The article will introduce the art-based action research method and the practices and knowledge gained in the fields of art and design education, taking into account contemporary art’s situational, contextual and communal nature. The method is collaboratively created and developed by a small group of artists, educators and researchers with the participation of the students in the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland to guide the next generation of art and design education scholars. The method, as part of art education and applied visual arts Master’s and Doctoral theses, takes into account the university’s northern circumstances and special features. The article discusses the relevance of the engaging participatory art parallel to developing the art-based research method in visual art education. The article also seeks to introduce a new perspective to the discussion about research in art universities.

Abstract:Crafting sustainability is discussed here with respect to the dimensions of handcraft traditions in contemporary art for promoting cultural sustainability in the Scandinavian North. Aspects of decolonization, cultural revitalisation, and intergenerational dialogue form an integral part of the negotiations around the need for cultural survival and renewal for a more sustainable future. These dimensions should also be considered in the development of the current education of art teachers. Learning traditional skills and applying them in contemporary art constitute an influential method when striving for cultural sustainability. This study examines three handcraft-based contemporary art cases through art-based action research conducted in the Finnish and the Swedish Lapland. The results show that handcraft-based contemporary art practices with place-specific intergenerational and intercultural approaches create an open space for dialogue where the values and the perceptions on cultural heritage can be negotiated.Keywords: sustainable culture; cultural sustainability; art education for sustainability; informal education Handcraft and Art as Catalysts for Cultural SustainabilityIn the University of Lapland, long-term action research has been conducted to support the sustainable development of the Arctic though place-specific artistic activities in remote regions [1][2][3]. This is in line with the rising interest in rewriting the forgotten cultural history of the Finnish Lapland [4,5] and with the growing interest in using the arts as a representation of the North [6,7]. Finding solutions to both regional and cultural challenges requires sensitive approaches, expertise in various disciplines, collaborative research, communality, and international cooperation. The questions are tightly connected to cultural identities, which in turn, are often constructed through art. Art is invariably the renewing and the strengthening element of cultures [1].This article discusses how recreating old handcraft traditions with contemporary art methods both revitalizes and reconstructs culture. While following the traditions of artistic research and action research, the authors aim to promote the use of handcraft while researching it. Cultural sustainability is examined through cultural continuation, reconstruction, and locality in the context of the Finnish Lapland. These aspects of cultural sustainability are linked to strengthening cultural identity [8], cultural revitalisation [9], and decolonization [10] of small northern communities through place-specific approaches [1,11]. As art educators, the authors also discuss cultural sustainability through educational aspects, and the research setting is in informal education that takes place in rural villages and small communities in northern Finland and elsewhere in the Arctic. The authors argue that learning traditional skills and applying them in contemporary art comprise an influential method when striving for cultural sustainability. Dessein et al. [12] discuss eco-culture ...

This article introduces an international and interdisciplinary summer school, ‘Living in the Landscape’ (LiLa) in 2018. LiLa's practices focused on creating dialogue among art education, anthropology and nature science and developing culturally sustainable methods for investigating cultural heritage in the Komi Republic of Russia. The article's research interest is how dialogue and cultural heritage appear in the artistic processes, artworks and final exhibition of the summer school. These are examined through art‐based action research in order to develop international, multidisciplinary and culturally sustainable art education. The four‐field model utilised in the research highlights the multidimensional role of dialogue in both individual and collaborative artistic endeavours.

In this article, I will discuss what a place-based approach in art education means for cultural understanding and culturally sustainable work in the context of the Nordic Arctic. I will approach and reflect these themes through art-based action research of the place-based art course “Our Arctic” that I organized with my colleagues at the University of Lapland in Spring 2017. The aim of the course in which art education and art students participated was to use artistic methods to collect and map the local school pupils’ perceptions of their lives in the Arctic and share these as a collective narrative in the form of a video art installation in an international exhibition. The approaches used in the course aimed to create knowledge that is locally and collaboratively produced and, in the process, also to see one’s own stance and cultural interpretations related to the Arctic.

is a Lecturer in Art Education working at the University of Lapland. She has also coordinated the international Master's programme of Arctic Art and Design and supervised several students' community art projects in small villages in the Finnish Lapland. Her research interest is in cultural sustainability in art educational practices.