New Book Highlights the Remarkable Life’s Work of Professor Timo Jokela
A book celebrating the 70th birthday of Professor Timo Jokela has been published. Written by Jokela’s colleagues from the University of Lapland and the UArctic network, the volume is illustrated with his artworks spanning from his early years to the present day.
How can art generate knowledge? How do places, communities, and materials shape learning? And what role can art play in the future of Arctic regions?
Professor Emeritus Timo Jokela has spent his career exploring these questions. To celebrate his 70th birthday, a new festschrift has been published, bringing together the key themes and impacts of his life’s work. The volume examines Jokela’s significance as an artist, researcher, educator, builder of research communities, and interpreter of northern cultures.
The book highlights how Jokela’s work has made a decisive contribution to the development of Art-Based Action Research, place-based art education, and Arctic art and its scholarship in Finland and internationally. The book also emphasises his long-standing work as an artist as well as his role in building research communities and international networks.
The volume has been edited by Maria Huhmarniemi and Mirja Hiltunen, Professors of Art Education at the University of Lapland, who have collaborated with Timo Jokela for decades.
“It is difficult to overstate Timo Jokela’s significance in Finnish art education research. His work has brought together art, research, and pedagogy in ways that have influenced several generations of scholars both in Finland and internationally. Through this book, we wanted to make visible not only his scholarly contributions but also the communal legacy that continues to thrive in research groups, networks, and new research initiatives,” says editor Professor Maria Huhmarniemi.
Jokela’s work has been deeply rooted in northern environments and communities. His research and artistic practice have highlighted the distinctive cultures, environmental relationships, and ways of knowing that characterise northern regions.
“In Timo’s work, the North is a way of understanding the relationships between people, communities, and environments. He has demonstrated how art can simultaneously serve as a means of learning, research, social participation, and cultural renewal. This way of thinking has left a lasting mark on the University of Lapland, the villages of Kittilä along the River Ounasjoki, and international networks alike,” notes Professor Mirja Hiltunen, co-editor of the volume.
Contributors to the book include Jokela’s colleagues from the University of Lapland and the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD) network. The chapters address topics such as Art-Based Action Research, place-based art education, community art, Arctic art, and the development of research communities.
The volume also offers a perspective on the development of art education, artistic research, and Arctic art over recent decades. It is richly illustrated with a selection of Timo Jokela’s artworks and photographs documenting his artistic practice, including installations, environmental art, winter art, and public art. Many of these works have previously been exhibited around the world, yet this is the first time they have been brought together in a book dedicated to his life’s work.
The book for Timo Jokela’s 70th Birthday demonstrates how the committed work of a single researcher, artist, and educator can have a lasting influence both within local communities and across international scholarly fields, and how that influence continues through new generations of researchers, expanding research networks, and emerging artistic initiatives.
Huhmarniemi, M. & Hiltunen, M. (Eds.). Timo Jokela: Taiteilija, tutkija, opettaja / Timo Jokela: Artist, Researcher, Teacher. Lapin yliopiston taiteiden tiedekunta. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-574-1