DAY 3 Workshops

How nature helps me to find creativity; some every day exercises to keep up with your own artwork. Ruska ensemble’s Artistic director Ari-Pekka Lahti, a biologist and a playwright, shares his own experiences and methods in a few hour workshop where participants spend some time in the forest close to Rovaniemi. The participants meet the workshop instructor in front of in the lobby of the Faculty of Art and Design in the University of Lapland. Maximum 20 participants, at 10:10 am. Participants should get equipped with weatherproof clothes and good shoes suitable for walking in the nature. The workshop is open for everybody but pre-registration is need by email: ruskaensemble @ gmail.com

Ari-Pekka Lahti is a Finnish playwright and theatre director, awarded by the State Prize for Dramatic Arts of Finland in 2012. He has an several-years-experience of international cooperations in the field of theatre. He has worked as Artistic Director of Ruska Ensemble, the theatre group doing performing art across the Arctic. During the last years he has been looking for ways to express ecological issues by performing art. The closest to his heart in the Arctic has been working together with indigenous peoples, like the Khanty, the Inuit and the Sámi. Ruska Ensemble has tried to improve cultural communication between native peoples and the majority by shared performance projects. As one of the main points of interest, he mentions stories told and documented by people themselves.

´Art in Nature` workshop is guided by visual artist and art teacher Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir from Iceland who is currently studying at University of Lapland. Sigrún works as a visual artist and teacher are intuitive and connect with mother nature and connected to the place each time. Participants get to experience reconnection with nature through art making. Materials are already given by nature and the practice is instructed by Sigrún. The workshop will take about 90 minutes overall and it starts 5th of June 1:30 pm in the lobby of the Faculty of Art and Design in the University of Lapland. This workshop if open for anybody to participate, but please let us know if you will join the workshop by email runa85 @ gmail.com by 25th of May.

Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir has graduated with B.A Fine Art from Iceland Academy of the Arts. She is intermedia artist who works with photography, painting and performance. She has exhibited locally and internationally in Scotland, Poland, Turkey and Foroe Islandss. She is studying master in Art Education  and writing her thesis about outdoor teaching in the University of Lapland.