Academy of Fine Arts alum Harriina Räinä has been selected for the “Ecologies in the Making: Sculpting Futures” residency program. The residency is divided into two parts: the first part will take place at Cove Park and the second at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. The total support value of 30 000 euros covers a four-month residency period beginning in June and ending in September 2025.
Harriina Räinä in her studio on the Harakka island in Helsinki. Photo: Sade Kahra.
Harriina Räinä’s exhibition at gallery Titanik in Turku 2023. Photo: Johanna Naukkarinen.
The aim of the Ecologies in the Making: Sculpting Futures residency in Scotland is to support visual artists to study and develop ecological methods and contexts for their artistic practice. The artist residency is divided into two parts, allowing for two separate areas of development: the first two-month part of the residency will take place at Cove Park in Argyll and Bute, and the second two-month part will take place at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Aberdeenshire.
The call for applications was open in September 2024. An international jury of experts pre-selected the grant applicants, based on which the residency centres made the final decision. Visual artists Heather Peak and Ivan Morrison acted as the members of the preselection jury panel. They evaluated the choice as follows:
Harriina’s work is clearly seriously engaged with environmental concerns, and we were impressed by the powerful means of presentation she has developed for her practice. She proposes a clear line of research for Cove Park, and how this would translate to a period of experimental production at SSW. The jury would encourage her to take the opportunity to push the work further and allow herself and her work to go a little wilder.
Alexia Holt of Cove Park and Sam Trotman of Scottish Sculpture Workshop evaluated Räinä as follows:
Harriina Räinä’s application had a clear rationale for the residency, and for both organizations, it will be the first time we’ve had the opportunity to work with an artist exploring shell matter and its use in this way. SSW is also very well placed to support her work in ceramics, and we also have a kiln on site which she will be welcome to use.
Residency grants for Academy of Fine Arts Alumni
Residency grants for Academy of Fine Arts alumni are part of the Uniarts Helsinki´s Academy of Fine Arts and Saastamoinen Foundation partnership program “International Networks in Fine Arts.” Other residency partners in the program are Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, LIFT Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten, and the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. The application for the ISCP alumni residency is open throughout October, and the Jan van Eyck Academie and LIFT residency applications will open in early 2025.
Saastamoinen Foundation and Kuvataideakatemia congratulate Harriina Räinä on the residency grant.
