The Thematic Networks Year in Review one‑pagers present the achievements, progress, and impact achieved across the thematic networks during the past 12 months, along with an outlook on the priorities and planned activities for the year ahead. Find all the Reviews here.
In 2025, the Arctic Sustainable Arts & Design Thematic Network strengthened its position as an internationally connected platform for Arctic art and design education, research, and mobility. Through collaborative research projects, experimental educational initiatives, interdisciplinary summer schools, and targeted entrepreneurship development in the arts, the network advanced culturally grounded, ecologically responsible, and socially responsive approaches to creative practice in northern regions. Publications, mobility schemes, and Special Interest Group activities further deepened partnerships across the circumpolar North and beyond, reinforcing ASAD’s role in fostering sustainable transformations through art and design.
Projects
- Lessons of the Land: New Genre Arctic Art and Land-Based Learning strengthens collaboration between Canadian and Scandinavian universities within the ASAD network and advances shared approaches to art education in addressing Arctic ecological, social, and cultural challenges. It is led by Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in partnership with the University of Lapland, Umeå University, Nord University, and Yukon University.
- MAST – Making Knowledge for Sustainable Transformations, a NordForsk networking project led by Aalto University, brings together Umeå University, Sámi University of Applied Sciences, and Aalborg University to explore Indigenous and art-and-design knowing-through-making.
- Art for Arctic Business and Micro Courses for Arctic Art Businesses, involving Nord University, University of Lapland, and University of Akureyri, develop collaborative models linking arts education and business training within the UArctic framework.
- Northern Connections – Engaging young people in rural Arctic societies in building sustainability across borders project brings researchers together from three universities in Norway, Finland, and Shetland (Nord Universitet Nesna Campus, University of Lapland) and UHI Shetland) to work with young people from remote and rural schools through arts, technology and science-based activities, online and in real life.
Educational Development and Activities
- The Nomadic Hub on New Genre Arctic Art Education (AAE) camped in Narsaq, Greenland, in spring 2025, bringing together teacher educators, doctoral researchers, and students to engage with Greenlandic lifeways and schooling. The initiative, developed by ASAD and Children of the Arctic, promotes culturally, socially, and ecologically sustainable art education in rapidly changing northern regions.
- The Living in the Landscape (LiLa) summer school gathered for its sixth edition in 2025, combining online sessions with an onsite programme in Nesna, Norway, hosted by Nord University, and accompanied by an exhibition and catalogue.
- In the Advanced Business Planning course at Nord University Business School (Bodø), art and business students from Finland, Norway, and Iceland collaborated on business plans for art-as-a-service initiatives as part of the Art for Arctic Business project.
- Lessons of the Land: New Genre Arctic Art and Land-Based Learning generated community-based activities across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Canada, advancing land-based learning within art and design.
Publications
- ASAD members published actively on Arctic art and design-related themes, also reflecting on activities carried out by the network. The following books and journal thematic issues include contributions from network members:
- Relate North: Lessons of the Land, edited and published by InSEA Publications;
- Artistic Dialogues with the Arctic North: Environmental Change and Identity in Transition, edited by Antonia Sohns and published by Routledge;
- Education in the North, Volume 32(3), Arctic Futures: Innovations in Education for Social Justice and Sustainability.
- The New Genre Arctic Art Education website presents visual essays, videos, and exhibition documentation showcasing 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 environments.
Collaborations Enhanced by Mobilities
- The Design Special Interest Group, led by Cindy Kohtala, has been activated. In 2025, several members advanced plans for visits, guest lectures, and joint courses, particularly among institutions in Sweden, Scotland, and Canada.
- The Visual Art Education Special Interest Group, led by Hanna Ólafsdóttir, has continued its active role in developing Arctic Art Education for both formal and informal educational contexts at all levels of education, from early childhood to upper secondary and higher education.
Our plans for 2026
In 2026 we will continue working for serveral ongoing projects and forthcoming publications. The third MAST workshop will be hosted by Umeå Institute of Design in June 2026. Design SIG aims to organize several open drop-in calls so that ASAD members with focus on design can get to know each other. We will also participate in the Art Art Forum in Oslo in March and Arctic Arts Summit in June in Umeå.