Our projects

This Fulbright-supported research aims to better understand the experiences of children and young people with Finland's Model for Leisure Activities (HSM) and to highlight possible gaps or missed opportunities that children and youth from marginalized groups may encounter.

The aim of Pilvi Porkola's research is to consider how performance art is taught and what social dimensions performance art teachers see in their work.

Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik explores women piano teachers, intersectionality, and the gendered power structures of musical life in Helsinki and Tallinn between 1861 and 1924.

DMus Anne Elisabeth Piirainen, in cooperation with pianist DMus Kirill Kozlovski examine stylistic peculiarities in the compositions of the Krein family, analysing this neglected repertoire to the backdrop of the cultural development within the Soviet Union.

The project aims to create a seamless integration of acoustic and electronic sound into a single instrumental entity.

Academy of Finland Key Project by Otso Lähdeoja, targets the development of pioneering audio applications combining structure-borne sound and sensor technology into a set of Active Acoustic Objects at the interface of the material and the digital.

The research examines Aino Ackté’s and Heikki Renvall’s correspondence.

Alexandria Nova network explored what the art of directing is and how it is taught. It was formed by seven study programmes of directing of different countries together with their partners.

Follow the exceptional opera collaboration between Uniarts Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy and the USC Thornton School of Music.

Chris Evans' and Magnus Quaife's project seeks to discover trans-geographical entanglements between education, geo-economic circumstances, cultural conditions, and communities through which alterity has been articulated and dissent enacted.

ArsADAPT creates new approaches to music studies and musician's work by integrating the sustainable future agenda and related research into artistic work.

The development and research initiative aims to bring art and artistic thinking more strongly into the crucial conversation on technology, alongside scientific and technological perspectives.

Marjatta Oja's research project (2018-2023) explores the empowerment of the artist.

The collaborative and multidisciplinary course between Theatre Academy and Aalto University has been organised every other year since 1994.

In her artistic research (2014-2021), Mari Martin makes art in urban environments in collaboration with others, while reflecting on and testing the concept of dialogue.

Artistic Doctorates in Europe: Third cycle provision in Dance and Performance (ADiE) project is investigating Practice as Research (PaR) inquiries within research level degrees in Dance and Performance.

Timothy Smith's study seeks to learn about the neurodiversity experience of students’ engagement with artistic thinking within their artistic processes.

ARTWORK aims to expand the field of work for artists and raise increased awareness of the use of artistic methods for strengthening education and social initiatives.

Research project (2015-2018) by Christina Linsenmeyer focuses on the canonization of Stradivari violins.

The project aims to build artistic research methods to examine Extractivism and ecology.

The project researches rhythm, performance and emotions in Finnish military training and capoeira for refugees.

Research project (2020-2021) by Miriam Jakob and Jana Unmüßig explores breathing in choreography.

Colloquium on Artistic Research in the Performing Arts CARPA is a biennial colloquium aimed at addressing the problems and possibilities of artistic research, particularly those involving the performing arts.

The research concentrates on a correspondence that reveals points of view on the conventions of opera culture.

In this project, Dr. Guadalupe López-Íñiguez seeks to support children gifted for music internationally, so that they can live as agentic and healthy individuals while pursuing desirable educational outcomes in caring ecosystems.

Chromatic Noise: Mnemopolitics and Autochrome Witnesses is a practice-led research on the historicity and materiality of digital image production in an analogue production environment. From early 20th century archival photographs of the Middle East / Minor Asia / Mesopotamian region, AI-generated memory images are created and set into motion, to critically investigate whether those can represent lost or hidden histories and related memories.

The project funded by Kone Foundation (2021-2024) strengthens polyphony of urban space and thereby develops a more just city.

The research is about the challenges that classically-trained musicians faced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and Latin America.

Towards Systems Thinking in European Music Institutions

The research project addresses neglected aspects of the music culture of Prague.

The project aims to renew archival research by interacting with discussions on cultural heritage and memory studies, developing the use of folklore materials, creating new community-based methods and considering the ethical responsibilities of archive-based scientific research and artistic activity.

Elina Saloranta's artistic research examines Finnish singer Elli Forssell.

Creative Dialogue is an international workshop for young instrumentalist and composers to learn new repertoire and experience the creative dialogue between music and its performers.

Research project (2018-) directed by Marja-Leena Juntunen examines issues related to the implementation of the music core curricula in Basic Education and Basic Education in the Arts.

Watch online projects by master’s degree students of Dance Performance and Choreography.

The postdoctoral project continues Vincent Roumagnac's artistic research on re-ecologizing theatre.

Anu Koskinen's project investigates who, how, and why individuals are selected to study acting at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.

The project explores the computational generation of dialogue for radio drama.

The Digital Literature Project (di.ki) aims to increase knowledge about digital literature and to support creation of new works of art.

