RELATE NORTH (12): New Genre Arctic Art Education at The University of Lapland 4 -7. Nov, 2024

The Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design thematic network (ASAD) is inviting proposals for the network’s twelfth annual symposium and exhibition, Relate North: New Genre Arctic Art Education. The event is a collaboration between the ASAD network and the University of Lapland. The ASAD Network aims to identify and share innovative practices in learning, teaching, research and knowledge exchange across art, art, design and visual culture education. The network promotes cooperation and collaboration between academic institutions and communities to work towards a shared understanding of critical issues relevant to people living in the North. 
 

​​​IMPORTANT DATES  

  • Submission of proposals/abstracts: 20. May, 2024 
  • Contributors will be notified: 7. June, 2024 
  • Registration opens: 5. August, 2024 
  • Registration deadline: 5. September, 2024 
  • Registration/Pre-symposium and Opening of the Exhibitions: 4. November, 2024 at 18.00, Faculty of Art and Design. 
  • Symposium/exhibitions: 5.-7. November, 2024 at the University of Lapland 
  • The exhibitions are shown until: 21. November, 2024. 

Location

The Relate North Symposium & Exhibitions will be held at The University of Lapland, Faculty of Art and Design, in Rovaniemi, Finland. We invite applicants to submit papers, workshops, panels or art works. The exhibition call is open to artists and designers in any media in traditional and contemporary art & design, in addition to presentations of community-based work, environmental art, or art education projects.  

 

Every year, the Relate North Symposium & Exhibition attracts leading scholars and artists from around the circumpolar North to present research and debate issues of concern and interest for the Arctic and Subarctic regions through the lens of art and design. ASAD investigates questions such as: How might design practices respond to some of the challenges faced by those living in northern and Arctic areas today? What role might art play in chronicling and communicating issues that are important to people in the North? How might the visual arts represent a northern sense of place? This year specifically we are asking: what ​​New Genre Arctic Art (Jokela et al. 2021) represents today in the Arctic, and what kinds of educational and social responses are called for during our current times of entangled transitions? How can this new genre – or indeed multiple new genres – of art help us to think through the wider issues that are relevant to the contemporary moment in the North? 

 Face-to-face and online

The event will primarily be arranged  face-to-face, but some sessions will be conducted online. Keynote presentations will be streamed, while certain parallel sessions will be held exclusively in person. Exhibitions will be presented both in person and as part of an art catalogue, which will also be published online. Event is based on participation fee for all present and the fee will be announced later. 

SYMPOSIUM THEME: New Genre Arctic Art Education

In the contemporary moment, we are currently witnessing a series of rapid eco-social changes in the Arctic that concern “green” energy transitions, natural resource prospecting and extraction, new national security alliances and an increase in military activity, expanding tourism and mobility infrastructures, and a warmer, wetter climate due to the effects of global warming. ​​Development in new technologies and the now widespread use of artificial intelligence has been altering our perceptions of media validity, stretching the tensions between creativity and automation in our everyday lives. All of these changes are affecting our politics, cultures, economies, and our relations with the rest of nature. During such periods of flux, what can New Genre Arctic Art do to help us better understand and make visible the close-up realities of local communities in the Arctic? Where do Indigenous voices, together with non-Indigenous perspectives, find common ground on social and environmental issues, to ensure that art and education can perform positive transformative, inter-generational actions in our societies? And how can sustainable transitions be imagined when we consider the entanglement of the circumpolar North with the rest of the planet? 

 

Relate North (12): New Genre Arctic Art Education aims to foster critical discussion and share experiences between our networked partners. The ASAD network is a unique opportunity to bring institutions in the Arctic region together to discuss, problematise and explore global and local issues highlighted by the symposium theme. The symposium is open for personal investigations as well as collaborative proposals, through the following sub-themes: 1) ​​New Materialism, Entanglements, and Intra-disciplinary Dialogues in Art Education 2) ​​Ecocultures and Transformative Art and Design and 3) ​​Sustainable Transitions in the Arctic 

​​​New Materialism, Entanglements, and Intra-disciplinary Dialogues in Art Education 

In response to New Materialist thinking which challenge traditional hierarchies, power relations, and pedagogical strategies, what new approaches and recuperative initiatives are needed across and between disciplines in research and art education? How do we ensure such dialogues are reciprocal in nature, acknowledging our entangled multispecies, technological, and intergenerational relations in Arctic settings? The theme includes formal, informal and non-formal art education and pedagogical turn of art. 

 

​​​Ecocultures and Transformative Art and Design 

The recent decades have seen profound pedagogical and ecological turns in artistic practice and art education that can be framed in response to ongoing ecological crises and the rapid changes happening in our Arctic environments. This sub theme deals with the transformative potential of art and design in our societies to help us understand, adapt, create, and repair relations with the places and ecocultures we inhabit. 

 

​​​Sustainable Transitions in the Arctic 

Transitions and rapid changes in technology, industries, energy, politics, media, and the climate, as well as the short and long-term effects of armed conflicts around the world, are each and all interconnected and shaping the global order of the contemporary moment. Where and how are these changes felt most strongly in the Arctic? What would a truly sustainable transition look like in the North, and who gets to decide how this is implemented? How can Indigenous voices be heard in this conversation? And what kind of transition are we really looking for when we speak about these themes in art, design and art education research?  

