The socio-cultural environment in Northern Finland is changing rapidly, visibly affecting social life, wellbeing, and the culture of people living in the region. Over twenty years, ways were developed for implementing community-based art education and socially engaged arts projects as part of the visual art teacher education program and international research projects at the University of Lapland. In my presentation I will introduce the steps taken by the “Love Talks” project as part of the project Acting on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture (AMASS). In this project we were interested in how we can engage with our art education students and local artist to develop arts initiatives that can build tolerant, community-focussed neighbourhoods and how such activities can be scaled up to larger initiatives. Theoretical framing: Community-based art and education, socially-engaged art, participation, agency, marginalization, art-based action research In this project the role of an artist and art educator is not only as teacher but as a developer, enabler, curator, facilitator, producer, and a creator of a new dialogic operational culture. Research questions: ‘How can social engaged art provide new tools for social interaction, increased collaboration?’ ‘How can new dialogue, critical discussions, and new forums for participation be yielded?’ Methodology, methods: Mixed research - Cooperative inquiry/Action research practice, Art-based action research, focus group Collecting data: video-audio recordings, interviews Analysis of transcriptions and content analysis, interpretations Expected outcomes, findings: As a result, we highlight the importance of paying attention to how activities are organised and realised in the diverse and often challenging environments characteristic of socially engaged art and community-based art education. The various goals and objectives of the different parties involved should be turned into strengths that can serves as a bases for new approaches. At the same time, it is a question how to promote intercultural encounters, tolerance and well-being through arts, i.e. culture and art in promoting social inclusion, capacity building, networking and participation in daily life and living environments.

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