Ruth Beer is a Professor in the Faculty of Art and Director of ACE (Art/Culture/Environment) Research Studio at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC. She is an artist focused on research-creation and interdisciplinary approaches to artistic practice. Her production of multi-media artworks includes sculpture, video, photography, sound and weaving. She is the recipient of several public art commissions and is the principal investigator for “Trading Routes: Grease Trails, Oil Pipelines”, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) supported research-creation project that addresses landscape and communities in relation to the interwoven terrain of traditional Aboriginal trading routes, and an ever-expanding network of oil and gas pipelines throughout British Columbia. Other projects include “The Hidden Cost of Supply Chains” (UBC) and Feminist Energy Futures (U of Alberta) with Canadian and international colleagues.

Francesca Du Brock, chief curator at the Anchorage Museum, is focused on developing socially-engaged projects and exhibitions that reflect the diversity of people living in the North. Bilingualism, visual literacy, immigration, food culture, and Indigenous representation have been topics of recent exhibitions, projects and programming. Prior to joining the Anchorage Museum, Francesca worked at Kurimanzutto, a contemporary art gallery in Mexico City, and as an arts educator in San Francisco, Boston, and Alaska. She is fluent in Spanish and brings a passion for learning from, and through the arts to her current work. She holds a B.A. in Art History from Bowdoin College, a M.F.A. from the San Francisco Arts Institute, and a M.Ed. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

Tanya Kravtsov was born in Southern-West Siberia, Russia. Her artistic education and practice vary from visual arts to product design and ceramics. Three years ago she has moved to Rovaniemi for her Master’s Degree in Arctic Art and Design at the University of Lapland. During the studies she participated in various environmental and community art projects and workshops in Northern Finland, Norway, and Russia, which helped her to discover and learn the Arctic with its cultural, environmental and social specificities. Connection with nature, traditional handicrafts and work with natural materials are in the basis of her artistic practice.

Sabina Westerholm is the director of the Nordic House in Reykjavík, an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers. She is an art historian and has previously worked for several years as director for the Finland Swedish foundation Stiftelsen Pro Artibus. Her primary focus on Pro Artibus was on establishing programs in art education and public art project management and on artists’ rights to reasonable compensation for their work. She wants the Nordic House in Reykjavík to be an inclusive and neutral platform for a multidimensional discussion about relevant Nordic topics through both contemporary art and science. 

Fine Arts Education in a global world - belonging, place, space and politics. In the field of higher artistic education and research we talk about "artistic processes and methods" and the "artistic foundation".  What do we mean with this and are there different perspectives on the questions depending on were we are in the world ? Is there a perspective and an understanding in the geographical periphery, outside so-called cultural centers and how does this then affect artistic education that is in this periphery? Does the education in these environments require other strategies and there are other aspects and opportunities that we must develop depending on where we are in the world?  When you begin ask yourself these questions  you will inevitable touch upon questions regarding internationalization and its relation to quality, cultural policy and how artists training is forced into facing and responding to traditions and contemporary politics.

Micael Norberg is an artist and the Deputy Head of Department at the Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå University. He has been teaching fine art on an Academic level since 1996. He is an experienced teacher at both basic- and advanced level with a broad knowledge within the fields of contemporary art. Educated at at the Academy of Fine Art in Trondheim, Norway, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunst in Den Haag, Holland and the Academy of Fine Arts in Umeå Sweden in early 90’s. Micael Norberg is in his artistic work exploring his close surrounding and subjects close to his person. His work and methods could be seen as documentary and his artistic work is often limited within a specific time, space and place. His artistic work has its foundation in time-based media, text and photography. Micael Norberg is based in Umeå, Sweden.

Trond Ansten is a visual artist and biologist based in Tromsø, Northern Norway. He received his education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe (Germany), and previously studied biology and expedition guiding. With experience from public management and a strong passion for hunting, fishing and harvesting, his focus is the relation between man and nature. Ansten works with film, installation, fermentation and performance art. The expression is sculptural and performative, balancing between mysticism and science in relational art. His works are shown in galleries and film festivals such as Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, The Arctic Arts Festival (Norway), CCA gallery (Glasgow), Anthology Film Archives (New York), I-Factory (Shenzhen, China), Trænafestivalen (Norway), Delai Filmfestival (Moscow) and Alternative Film Festival (Belgrade).

