Fair Sculpture

Fair Sculpture encourages and helps empower children and young people, with a focus on young people who have fewer opportunities to engage with different kinds of art and culture.

Fair Sculpture

About Fair Sculpture

Fair Sculpture is an inter-generational and multidisciplinary artistic community project consisting of two branches, in which participation is free for participants. One branch is a weekly afternoon school for children and young people in the facilities of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Theatre Academy in Helsinki (Sörnäinen Campus). The other is a residency branch, where artists are invited to hold an art residency in a school outside of Helsinki.

Weekly afternoon school

In the spring of 2024, the Fair Sculpture project is involved in a pilot of cultural education model for secondary schools in the city of Espoo. The aim is to strengthen creativity and learning. A group of young people from secondary and vocational schools in Espoo will participate in a weekly art afternoon at Mylly. Aura Kotkavirta is the responsible teacher of the group.

From January 2022 until May, kids from Eastern Helsinki  from Kontula Art School (KAS!) joined the Fair Sculpture project. They worked on a weekly base at Uniarts Sörnäinen Campus facilities.

Artist residency

In the Fair Sculpture artist residency, the resident artist works at a school, not as a teacher or other usual member of school staff, but as a professional artist. The project aims to empower kids and young people from different backgrounds. The focus is to give exposure to school children who do not normally have the opportunity to meet professional artists and encounter different kinds of cultural events as well as give the participating artists opportunities to work and create in a vivid learning environment.

Essi Pitkänen and Daniela Pascual Esparza worked at the residency of Joutsa during spring 2023. The call for autumn residency 2024 is open for Academy of Fine Arts alumni from 21 May 2024 until 5 June 2024.

Funding

Both branches of Fair Sculpture are funded by the Talent Boost funds to run pilot-projects. 

With the help of Talent Boost funding, Fair Sculpture was able to pay all teachers and other experts staff involved, metro tickets, materials and food and drinks. The project also got huge support by sculpture students, who for the weekly afternoon school gave space in the workshops so the kids and youngsters could work there. 

Project name

Fair Sculpture

Time

01/2022

Funder

Talent Boost

Team

  • Oliver Backmann, sculpture technician
  • Andy Best, Professor in Sculpture, Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts
  • Frank Brümmel, Lecturer in Sculpture, doctoral student, Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts
  • Heidi Hänninen, artist, doctoral student, Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts
  • Tero Nauha, Professor Live Art and Performance Studies, Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy
  • Arlene Tucker, artist, diversity agent
  • Vesa Rahikainen, sculpture technician
  • Kim Jotuni, sculpture technician
  • Aura Kotkavirta, Part-time teacher, Sculpture
  • Students of Uniarts Academy of Fine Arts´ Sculpture subject area

 

Collaborators

Kontula Art School (KAS!)
Joutsan yhtenäiskoulu

Espoo culture team, City of Espoo

Lead organisation

Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts 

Contact

Frank Brümmel, frank.brummel@uniarts.fi