This paper presents an example of a shared hybrid university course on Arctic Art Education for teacher students from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Greenland. The collaboration aimed to encourage dialogue between Arctic communities, children and youth, teacher students, professors and local actors from cultural and educational fields. The Arctic partner universities sought to integrate contemporary art practices with Northern knowledge and traditions, enabling the examination and experience of sustainability issues from the perspectives of Arctic communities and places.

The online and onsite activities aimed to create dialogue spaces, utilising multidisciplinary approaches and integrated art-science teaching connected to local places and communities. Grounded in local contexts, Arctic Art Education (AAE) is ecoculturally sensitive and transcends borders between countries and universities. By situating the project within broader discourses on decolonisation, sustainability, and land-based education, we aim to articulate how AAE can serve as a foundation for reimagining the role of art in the North, not only as an academic subject but as a relational, transformative, and future-oriented practice.

The Action research data focused on this paper consists of the teacher students’ feedback and personal reflections. The results of the qualitative analysis show how art-based action research develops the multidimensional structure of the shared course. Shared courses facilitate boundary-crossing knowledge production, meaningful encounters in remote interactions, and situational and transformative learning. This offers a platform to deal with Arctic issues in Nordic collaboration in teacher education by emphasising the special features of Arctic communities and education in real-life situations. 

We are using art-based action research (ABAR) (Jokela, 2019; Jokela and Huhmarniemi, 2018) strategy to develop the Nomadic hub of AAE. Action research aims to develop practices by intervening in the existing structures with new approaches planned in collaboration with the participants and stakeholders. The ABAR approach focuses especially on combining artistic practices and art education with regional development and community empowerment (Jokela, 2019; Jokela and Huhmarniemi, 2018). The AAE course challenged the universities’ cooperation for a shared hybrid course combining online and fieldwork. It introduced Arctic communities for a visiting Art education event with a large spectrum of actors.

In this article, we have examined the development and implementation of the Nomadic Hub of the Arctic Art Education (AAE) as a collaborative initiative among Arctic universities. Using art-based action research, we evaluated the pedagogical approaches and outcomes of the course, drawing on student reflections and experiences from fieldwork. These insights informed the iterative development of the course model and the defining elements of AAE activities. In conclusion, the Nomadic Hub of AAE offers a transformative, place-responsive educational model that supports ecological awareness, cultural sensitivity, and collaborative knowledge production— prioritising relational learning that values local knowledge, storytelling, and shared authorship. Through sustained collaboration and critical reflection, AAE can continue to evolve as a vital framework for rethinking art education and sustainability practices in the Arctic.

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