Diversity of Music Heritage in Finland focuses on heritagisation of music in Finland with emphasis on ethnicity and intergenerational relations.

EDUCase Higher Education Platform for Global Sustainability aimed to establish a platform for interdisciplinary collaborative arts projects that bring together artists and art professionals in Finland, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics (EcoPolitics) interrogates the knowledge gap between music educators’ professional self-awareness in music education and their civic responsibilities as professionals in an age of uncertainty, eco-crises, and systemic ‘wicked problems’.

ELLA is a research project (2021-2024) funded by Kone foundation which investigates how embodied language learning through the arts may generate substantial change within communities.

Simo Kellokumpu's research project explores how AI alters embodied artistic practices and performance.

Research project (2017-2020) by Kirsi Heimonen investigates different aspects of memories.

The Equity in Composing project (2019-) aims to reduce gender-based occupational segregation and to advance equal opportunities for participation in the field.

The research project investigates and develops artistic, technological and social prospects for participatory electronic sound arts that take place outdoors.

The multidisciplinary and multi-methods research addresses the dramatic effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the entire classical music industry and educational field.

The project's research objectives are to challenge the status quo of music teacher education in Norway, and to develop innovative and collaborative practices that could foster students’ collaborative, critical and democratic capacities.

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.

FAST45 investigates alternative futures for institutions of higher arts education in Europe.

The research investigates speculative and epistemological conjunctions between art and finance, and how financial logic has increased its relevance in the non-financial context of the arts.

Magnus Quaife's project sets out to develop a deeper understanding of how and why artists teach in the ways they do, to share these approaches through various means, and to foster communities of practice.

A pedagogic research project exploring the socially innovative capacities of contextual / site-responsive art practice in the Nordic and Pan-African contexts.

We coordinate a network of universities promoting multidisciplinary research.

Aino Kuokkanen researches the history of the Finnish National Ballet.

Folk_ME - Folk Music Education for Future Generations is an innovative education project, what targets public education.

Timo Heino's research project "Food" explores food from different perspectives.

The research project lead by Peter Peitsalo explores Finnish organ art.

"Forgotten Bagpipes - The Redesign of the Säkkipilli in Finland" aims at rebuilding the musical instrument and reviving the Finnish Piping tradition

The project aims to shed more light on the points of convergence between the French art historian Georges Didi-Huberman and French phenomenology.

The research project by Heidi Partti creates an international network of music teacher educators and a hybrid space for reflection and planning.

An activist music research project that uses a zero-carbon performance stage for music and other performances.

Luis Guerra's project explores collective artistic practices as informal devices of intentionless learning, radical democracy, and institutional activism.

Shutterspeed is a "radio play" album created in collaboration with the Porttiteatteri and the Global Music Department of Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.

The research project funded by the Academy of Finland (2015 - 2020) creates an international network of music teacher educators and a hybrid space for reflection and planning.

Lea Kantonen researches the arts of indeginous people in Mexico. Grabando al caminar -project took place 2017-2018 and was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

This research project examines the experiences of church musicians from the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on the Greatest Christmas Carols -events.

The aim of the research project is to develop artist pedagogy and to subversively and horizontally alter the silo structures of the art university curricula.

Health, Narrative and the Arts offers training in narrative skills for professionals in healthcare and social work.

The overarching aim of this inter-cultural academic collaboration is to challenge academic ableism in higher education.

An inclusive arts education project gives children and young people the opportunity to compose for symphony orchestra instruments with the support of professional artists.

What can be done with performance? What actualises when a performance takes place, when it is documented, and when it is written about?

The project intends to define our sonic environments as sonic commons.

InChoir investigates how inclusive choral practices are developed, sustained, and understood across different European contexts, and how they can contribute to more equitable and socially sustainable cultural and educational environments.

The development project's goal is to examine how the infrastructures in the field of visual arts influence the success of professional artists in Finland.

Degree programmes in lighting and sound design develop teaching curricula and learning environments by researching different intersections and phenomena within contemporary performance.

A long-term partnership with the Saastamoinen Foundation offers international opportunities for students and alumni of Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts.

The Sibelius Academy and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland develop their orchestra education together on several levels.

Academy Research Fellow Otso Lähdeoja's research objective for the project (2018-2023) is to provide tools for a technologically augmented connection between musicians.

The artistic research project explores the process of generating historically informed, contemporary folk music

In this project Sibelius Academy teachers visit music institutions all over Finland. The purpose is to support young people's music hobbies.

The project examines kantele improvisation within the Finnish-Karelian runosong culture, its various manifestations in its original context, and its possibilities and dimensions in modern times.

The project intends to develop, implement and evaluate a creative, person-centered approach as well as enhance cultural and artistic practices in vocational education and geriatric care in order to change the care culture in Swedish Finland in the long term.