Kalle Lampela was born, lives and works in Rovaniemi, Lapland, in Northern Finland. His artistic practice is based on research and visual interpretations on social and ideological issues that include power and utopia, especially in imagery of real socialism. Lampela´s primary visualising medium is drawing. In performative drawing processes he utilises bodily gestures, gravity and rotation and uncontrollable movements of self-made inventions and power tools. In 2012 Mr. Lampela earned a Ph.D. from Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland. The doctoral dissertation addressed attitudes visual artists take toward utilizing art socially and economically, and addressed the question whether art has a socio-critical function. Kalle Lampela currently teaches and does research in the arts as a university lecturer in fine arts at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland.

Simi Susanna Ruotsalainen (MA) is media-artist and photographer from Rovaniemi, Finland. Their main medium is video art, especially combining photography with drawn animation. Written or spoken words and several simultanious interpretations interest them as the source of audiovisual expression. Ruotsalainen's art is often related in Northern and Arctic areas, environmental issues and feminism. Ruotsalainen is currently finishing their second Master's degree in University of Lapland.

Hanna Horsberg Hansen is a Norwegian art historian. Currently, she holds a position as associate professor at The Academy of Arts at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She is teaching art history and art theory, and she is responsible for the Norwegian artistic research programme at her institution. Her research has focused upon Sami art from the last forty years and the frictions between Sami art and art-history. Traditionally, art-history as a western, Eurocentric idea, have systematically marginalized and excluded art production from an indigenous people as the Sami. To write about Sami art as a modernization project or as avant-garde, rather than primitivistic, non-modern or a hybrid between tradition and modernity, create frictions between Sami art and art historical discourses. These frictions, in turn have created new understandings of Sami art.

This panel focuses on questions of accessibility, inclusion and equality especially in the context of arts and cultural education. We approach these questions first by investigating educational and cultural policies, most of which claim that these are widely accepted aims that regulate the providing of services in the field of arts and cultural education education. Then, we present different cases that depict the reality that is often far from the policy documents aim for. The constant struggle for decreasing resources, short term projects, changing circumstances make the practice of arts and cultural education short-termed, and unpredictable. The Finnish Observatory for Arts and Cultural Education seeks to reinforce the equal accessibility and effectiveness of arts and cultural education and to improve the social status and appreciation of the field. Its top priority is children’s and young people’s arts and cultural education. Another objective is to promote lifelong learning and arts and cultural education intended for various age and target groups. The Observatory collects, analyses, interprets and disseminates information on the practices and policies in the field of arts and cultural education in Finland. 

Mirja Hiltunen (DA, MEd ) is professor of Art Education in the Faculty of Art and design, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, adjunct professor in University of Oulu on Community-based art education. She 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. Site-specificity, performativity, social engaged art and art education constitute her key research interests. She presented numerous international research papers and published widely in art education journals, books and art exhibitions. She is, with professors Timo Jokela, and Glen Coutts, the leader of Northern Art, Community and Environment Research group (NACER). (https://nacerteam.weebly.com/), the founding member of the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design Network (ASAD) (https://www.asadnetwork.org/) and a member of the Artists Association of Lapland.

Anniina Suominen is a Professor of Art Pedagogy at Aalto University and the Head of Education for the Department of Art. She earned her BA/MA from the University of Arts and Design Helsinki (1999) and her Ph.D. in Art Education from The Ohio State University (2003). Her current publications and presentations focus on marginalized and crisis areas arts education, environmental concerns, feminism and queer in art education pedagogy and policy, animal and immigrant rights as part of contemporary democratic societies and visual/artistic knowing, learning, and research.

