Experimenting witc arctic social phenomena: a multicultural workshop model

This chapter reports on experiences from an intensive course focused on fostering the discussion of social issues in the Arctic through the creation of art and design solutions. This course was carried out as a weeklong workshop in Murmansk in November 2014. The course was organized by the University of Lapland’s Faculty of Art and Design in co-operation with Murmansk State Humanities University, both members of Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design Thematic Network of University of Arctic. During this course, students examined social phenomena of the Arctic territory from the perspectives of service design, graphic design, photography, video, textile design and fine arts. The course was funded by CIMO (Centre for International Mobility) from its FIRST-ARTSMO programme, which supports the student and instructor exchange between Finland and Russia. The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the educational field in the form of a Multicultural Workshop Model (MWM). The chapter first reports on how the theme of the course and created model are in connection to wider arctic discussion. In the second part it presents the experiences of the instructors and students of the course and workshop. As the multicultural workshop model is based on these experiences and happenings, next the model is presented. Finally, the chapter concludes with lessons learned and conclusions. A case study approach (Yin, 2014, pp. 9–15; Eriksson & Koistinen, 2005, pp. 4–5) was used as a research strategy for investigating the course and its outcomes. This method of study was especially useful because of its flexibility and focus on the practical point of view. Case orientation allowed students to introduce and encounter new and unexpected results together. This lead to cultural collaboration through which their cases developed much further from the initial expectations. The MWM is an attempt to visualize and explain the complexity that happens in courses where students and instructors from different cultural and educational backgrounds come together to work around a mutual topic. As the course was planned and realized in 2014 a need for a mutual framework emerged. The model is a proposal to enhance multicultural conversation in art and design studies: offering methods and possibilities to express the local culture and identity, and the dialectics between cultures. The model was created through the practical design case of planning and running the ARTSMO course.