SUBMISSIONS

ARTWORK SUBMISSIONS 

The Relate North Exhibition is an opportunity to showcase artworks, collaborative, community, or arts-education projects from across the circumpolar Arctic that align with the symposium and exhibition theme: New Genre Arctic Art Education. Applicants can choose to exhibit the final artwork or some result of a process/project (sketches, drafts etc). In the exhibition catalogue each applicant has the opportunity to present the project in more detail and elaborate on its context. ​​The exhibition is limited to 1 work or educational project per applicant, but we encourage 2 or 3 alternative artworks to be presented in each submission, if they each relate to the theme of the call and can be described using a common artist statement (see below). Each applicant is responsible for transporting the artwork to and from the symposium. 

 

Artwork submissions must include: 

  • Title, medium, year, and dimensions 
  • Artist name(s): in the order in which you wish them to appear in the printed text 
  • Contact information: please include institutional affiliations, contact details including email, and website 
  • Artist bio (150 words max) 
  • Artist Statement (150 words max): Please describe the work and explain how the work relates to the theme. This statement is vital and will be used in the exhibition catalogue. If the artist’s statement is missing, the application will not be considered.  
  • Up to three (3) photos of each work you are proposing. Photos must be print quality, as they will be used for the exhibition catalogue (resolution 300 dpi, jpg format, file size max 8Mb). If you do not supply images at high resolution, your application may not be considered.  

If your work is video based, please send us an embeddable link. Please ensure that we have all the info needed to access files (passwords, file share permissions, etc).  

​​​Delivery of the artworks will be discussed with the curators well in advance.  

Artworks requiring mounting or installation, as well as all digital artworks, must be delivered to the University by 31. October, 2024, and artists are responsible for installing themselves, in dialogue with the curators. Artworks that require less demanding installation must be handed to the curators by 4. Nov, 12:00, at the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland. 

Curators of the exhibition are Maria Huhmarniemi and Neil Cahoon.

Submission form: https://forms.gle/vGkjU1wjRX79YiRt7 

 

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS 

Presentation 15 min + 5 min for questions 

For the symposium we welcome abstracts for research papers: 

  • That investigate and respond to Northern or Arctic issues of New Genre Arctic Art Education through art, craft or design 
  • That describe projects or case studies exemplary of circumpolar collaboration (examples include land-based educational projects, Indigenous arts and cultural revitalization programming, collaborations between community-led arts-based researchers and scientists) 
  • That align with the symposium and exhibition theme: New Genre Arctic Art Education or one of the sub-themes. 

Abstract submissions must include 

  • Title of presentation 
  • Abstract (150 words) 
  • Author name(s), in the order in which you wish them to appear in the printed text 
  • Short biography (100 words max). Please include affiliations, contact details including email, and website.  

Abstract submission: https://forms.gle/5mKkvP75LEFyXkMn7   

WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS 

Workshop timeframe: 1,5-2 hours 

We invite you to submit proposals for a workshop in any area related to the theme of the symposium, New Genre Arctic Art Education. Workshops on challenging, emerging areas related to the symposium topics are especially sought. We particularly encourage proposals for highly interactive and collaborative workshops that focus on starting lively discussions to foster new ideas and gather feedback (rather than just defending the presented work). This applies to workshops that test new research questions, methods, analyses, perspectives, data material, or new research opportunities. Applicants are responsible for bringing and providing the necessary materials. 

Workshop submissions must include: 

  • Title + topic and content of workshop 
  • The purpose of the workshop that you are offering. (150 words) 
  • Maximum number of participants. 
  • Need for space, location and set-up. 
  •  Short biography (100 words max). Please include affiliations, contact details including email, and website.  

Submission form:

https://forms.gle/VEqUzTA1u7z9T7jX7 

PANEL SUBMISSIONS 

Panel timeframe: 1 hour 

Panels are a forum for discussing provocative, innovative, emerging, and boundary-spanning topics. While paper sessions provide detailed discussions of recently completed work, panels provide an opportunity to hear from researchers in our field converse about what is already here but not yet recognised, acknowledged, or discussed. Panels bring together several disciplines, methods, or approaches into a productive conversation, and typically represent a diversity of individuals, who can bring multiple perspectives to the topic.  

We encourage those submitting to reach out to prospective panellists from across the ASAD network. A panel session builds on a theme and is proposed and planned by the panel organiser. The panel focuses on a common theme that is introduced in the beginning. The panel needs a chair (often the panel organiser) and one or more panel participants, who are prepared to discuss the theme. The symposium organisers decide how many panels are feasible at the symposium. The panel organiser is responsible for submitting the panel proposal including all the following elements: 

Panel submissions must include: 

  • Title + topic and content of panel 
  • Panellist names and affiliations 
  • Panel abstract (up to 300 words) describing topic, questions, and panellist contributions as well as panel format.  

Panel submission: https://forms.gle/TX2YcDGaJsrb4Q2S9 

The symposium will take place: 

​​​University of Lapland, Yliopistonkatu 8, 96300 Rovaniemi, Finland 

Questions regarding Relate North (12) should be sent to:  Maria Huhmarniemi: maria.huhmarniemi (at) ulapland.fi 

RELATE NORTH (12) ORGANISING COMMITTEE 

 
Main organisers: 

​​​Timo Jokela, Professor of Art Education, Faculty of Art & Design and University of Lapland. Chair of Thematic Network of Arctic Sustainable Arts & Design 

Mirja Hiltunen, Professor, Docent, Head of Department of Art Education, Faculty of Art & Design and University of Lapland. Leader of the Northern Art, Community and Environment Research Group. 

Maria Huhmarniemi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Art & Design and University of Lapland. Member of the Northern Art, Community and Environment Research Group. 

Neal Cahoon, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences and University of Lapland. Member of the Intra-living in the Anthropocene Research Group.