Dr. Courtnie Wolfgang is an assistant professor in the Department of Art Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (USA) and a member of the VCU Open Minds faculty. Her research and teaching foci include intersections of anti-racist, post/feminist, and queer theories with arts pedagogies; community-engaged pedagogies; and justice-oriented Arts Education practices. Recent publication sites include Visual Arts Research, Studies in Art Education, The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, Art Education, and the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education. Her chapter "Teacher preparation during an epidemic of mass incarceration: The challenge and hope of arts and education" appears in Critical Articulations of Hope from the Margins of Art Education (2019) edited by Eeva Anttila and Anniina Suominen. Recent and ongoing projects include collaborative arts-based workshops with adolescent girls in juvenile arbitration, development of arts courses for incarcerated adults at the city jail in Richmond, Virginia, the Performing Statistics curriculum, The Service of Art Ed, and Queering Art Ed.

Tatiana Batova is working in the Murmansk Arctic State University. She has been designer in the advertising Department of a commercial trade-holding. 2010-2015 and te curator of the creative space and art-gallery "Svetoten", Murmansk. In 2012-2015 she worked as lecturer at the branch of St. Petersburg industrial and economic College. She has expertise in Northern design, Arctic art and design, new pedagogical technologies, calligraphy and lettering, self-development, search for ways of self-realization, ethno-culture, environmental design, urbanism, lend-art, fashion design.

Svetlana Kravchenko, Head of the Department for Architecture, Design and Decorative Art, Professor (Nizhnevartovsk State University, Russia), Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (PhD), Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Honored Worker of Culture of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Area – Yugra, Member of the Russian Union of Artists, Member of the Russian Union of Designers. A graduate of the Faculty of Arts and Graphics of Arkalyk State Pedagogical Institute named after I. Altynsarin (Kazakhstan), Sveltana Kravchenko combines teaching, research activities and creative work, specializing in artistic weaving and textile design. As a researcher and designer, she takes an active part in various research conferences, exhibitions and competitions both at national and international levels.

Elina Waage Mikalsen is an artist and musician from Tromsø, currently resident in Oslo. In 2015 she was nominated for the Young Artists of the Year at the Indigenous Festival Riddu Riđđu. The spring of 2017 she completed her bachelor in contemporary art at Nordland Art and Film Collage, under the Academy of Fine Arts in Tromsø. She has since then worked independently as an artist, exhibited and taken part of discourses related to the indigenous art-scene and curating practices. 

Sardana Savvina (indigenous/Sakha). Savvina is born in the village Verkhnevilyusk in Western Yakutia, The Republic Sakha, Russia. She is producer, promoter of Sakha cinema and researcher in film studies. Savina is the founder and leader of the "Sakha Cinema Club" – Yakutia's Independent Filmmakers' Community. Savvina has promoted and distributed many indigenous Sakha films at different international film festivals. For 13 years she worked at the Arctic State Institute of Culture & Arts as a lecturer and the head of International Office. She has worked as programmer of four editions of Yakutsk International Film Festival (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). She is thea dvisor of NATIVe Section of the Berlinale IFF and coordinator of Special Program in Focus - "Sakha Cinema: World of Magical Nature and Myths" (Busan IFF, 2017, Korea). Currently she works as a producer at National Company “Sakhafilm” and at the International Department at ‘Olonkho’ Ethnic Theater.

Anniina Turunen is a teacher in duodji (Sámi Arts and Crafts) at the Sámi Education Institute. She graduated in 2017 at the University of Lapland majoring in textiles and design. In her Master’s thesis she studied “silki”, a scarf worn by Sámi women in her region. Anniina’s heart is in duodji. She finds duodji as the language between past and future generations both in her educational work and in her artistic work. Duodji isn’t just beautiful handmade items, it’s a way of life and survival, part of locality and a whole. Currently besides teaching Anniina Turunen is focusing on making duodji including an artistic approach to the issues her culture is facing.

The panel will explore through case studies in  Northern Scandinavia (Finland) and Northern Canada (Nunavut and Yukon) the role arts education can take in advancing  Indigenous  and non-indigenous cultural revitalization and the ongoing work of reconciliation.

