2014) Paikka ja kasvatus, Lapland University Press, Rovaniemi.
Hiltunen, M & Manninen, A. (2015) Art Evokes! –Use of Online Environments to Promote Pupils’ Wellbeing. In E. Sohlman ed.al (eds). Empowering School eHeatlh Model in the Barents Region. Reports in Educational Sciences. Publications of Lapland UAS. Publication series B. Reports 2/2015, pp.245–253.
Jokela, T. & Hiltunen, M & Härkönen, E. 2015. Contemporary Art Education meets the International multicultural North. In Mira Tavin & Jouko Pullinen (eds) Conversations on Finnish Art Education. Aalto University publications series. Art+Design+Architecture. 5/2015. Helsinki: Aalto Arts Books, pp. 260–276.
Hiltunen, M & Zemtsova, I. 2014. Northern Places – tracking the Finno-Ugric traces through place-specific art. In T. Jokela & G. Coutts (eds.) Relate North 2014: Engagement, Art and representation. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, pp. 60–81.
Hiltunen, M. 2011. Voimaannuttava pohjoinen Sukupolvet ja kulttuurit kohtaavat taidekasvatushankkeissa. Nuorisotutkimus Vol 29, (1), pp. 34–49.
Hiltunen, M. 2010: Slow Activism: Art in progress in the North. In Aini Linjakumpu & Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo (eds.) Progress or Perish. Northern Perspectives on Social Change. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, pp. 119–138.
Hiltunen, M, Mikkonen, E., Laitinen, M. (2020) Metamorphosis: Co-creation of knowledge in interdisciplinary art-based action research addressing immigration and social integration in Northern Finland. In G. Coutts G. & T., Eca (Eds ) Learning through art: International Perspectives. InSEA Publications.
Mikkonen, E.; Hiltunen, M. Laitinen, M. 2020 . My Stage: Participatory Theatre with Immigrant Women as a Decolonizing Method in Art-based Research. Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, Volume 5 Issue 1, 2020; The public status: unpublished; in print)
Jokela, T., Hiltunen, M & Huhmarniemi, M. 2019. Art-based Action Research: Participatory Art Education Research for the North. In A. Sinner, R. Irwin & J. Adams (Eds.). Provoking the Field. PhDs in Education: International Perspectives on Visual Arts (pp. 45–56). Bristol: Intellect.
Miettinen, S. A., Erkkilä-Hill, J., Koistinen, S., Jokela, T. S., Hiltunen, M. L. 2019. Stories of design, snow, and silence: Creative tourism landscape in Lapland. In N. Duxbury, G. Richards (eds.) A Research Agenda for Creative Tourism, (pp. 69–84), Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Kallio-Tavin M., Anttila E., Jokela T., Hiltunen M., Lehikoinen K., Pusa T. (2019) Cultural Diversity in Finnish Arts Education Research. In: Ferro L., Wagner E., Veloso L., IJdens T., Teixeira Lopes J. (eds) Arts and Cultural Education in a World of Diversity. Yearbook of the European Network of Observatories in the Field of Arts and Cultural Education (ENO). Springer, Cham
Hiltunen, M, Mikkonen, E. Niskala, A., Douranou, M. & Patrigani, E. 2018 My Stage – sharing and creating a story of our past, present, and future in Finnish Lapland. Synnyt/ Origins:1/2018, pp. 1–19.
Hiltunen, M. 2018. Taidevaihde – aikalaistaiteen toimintatapoja soveltamassa. [ArtGear – Exploring and implementing contemporary art], In P. Granö, M. Hiltunen, T. Jokela (eds) Suhteessa maailmaan: ympäristöt oppimisen avaajina [In Relation to Globe: Environments for Learning] (pp. 83–108), Rovaniemi, Lapland University Press.
Huhmarniemi, M. E. & Hiltunen, M. L., 2018, YTYä esi- ja alkuopetukseen - toimintamalleja ymäristö- ja yhteisötaiteeseen [Art, Community and Environment approach for Childhood and Primary Education], in Rusanen, S., Rintakorpi, K., Kuusela, M. & Torkki, K. (eds.), Mun kuvista kulttuuriin: kuvataidetta esi- ja alkuopetukseen. [From my Images to Culture: Art Education for Childhood and Primary Education] (pp. 109–130), Helsinki: Lasten Keskus.
Tavin, K. & Hiltunen, M. (eds.) 2017. Experimenting fads: Finnish Art-Education Doctoral Studies. An innovative network for PhDs. Aalto University publication series. Arts + Design + Architecture 5/2017. Helsinki: Aalto Arts Book.
Hiltunen M. 2016. Stretching the Limits . In IMAG InSEA MAGAZINE N º 3. Vol.I November 2016, pp. 31-42
Manninen A. & Hiltunen M. 2016 .Dealing with complexity - Pupils’ representations of place in the era of Arctic Urbanization, in Timo Jokela & Glen Coutts (eds) Relate North, Culture, Community, and communication, Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, pp.35-56.
Hiltunen, M. 2016. Astumisia virtaan. Teoksessa. A. Suominen (toim.). Taidekasvatus ympäristöhuolen aikakaudella – avauksia, suuntia, mahdollisuuksia. Helsinki, Suomi: Aalto ARTS Books., 200–212.
Jokela, T., Hiltunen, M., Härkönen, E.(2015) Art-based Action Research – Participatory Art for the North. International Journal of Education through Art.Vol 11 Number 3, pp. 433–448.
Hiltunen, M. & Rantala. P. (2015) Creating art-based approaches in working life development: The shift from success to significance. International Journal of Education through Art. vol 11:2, pp. 245–260.
Hyry-Beihammer E., Hiltunen, M. & Estola, E.(eds.) (2014) Paikka ja kasvatus, Lapland University Press, Rovaniemi.
Hiltunen, M & Manninen, A. (2015) Art Evokes! –Use of Online Environments to Promote Pupils’ Wellbeing. In E. Sohlman ed.al (eds). Empowering School eHeatlh Model in the Barents Region. Reports in Educational Sciences. Publications of Lapland UAS. Publication series B. Reports 2/2015, pp.245–253.
Jokela, T. & Hiltunen, M & Härkönen, E. 2015. Contemporary Art Education meets the International multicultural North. In Mira Tavin & Jouko Pullinen (eds) Conversations on Finnish Art Education. Aalto University publications series. Art+Design+Architecture. 5/2015. Helsinki: Aalto Arts Books, pp. 260–276.
Hiltunen, M & Zemtsova, I. 2014. Northern Places – tracking the Finno-Ugric traces through place-specific art. In T. Jokela & G. Coutts (eds.) Relate North 2014: Engagement, Art and representation. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, pp. 60–81.
Hiltunen, M. 2011. Voimaannuttava pohjoinen Sukupolvet ja kulttuurit kohtaavat taidekasvatushankkeissa. Nuorisotutkimus Vol 29, (1), pp. 34–49.
Hiltunen, M. 2010: Slow Activism: Art in progress in the North. In Aini Linjakumpu & Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo (eds.) Progress or Perish. Northern Perspectives on Social Change. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, pp. 119–138.
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hiltunen_cv_2019.pdf |