Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design Welcomes You to the 13th Relate North Symposium
The 13th Annual Relate North Symposium will take place online under the theme Lessons of the Land. The event is open to all and free to attend on November 3rd and 4th, 2025.
This free two-day symposium brings together artists and designers, arts-based educators, knowledge keepers, researchers, and scholars from across the circumpolar North to share Indigenous art, Indigenous Land-Based Education, and approaches to land-based arts and education more broadly. The symposium focuses on art, design, craft, and education in the North—including the Arctic and near-Arctic regions.
The event is organized by a team of faculty, alumni, and graduate students from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador: Dr. Heather McLeod, Anne Pickard, and Madeline Kennedy.
The symposium is part of the project Lessons of the Land: New Genre Arctic Art and Land-Based Learning. The project’s overarching goal is to strengthen cooperation and partnerships between Canadian and Scandinavian universities within the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD). ASAD encompasses 28 institutions in the fields of art, design, and visual culture education. The network carries out activities that integrate Indigenous and traditional knowledge with contemporary academic practices. This collaboration draws on Canada’s expertise in northern Indigenous cultures and fosters a shared understanding of art education’s role in addressing ecological, social, and cultural challenges in the Arctic.
The project is coordinated by Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in collaboration with the University of Lapland, Umeå University, Nord University, and Yukon University.
The symposium will take place on November 3rd and 4th, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Newfoundland Standard Time). Please note that you need to register separately for each day.
Registration:
Please note that you need to register for each day separately.
Registration links:
Nov 3rd: https://lnkd.in/dGWuTWMD
Nov 4th: https://nkd.in/d-7Fhcx7
Memorial University’s Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development has awarded $ 40 000 funding for the project from the Global Arctic Leadership Initiative Fund for Indigenous and Northern Collaborative Research and Education Engagement.
For more information and the detailed program, please visit the ASAD website.