Professor Bjørn Willy Åmo served as the project manager at the Nord University Business School. He and Kjartan Sigurdsson, Assistant Professor at the University of Akureyri, facilitated introductory lectures on various aspects of business planning. Associate professor Maria Huhmarniemi gave a lecture covering contemporary art, Arctic art and art as a service for health and well-being, organisational development and creative tourism in the Arctic.

The course blended in-class for the Norwegian students and on-line teaching for the Icelandic and the Finnish students, adding student tasks and student presentations to the lectures. The course also offered short TED talk videos for all students to be included in discussions on business subjects. The students worked in interdisciplinary teams, ideating and breathing life into their business ideas. In this, the course followed Osterwalder & Pigneur’s Business Model Generation business canvas process model.

After two months of business idea preparation, all the students meet physically in Bodø, Norway, to boost their work. We arranged a social event socializing the students, the students were urged to present and test a least-viable-product version of their business idea on their fellow students, the teacher had arranged for the students to visit potential customers, vendors and competitors to get feedback on their idea, as well as give a presentation of their business in a business competition for a jury of business incubator managers and established artists.

The intensive week included several highlights. One of them was a visit to Fleinvær, a small island about an hour's boat ride from Bodø. In Fleinvær, we visited the art studio of Are Andreassen and the Arctic Hideaway. Are Andreassen introduced his studio and shared how he hosts visitors for graphic printing workshops. Are Andreassen physically included visitors in his artwork, offering art-as-a-service to incoming visitors. The students themselves engaged in his art-as-a-service and discussed their art-as-a-service concept with him.

The same island is home to the Arctic Hideaway, a Norwegian artist residency composed of 12 small monofunctional houses in the Arctic Archipelago of Fleinvær. The facilities include bedrooms, a studio, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a sauna. Designed as a space to disconnect, rest and work, the residency welcomes both tourists and artists. During summer, it caters to tourists, while the longer periods of fall and winter are ideal for artists working on projects in close connection with nature.

The visit to the art studio and the Arctic Hideaway inspired project participants to imagine future services that could contribute to artists' income in the Arctic. Creative tourism is one growing sector of the creative economy.

Students applied the knowledge they received to develop and present business plans for art-related initiatives, focused on fine art and contemporary art. At the end of the course, students pitched their business plans to the full class and an external panel. Representatives from the Creative Industries Incubator, as well as established artists, provided feedback to the student's business plans. As a learning outcome, the course fostered business understanding and skills for arts and culture.

The student mobility and intensive course were part of the “Art for Arctic Business” project, which has received funding from the Norwegian Call for Project Collaboration within the Framework of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) for 2024–2026. The project contributes to developing a collaboration model between arts education and business training.

Mari Huhmarniemi 
Lead of the Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD)  
UArctic Chair in Arctic Art and Design

Read the original news story on the ASAD website.