In our international project, young musicians develop their leadership and communication skills as orchestral players with professionals.

This project examines learning and teaching environments in the three academies of the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Reflective writing courses at Uniarts Helsinki aim to foster narrative competence among social work and healthcare professionals. This research project investigates professionals’ assumptions of narrative competence, their experiences of course participation and evaluates how the learning objectives for the courses are met.

The research project examines correspondence between the years 1899 and 1936.

Research project by Esa Kirkkopelto outlines a theory of the performing body.

MAGICS is a joint effort of six Finnish universities – Aalto University, Tampere University, University of the Arts Helsinki, University of Lapland, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and University of Jyväskylä – to form a network of infrastructures to accelerate research into human experience in the digital world.

The research project deepens the understanding of the connections and histories between the material world and art, develops ecological material practices for artistic work, and outlines new ways of thinking about the lifecycle and recycling of art materials.

Although we are often accused of “not seeing the forest for the trees”, this project wants to look at the opposite danger, not seeing the trees for the forest, and focus on individual trees.

The collaboration between Uniarts Helsinki and Metsähallitus brings art programme to Vallisaari – an island open for the public.

The research project by Nuppu Koivisto examines female musicians.

The project promotes the mobility of African and Finnish writing students, researchers and teachers.

Research project by Kaarina Kilpiö explores sound elements in cinema.

The research project aims to examine the growing number of participatory music-making activities being offered to marginilized groups.

Meri Herrala's research project examines musician's role in the Cold War.

The project examines the consequences of totalitarianism for people and music communities through research and art (music), with a special focus on the Holocaust and Russian/Soviet totalitarianism, which has taken on new forms in the 2020s.

The research project by Juha Torvinen examines the significance of music to our general ecological awareness.

The national vision projects for arts education explore what the future of Finnish arts education will be like on different educational levels.

Jan-Erik Andersson's artistic research discusses different theories of space, place and spatiality.

The project supports young children’s musical development at the early stages of their hobby with the help of families and pedagogue professionals.

The platform supports Nordic educational exchange and collaboration in the field of choreography. It is part of the annual studies of the master's programme in choreography. The implementation of the studies varies from year to year.

An association of artists and researchers who foster cooperation between arts and academia in the Nordic-Baltic region by implementing a transdisciplinary research-creation cluster, and disseminating its practices through a series of events, workshops, and publications.

The research project explores how university collections – such as pressed plants, geological samples, medical tools, zoological specimens – are not only scientific evidence but also cultural artefacts bearing social histories, colonial legacies, and ecological change. These materials are reframed through curatorial practice.

The project organises exploratory workshops on how olfactory phenomena structure people’s everyday life and how they are conceptualised and made meaningful. The workshops are funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

A cooperation between Uniarts Helsinki and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos as part of the Finland Africa Platform for Innovation.

The Erasmus+ strategic partnership developed a pedagogical approach and framework of “imaginative dialogues”. This pedagogy takes the (potential) tension between incompatible differences as a productive and engaging starting point in order to open up a dialogical ‘third space’ between them.

The project aims to expand the notion of the political in music professionalism by advancing eco-artistic imagination and transformative systems thinking within higher music education.

The artistic research project develops and specifies the question how to perform landscape today.

Through curating a diversity of disciplinary viewpoints, the goal of Planthology is to foster a broader ecological understanding of plant and human relationships.

Research project (2015-2017) stretches the collaboration between art and science.

The research project by Liisamaija Hautsalo explores Finnish opera in the context of the core value of Finnish society, equality.

How to develop ways of recognizing and engaging with the subjectivity of life forms such as trees, which we tend to consider as wholly ‘other’?

The research project examines the truthfulness of the photographic image.

In her artistic research Denise Ziegler creates a prototype of future from a present situation.

The reconstruction programme supports the structural renewal, employment and impact growth of the arts sector through competence development, research and experimental activities.

Veijo Murtomäki's second topic of the research outlines the political connections of Central European composers in the 19th century as well as those of the Finnish music scene.

REACT will mobilise a knowledge-creating international cooperative network to develop a new pedagogical model for higher education institutions and to help musicians meet the challenges of working life.

A development and research project exploring how the performing arts could be integrated as part of the learning environments of comprehensive schools and pre-primary education. The project is funded by the SKAPA fund of the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.

The programme complements our regular bachelor’s and master’s studies by inviting artists representing the highest level of their fields.

In summer 2019, the Sibelius Summer Academy offered three high-class events in June and August.

Arts Management @ Sibelius Summer Academy is a four-day international course of lectures, practical work and discussions.

In 2021 the Sibelius Academy offered five Summer courses by the Sibelius Academy, faculty and international guest teachers.

Sibelius Summer Academy was a summer study program for young talents.