Michele Emslie is currently the Director of  Programming  at the  Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon. Michele is passionate about serving the needs of the Canadian Northern arts community and is currently working on developing a Northern Presenting Network called N3. Over the past 25 years she has worked with a variety of performing and visual arts events and organizations on national and international initiatives. She has also been involved with many ground-breaking projects  for Northern artists and cultural workers alike. She currently serves as President of the Canadian Arts Presentation Association (CAPACOA).

Mary Bradshaw is the Director of Visual Arts at the Yukon Arts Centre, where she feels her most important role is to bridge the gap between the public and contemporary art in the North. Her enthusiasm for, and training in, art education and museum studies has led her to various cultural administration roles in artist run centres, public art institutions and a national sporting event. Certain that opening crates is one the most underrated tasks in the Gallery, she always jumps at the chance to peer inside at the treasures. She has a MA in Museum and Gallery Studies from the University of Newcastle, UK and interned at Tate Britain. Mary has been on the Sobey Art Award Curatorial Jury Panel, awarded volunteer of the year for her work organizing the Canadian Museums Assoc National Conference in Whitehorse and is Secretary for the Friends of the Gallery Society for the Yukon Permanent Art Collection.

Ellen is the Executive Director of Qaggiavuut, a non-profit society dedicated to strengthening the Inuit performing arts through training, space and creative opportunities. Qaggiavuut is leading a campaign to build the Qaggiq Hub, a performing arts and cultural learning space in Iqaluit. She founded the Qaggiq School of Performing Arts which won the Arctic Inspiration Prize in 2015 for its artist training initiative. Ellen has a 40-year career as an arts educator, community activist, writer, director, producer and musician. She has been awarded the International Spirit of Folk Award, the Order of Nunavut and the Order of Canada for her work to strengthen the arts in Nunavut.

The Arctic circumstance of long distances, multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-cultural realities call for some special attention to arts management. The big private and public customers who buy art and share fundings are often located in centers in the South, outside of the Arctic. How can we get recognised by them? Do artists need to move South to establish networks and their career, or can art managers and digital channels support their career in the North? Is it possible to establish regional art markets in Arctic regions where the maker's culture is strong and audiences might not be used to buying arts and crafts from artists? Should managers collaborate with the tourism industry to support the market? What can managers do to avoid the exoticism of Arctic cultures? In this session we discuss the need for art management in the Arctic and ponder how managers could be supported by life-long learning programs and practices.

Annika Dahlsten is an Art Advisor at Development Programme for Artistic Expertise and Mediation in Arts Promotion Centre in Finland. Her work aims to expand the possibilities for artistic creativity and expertise in a sustainable way. She is a visual artist and internationally awarded animation director. Her artistic practice is interdisplinary and research-based and she uses several mediums such as photography, video, animation and printmaking. Her works have been exhibited widely both in Finland and internationally in exhibitions and festivals.

Marie Fol is mentoring artists of the Artists Association of Lapland (Finland). She serves as board member of On the Move, the cultural mobility information network active in Europe and beyond. Until November 2018, she managed the team Mobility & Advice at DutchCulture, centre for international cooperation. In this capacity, she was also head of the Creative Europe Desk NL. In the past, Marie was managing editor of TransArtists.org , the knowledge centre on artist-in-residence guide worldwide (2012-2016). Her areas of expertise lay in international mobility of artists and cultural professionals - including visa policies and administrative issues, as well as artist-in-residence programmes and related policies. She co-authored the operational study “Mobility Scheme for Artists and Culture Professionals in Creative Europe countries” (2019).

Petteri Putkinen is one of the founders and the CEO of Artorio Ltd. Artorio designs and produces digital platforms for arts and culture organisations. Artorio's goal is to create new channels for art to be found. Before Artorio Petteri worked over six years as a regional artist in the Arts Promotion Center of Finland TAIKE. During TAIKE he combined his experience in digital design with his growing knowledge of artists’ profession. That started many of the ideas of the products that Artorio is now developing. Petteri has also a long career on the digital concept design and 3D graphics studios. He is specialized in re-thinking possibilities of digital tools while keeping the true value of art in the focus. Artorio’s clients include Amos Rex, Union of Finnish Art Associations, The Artists' Association of Finland and major public art projects.