The New Genre Arctic Art Education website presents visual essays, videos, and exhibition documents that showcases innovative Arctic art education in northern communities. The website provides a platform for sharing open educational materials, as well as inspiration and examples of art and art education in northern and Arctic communities and environments.

Community-based art education, which is grounded in northern eco-culture and contemporary sustainability issues, is a special area of expertise in art education at the University of Lapland.

“Arctic art education aims to challenge colonialistic models and traditions in the fields of art and education. At its best, it strengthens cultural pride and activity as well as a vibrant, sustainable culture in northern communities. Research and development work constantly reflect on sustainability and the ways in which art education can initiate a sustainability transition,” says Maria Huhmarniemi, Associate Professor of Art Education at the University of Lapland’s Faculty of Art and Design.

The New Genre Arctic Art Education website presents research and development work in the field and its results through visual essays, videos, and exhibition documentation. The activities presented on the website have been done partly in collaboration with the Arctic Sustainable Art and Design (ASAD) research and education network, and partly in other research and development projects in Arctic art education.

Maria Huhmarniemi is the director of the ASAD network and the UArctic Chair in the University of the Arctic network. The projects presented on the website were initiated by Timo Jokela, Professor Emeritus of Art Education at the University of Lapland and founder of the ASAD network, and carried out under his leadership between 2022 and 2025. The projects have involved collaboration with several Arctic universities, including Nord University (Norway), Umeå University (Sweden), Ilisimatusarfik – University of Greenland, and Memorial University (Canada). The projects have also involved many other local partners, such as the Greenlandic Siunissaq Association. The projects have focused on topics such as sustainability-oriented portraits of communities and land-based learning.

“These project activities have strengthened cooperation between Arctic universities, enhanced intercultural dialogue, and created new community-based models for conducting research, art, and teaching together with people in the northern and Arctic regions,” says Professor Emeritus Timo Jokela.

“Through events, exhibitions, and digital communication, the projects have advanced art-based methods for interaction and provided university staff and students with valuable practical experience and tools for bringing the ecocultural and social perspectives of the Arctic region to the attention of a wider audience”, says Professor Emeritus Jokela.

The New Genre Arctic Art Education website also presents university courses developed within the ASAD network, which combine fieldwork and distance learning in a hybrid format. These courses have involved student and staff mobility and research collaboration.

In addition, the website contains guidelines for planning and implementing innovative Arctic art education projects. These guidelines are also described in more detail in the handbook Living with land and people: A handbook for artistic project and art-based action research in the Arctic.

The New Genre Arctic Art Education website
Handbook Living with land and people: A handbook for artistic project and art-based action research in the Arctic

Projects that have enabled the website and activities presented in it

Arctic Expo
Lessons of the Land
Living in the Landscape Summer School 2023–2025
The Sustainability Portrait Project
New Genre Art Education in the Arctic