Artist Linda Lewis discusses artist’s role in the modern market. Professor A. Fuat Firat (University of Texas-Pan American focuses on the connections between art and modern market.

Lecturer Maria Huhmarniemi (University of Lapland) speaks about art as activism in the North while Researcher Francis Joy introduces how Sámi culture and history are used in the tourist industry in Lapland.

The seminar will be held on Thursday, June 13 from 10 am to 2 pm at the University of Lapland, Lecture Hall 16 (ULapland Main Campus, Yliopistonkatu 8, Rovaniemi). It is free of charge and open to everyone interested.

The seminar is organized in collaboration with the University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Aalto University School of Business, Department of Communication.


Programme

10:00-10:15	Opening and welcoming words, Prof. Anu Valtonen, University of Lapland
10:15-11:00	The artist in the modern market, Artist, MA Linda Lewis, U.S
11:00-11:45	Art as activism in the North, Lecturer Maria Huhmarniemi, University of Lapland
	Chair Prof. Anu Valtonen
11:45-12:30	Lunch
12:30-13:15	Art and the Modern Market, Prof. A. Fuat Firat, University of Texas-Pan American
13:15-14:00	Selling Sámi culture and history to the tourist industry in Lapland, Researcher Francis Joy, Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland
	Chair Prof. Johanna Moisa

Further information:
Dr Anu Valtonen
Professor of Marketing
University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences
Tel. +358 40 525 0849
anu.valtonen (at) ulapland.fi

Key note speakers:

Linda Lewis received a Master of Fine Arts in 1997 from Arizona State University, USA. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and a Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship. She has an extensive exhibition record that includes national and international juried exhibitions. She has had solo exhibitions at Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, TX, the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas, the University of Arizona and Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, among others. Her work has been included in international juried exhibitions in Australia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, England, France, Italy, and Romania, and national exhibitions throughout the United States. Lewis has had articles and reviews published in the Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts and American Craft. She currently owns and directs Santa Anita Gallery in McAllen, Texas and writes for her art blog Hidalgo Art Online and Olé Decor Magazine.

Maria Huhmarniemi is a lecturer in University of Lapland, Faculty of Art and Design. In her work as a visual artist, she engages with questions concerning the North, multiculturalism and community as well as environmental issues such as the relationship between people and nature and environmental responsibility. She makes use of old objects and textiles in her artworks, as well as recycled and natural materials. Research and art are intertwined in her work. The theme of her ongoing research for doctoral studies is integration of art, science and activism.

A. Fuat Fırat is professor of marketing at the University of Texas—Pan American and Aalto Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Department of Communication at Aalto University School of Business. He completed his Ph.D. degree in marketing at Northwestern University. His research interests cover areas such as macro consumer behavior and macromarketing; postmodern culture; brands and branding; transmodern marketing strategies; gender and consumption; marketing and development; and interorganizational relations. His has won the Journal of Macromarketing Charles Slater Award for best article with co-author N. Dholakia, the Journal of Consumer Research best article award with co-author A. Venkatesh, and the Corporate Communications: An International Journal top ranked paper award with co-authors L.T. Christensen and J. Cornelissen. He has published several books including Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption, co-authored by N. Dholakia, and is the founding editor of Consumption, Markets & Culture.

Francis Joy, originally from Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, is currently a PhD student at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland Arctic Centre. Francis, who has a background in religious studies and history, will bring his contribution to the seminar by combining the themes of religion, and religious experience expressed through Sámi shaman drum symbolism which has been cultivated through extensive research into Sámi history, cultural practices and history in northern Scandinavia. The presentation introduces a number of reproductions of the artwork on old Sámi shaman drums from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Lapland, which were used by Sámi shamans for divination, healing and fortune-telling, as well as new inventions, which are marketed to souvenir shops and the tourist industry throughout Finland. Francis has had several scholarly articles published concerning Sámi shamanism, cultural history and religion.