Sustainable Art and Design, Master of Arts (Art and Design)

Sustainable Art and Design (120 ECTS) Master’s Degree Study Structure:

• Orientation Studies 20 ECTS cr.
• Advanced Studies 85 ECTS cr.
• Elective Studies 15 ECTS cr.

The degree aims to develop:

• professional expertise at the intersections of art and environmental issues, art and social work, art and regional development and art and design practice
• competence in interdisciplinary working with business and community groups
• advanced skills in project design and management
• expertise in place-based artistic and development strategies, especially in Arctic communities
• research and evaluation skills in art, design and sustainable development.

Due to the focus on art and design skills coupled with practical project experience in interdisciplinary settings, a wide range of career options are open to graduates, for example:

• project management in the creative industries
• educational project working
• independent creative consultancy
• environmental art in partnership
• public art
• community-based art
• education (adult and community based).

Employers could include tourism companies, local or national government, creative industries (galleries, museums etc), social services or educational institutions.

As a student at the University of Lapland, you have the possibility to gain international experience for example by going on an exchange or doing an internship abroad, participating on a short mobility, becoming a My Global Diary Ambassador or an international tutor! In addition to language and cultural knowledge, international experience gives you many acquirements for your future career.

Our goal is that each student earns a degree that gives them acquirements for internationality and strengths in international labour markets. The goals of international competencies will be discussed with your teacher tutor and will be planned as a part of your personal study plan. Student exchange is always planned carefully in such a way that all credits completed abroad can be transferred to your degree. You can complete a minor subject abroad, individual courses that are a part of your degree, an internship or specialisation studies that are not offered at the University of Lapland.

Get to know the international possibilities and find the right choice for you to gain international experience!

The studies give eligibility for postgraduate studies.

All of the students in our programme take the course Arts-Based and Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches. The learning objective is to be able to use and combine arts-based and community-based methods and practice as research and understand the specific nature of such methods in the field of academic research.  Methodology of community arts and participatory design serves research as described in the article written to support studies. Research can be continued in the Northern Art, Community and Environment Research (NACER) or in the design focused research groups at the University of Lapland.

Artivism is a form of art and activism that drives change and social transformation through participatory experiences that dissolve distinctions such as artist and participant, creator and receiver or student and professor. The parallel concept of craftivism views craft making as an artistic movement and uses embroidery, crochet, knitting and similar textile crafts to promote societal and cultural conversations. In our programme, you can gain skills in next generation artitivism and craftivism. Our focus is on the Arctic region, in the studies of Sustainable Art and Design, but the skills can be applied beyond than. Study more by listening to a teaching demonstration video by Maria Huhmarniemi

During the studies, insights from the fields of environmental art, public art, socially-engaged art and service design are introduced. Students are encouraged to discover methods and tools that bridge the gap between art and design. In their two-year master’s degree programme, students carry out project-based studies with a strong focus on preparing for the working life. The book ’The Lure of Lapland: A Handbook of Arctic Art and Design’ presents some of these projects. The former title of the Sustainable Art and Design program was Arctic Art and Design.

We collaborate with many educational institutions and art and design organisations. We are active in the The Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD) network that aims to identify and share contemporary and innovative practices in teaching, learning, research and knowledge exchange in the fields of arts, design and visual culture education. One of the activities of the ASAD is the Living in the Landscape (LiLa) summer school that is organised annually. LiLa series aims to bring together MA and PhD students and scholars from different disciplines and circumpolar higher-education institutions to develop culture-sensitive and sustainable research on the sociocultural landscapes of the Arctic region.