Nordic Youth Symposium 2023, 6th October, Oslo, Norway. Photo by Katrine Eltvik.
I am the project coordinator of PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board: a group of young people working within PUBLICS to implement, question and expand our activities. This collaborative position is a year-long education and employment opportunity for 18-21 year olds.
During their tenure, the Youth Board explore the different practices, languages, and roles they encounter in the art field. In collaboration with local and international professionals, they redefine these notions according to their hopes, needs, and aspirations. PUBLICS and the Youth Board work together on creating a generous space of learning, for the members as much as for our organisation. Addressing questions of access, voice, participation, among others, PUBLICS Youth build the tools to carry their voices as they navigate contemporary culture and art.
Having established the first PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board in 2022, PUBLICS aims at widening access to the creative field for young people in Helsinki and in the Nordic region at large. PUBLICS Youth partners with the Teen Advisory Boards of Index Foundation (Stockholm) and PRAKSIS (Oslo) as part of the Future Futures network which brings together the three youth groups to share their on-going work and experience.
Get to know the work of the Youth Advisory Board 2023.
In 2023, the Board explores and questions how to cohabit the space of an organisation, especially focusing on communication through sound, voice, and written and spoken words. The activity is part of the project Reaching Out (2023-2026) with PRAKSIS and Index Teen Advisory Boards (Oslo and Stockholm). Reaching Out addresses how cultural organisations can connect with new young audiences.
We hosted the Nordic Youth Symposium 2023: Sounding Out! Voicing the new institution, on October 6th 2023, at Tøyen Library, Oslo, Norway. The Board performed Dear Friend, Letter for Nine Voices, a collective message to art institutions, their peer young adults, their younger and future selves, inviting new forms of mutual support, self-expression, engagement and listening.
Access PODCASTS & PUBLICATIONS produced by the Advisory Boards here!
PUBLICS Youth 2022 produced a two-episodes podcast discussing playfulness and togetherness as tools for communal access to contemporary culture and early-career education.
On October 7th 2023, I led a workshop at Fotografihuset (Oslo, Norway) during which twenty Board members have written and recorded audio descriptions for the exhibition All the Whisperings of the World, 22.9.-22.10.2023.
PUBLICS Youth 2023 has been live on Helsinki Open Waves on December 7th 2023. The show is available online in the new year.
Read more about PUBLICS Youth on our website, and follow @publics_youth.
Workshop The Voice as Practice with Harold Offeh, OPEN UP European Network. Credit: Noora Lehtovuori.
Today is Our Tomorrow Festival 2022, PUBLICS, Helsinki. Photo: Aman Askarizad.
Nordic Youth Symposium 2023, 6th October, Oslo, Norway. Photo by Katrine Eltvik.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA COVERAGE RELATED TO THE PROJECT
'Geographies of Resistance' Out of the Library reading list, PUBLICS, Helsinki, Finland. November 2023.
'Forward, Afterword', in The Voice that Remains, edited Paul O'Neill (PUBLICS, Helsinki and Lugemik, Tallinn, 2023).
K103 Göteborg Student Radio, Shining Star - Special Edition Open Up EU, radio podcast, 6th November 2023, hosted and edited by Nada Alichiah. I was offered the position of project coordinator after an internship in the months of April, May and June 2022. During that time, I have assisted the organization of the SHAPE and Open Up Helsinki Symposium, and of PUBLICS general programme.
In May 2022, I hosted the curators in residence of the Curatorial Program for Research CPR22.
PUBLICS is a curatorial agency, event space and library in Vallila, Helsinki. Established in 2017 by Paul O'Neill (2017-present), Eliisa Suvanto (2017-2022) and Annabelle Antas (2023-present), PUBLICS has since adopted a collaborative model that explores critical social thinking, contemporary art and publicness. The result is an evolving and co-organized institution. PUBLICS is currently run by artistic director Paul O'Neill and program manager Annabelle Antas.