Departments of Art and Design

This book presents a series of essays and reports on the topic of Applied Visual Arts. Broadly speaking, this territory of contemporary arts focuses on community-based and socially engaged art. Authors include academics, artists, curators and postgraduate students who share a commitment to advancing the cause of context sensitive art, research and education. The anthology will be of interest to a wide audience including, for example, artists, social scientists, community activists and educators. Organised in five sections; Contexts, Tradition to Contemporary, AVA in Public Places, Community Engagement and AVA in Education, the book offers readers a wide range of perspectives into Applied Visual Arts, cool indeed! The main aim of this publication is to promote debate about contemporary applied visual art as it relates to the North. The volume was produced as part of the Applied Visual Arts (AVA) project funded by the Centre for the Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. Organised jointly by the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland and Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences, the AVA project was as part of the Institute for Northern Culture. The aims, theoretical foundations, methods and results of the Master of Arts degree program in AVA at the University of Lapland (2011-13) are introduced. This new degree program aims to respond to the challenges posed by the changing needs of higher education, regional business, internationalisation and contemporary art in addition to the socio-cultural situation in the North. The program seeks to produce multi-skilled arts professionals with the ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders. In addition, they will be able to participate seamlessly in diverse development initiatives. AVA should not be seen as synonymous with already established professions such as graphic design, architecture and interior design. Among other things, the interaction between science and art, environmental engineering, tourism, and the public, social and health care sectors are potential spheres of operation.

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What should be the purpose of contemporary art at the beginning of the 21st century? What sort of training should art schools and universities provide? Apart from aesthetic and cultural contributions, is there potential for artists contribute to the economic and social life of a community? Is the sort of training that most professors of art received (probably in the 20th century) still ‘fit for purpose’ in the 21st century? In short, what should be the key features of a good training in art? These big, fundamental, questions were central to the thinking of the planning team that developed new types of training in art and art education at the University of Lapland in the first two decades of this century. A multidisciplinary group, comprising artists, designers, filmmakers and art education specialists set about devising a completely new programme with an emphasis on developing the social and economic potential of contemporary art.