Off-Summit Programming

Relate North: Show and Tell
Project Space, Umeå Institute of Design, Arts Campus
17 June 2026
13.00-15.00

The Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design network (ASAD) will host Relate North—its annual symposium and exhibition—under the theme Land, Power, Art. Presented in collaboration with Umeå University, UmArts, and the University of Lapland, this event advances ASAD’s commitment to fostering innovative approaches to learning, teaching, research, and knowledge exchange in art, design, and visual culture. Through fostering collaboration between academic institutions and northern communities, the network seeks to deepen understanding of critical issues shaping life in the Arctic and the circumpolar North.

This side event—Relate North: Show and Tell—will present artistic works and research posters in a dynamic, pop-up art exhibition format. Instead of a traditional gallery environment or the traditional presentation format, the event unfolds in an open, conversational space designed to support informal encounters and shared reflection. Artists and researchers will be present with their works, offering participants direct access to the creative processes, questions, and embodied knowledge that shape their practices. This format highlights how art and artistic research generate situated and relational understandings of northern experiences, cultures, and landscapes — often through subtle but meaningful micro-changes that emerge through participation, dialogue, and iterative making. By bringing diverse practices into a shared, interactive setting, the session encourages spontaneous dialogue and fosters new connections between makers, viewers, and communities. Relate North: Show and Tell celebrates artistic creation as a form of knowledge that is open-ended, process-driven, and grounded in relationships to land and place.

Aligning with the AAS theme “Land, power, art,” the session focuses on micro-level changes emerging from participatory, community-driven art and design research, as well as innovations in art and design education across the North. Each year, Relate North brings together leading scholars, artists, and designers from across the Arctic to examine urgent questions through creative and research-based practices. The symposium and art exhibition explore how art and design respond to the challenges facing northern and Arctic communities: How can art or design practices engage with relationships to land and address the power dynamics shaping resilience and adaptation in northern communities? In what ways does art reveal, question, or reconfigure the power structures embedded in northern landscapes, histories, and cultural narratives? How might art express the entanglement of Land, identity, and authority, and help articulate diverse northern senses of place?
The event will be followed by a fika and Teaching Art in the Arctic.

Presenting Posters
Nicole Klenk, Helene Day Fraser, Emily Carr, Sarah-Anne Thompson, Suvi Autio, Aidan Moesby, Hanna Olafsdottir, Mette Gårdvik, Wenche Sørmo, Karin Stoll, Ann Kristin Klaussen, Timo Jokela, Fernanda Jasmin Guimarães, Karen Ross, Lisa Nyberg, Malla Alatalo, Roxane Permar, Dr Siún Carden, Helen Garbett, Olga Shirokostup, Ekaterina Sharova, and Johanna Ruotsalainen.

Artists
Olga Kisseleva, Michelle Calcatelli, Mirja Hiltunen, Korinna Korsström-Magga, Ante Jalvela, Nicole Klenk, Helene Day Fraser, Emily Carr, Sarah-Anne Thompson, Suvi Autio, Mari Keski-Korsu, Eija Mäkivuoti, Niko Väistö, Ruth Beer, Emily Carr, Hanna Olafsdottir, Mette Gårdvik, Wenche Sørmo, Karin Stoll, Ann Kristin Klaussen, Timo Jokela, Lotta Lundstedt, Sara Rylander, Isabelle Desjeux, Lena Lundstedt Syversen, Stina Back, Lars Lundstedt, Johan Ahlner, Lisa Ahlner, Klara Ahlner, Torun Lundstedt, Tyra Rylander, Annie Bergström, Nina Mattsson, Roxane Permar, Dr Siún Carden, Helen Garbett, Polly Blake, Ni Lin, Brogan Davison, and Pétur Ármannsson.