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The congress of the International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA), hosted by the Aalto University Department of Art, will concentrate on European and global issues around art education and its connections to societal and scientific topics.

In the congress, the art educational interventions with science and technology are combined with overlapping themes on societal issues, such as diversity and cultural changes. The special interest is in changing European and global issues that will touch questions both of the human and nonhuman. Many of the congress presentations will discuss migration or environmental issues.

“During the congress, we will have many opportunities to explore, discuss, witness and enjoy how art and art education can make interventions and perhaps impact society, through an interaction with science and technology. Aalto University has world-renowned experience on interdisciplinary collaboration, so we are happy to share that”, says Mira Kallio-Tavin, Associate Professor of Art-based Research and Pedagogy in Aalto University. 

Keynote speakers include Professor in Art Education Tyson E. Lewis from the University of North Texas, USA, Finnish visual artist Terike Haapoja and Professor in Art Education Helena Sederholm from Aalto University. Lewis researches themes that are usually deemed abnormal, deficient, or counterproductive to educational life: he hopes to redeem the missed potentiality found within marginal concepts such as distraction, ignorance, stupidity, and impotentiality. Haapoja has investigated human relationship to the nonhuman world and how mechanics of othering operate in the society. Sederholm is focusing on contemporary art and intersections between art and science, especially art and science education.

New congress format and variety of art exhibitions
 
The congress format has been remodelled: the different submission formats offer room for new ideas to appear among art educators, teachers, artists, museum pedagogues, curators, project workers and researchers.
 
“The congress format offers innovation to InSEA events. It is my personal hope that this new format will inspire also our other events”, says the President of the International Society for Education through Art Teresa Torres de Eca. 

An important part of the congress is the cultural and social program. Art exhibitions of children and the young, students and conference participants are spread across all the gallery spaces on the Aalto University Otaniemi campus. The rich interdisciplinary environment of the campus, originally designed by Alvar Aalto, can be visited individually or through multiple guided campus tours. 

The curated exhibition "Dark Days, White Nights" refers to both the seasonally varying light conditions in Finland and to the ongoing changes in the world. Another exhibition, "Paths mine and taken by others", presents student artworks made at many levels of Finnish schooling. The works combine the themes of the congress: arts and science, climate change, cultural migration and diversity.

“Through art education schoolchildren will exercise a way of thinking that is combining knowledge with sensitivity and reflection with imagination. This may foster creativity as well as an ethical attitude of the authors of future developments – in art, in science, technology, business and other fields”, says Carl-Peter Buschkühle, President of the European Regional Council of InSEA.

The Patron of the congress is the former President of Finland Tarja Halonen.

InSEA is a non-governmental organization and official partner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is a worldwide association of those concerned with education through art. InSEA has almost one thousand members in 70 countries. It cherishes diversity and promotes education through art.

For more information:

Associate Professor of Art-based Research and Pedagogy Mira Kallio-Tavin, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Tel. + 358 50 3442082, mira.kallio-tavin@aalto.fi

Student coordinator Allen Damzel Centina, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, allen.centina@aalto.fi