Research project (2015-) by Kirsi Heimonen, Petri Kaverma and Anu Vehviläinen

Structure-borne sound can be used to transform the entire performance venue into a macro-scale resonant “instrument”.

Research project (2020-2022) by Susanna Hast and Maryam Bagheri Nesami develops artistic proposals for resistance and reparation of damage while testing the boundaries of self expression without overt exposure.

SAAR provides a supportive setting where artist-researchers from all fields collaborate, present their on-going artistic work, and research and receive feedback from experienced tutors and peers from leading academic art institutions.

The project examines music education practices in Lyon model and Finnish research on institutional social innovations and systems analysis.

The project aims to decolonize art and museology in order to to recover the art and knowledge of Indigenous communities.

Heli Reimann's research project focuses on the history of jazz festival Tallinn 67.

Terra-Performing is a multi-disciplinary research project that investigates Extractivism by Intelligent Performance methods.

Artistic research by Satu Olkkonen focuses on events and public performances.

The research project by Johanna Lecklin focuses on the position of authority of the artist.

The Arts & Health Collective, by WHO and partner organisations, stimulates interdisciplinary dialogue to identify best practices in and disseminate actionable policy advice on the implementation of arts and health interventions that are socially nuanced, culturally sensitive, and people-centred.

The research initiative funded by the Academy of Finland's Strategic Research Council (2015 - 2021) explores how the arts can meet the social challenges of the 2020s.

Research project by Lynda Gaudreau seeks performance, choreography, and physical and perceptual space.

Music researcher Markus Mantere examines musical life in Tampere.

The research project outlines the culture of piano playing, its history, conventions and its musical heritage.

In this artistic research (2015-) Petri Kaverma explores death by building a coffin.

A project on migration in South Ostrobothnia, Ostrobothnia and Central Ostrobothnia, combining music and artistic activities.

Assi Karttunen's research project examines musical gestures.

The project seeks to reinforce the equal accessibility and effectiveness of arts and cultural education and to improve the social status and appreciation of the field.

The Research Pavilion, an ongoing project hosted by Uniarts Helsinki, highlights the points of view of artistic research.

The project is an inquiry through aurally-informed aesthetic research practices into the collective emergence of sense.

This research project (2019-2022) by Tuulikki Laes explores music learning and performing as ways of promoting ageing identities.

Luis Guerra's research project (2019-2020) addresses Deligny’s thinking as a performative philosophy, i.e. a philosophy in action.

A collective of second year master's students in dance performance and a platform for their thesis projects.

Three Times a Decade is both a media art project, and a study about the practices of the internet culture, namely about the video blogs.

The goal of this research project is to develop new ways of teaching and learning that prepare students for diverse, flexible careers. The project contributes to a more collaborative and innovative arts education system in Finland and beyond.

The research project led by Dr. Guadalupe López-Íñiguez aims at renewing learning and performance practices in classical music.

The project's interdisciplinary research aims to enhance systemic understanding of how gender equality can be promoted in Nepal's evolving music culture.

The study lead by Vesa Kurkela examines musical activity in the four biggest cities in Finland in the first four decades of the 20th century.

The research project aims to understand how artistic professionalism is understood and embodied by staff and students on the MFA and the factors that shape whether students feel confident that they can pursue careers as professional artists.

The UniArts GINTL collaboration sets out to expand our understanding on knowledge and knowing through artistic thinking and art making. With the help of concrete arts-based practices, the project aims to diversify pedagogical processes. The international project develops an open, global platform for wide-ranging dialogues related to learning and education.

Research project about memory for harmony (2016-2026) lead by professor Tuire Kuusi, main researcher PhD Ivan Jimenez.

The aim of the joint vision of the project is to ensure that goal-oriented and high-quality music studies and activities are possible everywhere in Finland also in the future.

The project aims at establishing a national vision for the state of education in theatre, dance, circus and performance art for 2030.

The goal of the project is to establish a national vision concerning the state of visual art education in 2030.

This international project explores how music-making and research support intercultural dialogue and social equality.

The research group focuses on the well-being of professionals and development of working environments in the music industry. It consists of Professor Tuire Kuusi, an expert in music research, and eight doctoral researchers.

Uniarts Helsinki will offer studies and guidance to promote the working life skills of professionals in the independent arts sector free of charge in 2023–2025.

The project creates experimental settings that grant the spectator access to the process of imaging. The research develops an artist-led, empiric approach to study the sweeping repercussions that visual technologies may have in orienting the human sensorium and in underpinning our worldview. 

Aino-Kaisa Koistinen's project examines feminist practices of collective writing in the context of artistic thinking and artist pedagogy.

The project's main objective is to develop new perspectives to place- and site-responsive practices and produce artworks that emerge from engaging with the critical material of speculative fiction, astrobiology, astronomical data, and queer theory.

A research on “dis-orientation” as choreographic strategy.