About

The University of Art and Design Helsinki is an international university dedicated to design, audiovisual communication, art education and art. It is the largest university of its kind in Scandinavia and has a strong and active international presence. The University founded in 1871 is a pioneer in research and education.

“Art is not a mirror that reflects the reality but a hammer which shapes it”(1

The master’s degree programme in fine arts was launched in 1994 under the name PALLAS Fine Arts. The scope of the studies is 120 ECTS, and the programme lasts two years.

Students in the degree program in Fine Arts are trained to become contemporary fine artists. The emphasis is to understand the surrounding society as well as art theory and history.  Art is not a hiding place but a way to understand and change the world.  

The guiding idea of the Fine Arts programme is interaction between art and science as well as between the fields of fine arts, design and visual culture. As a degree programme that reaches across the boundaries of traditional artist education, Fine Arts remains the forerunner and the only one of its kind in our country.

The starting point for the master’s programme in fine arts offered by the University of Art and Design Helsinki is the diversity of an artist’s work. Contacts with the other art and design professions represented by TAIK (e.g., new media, photography, graphic design, ceramics and glass, textile art, production design, spatial design and industrial design and now also studies from Helsinki School of Business and the Technical University) provide the students of the programme with the opportunity to perceive artistic activity on a wider scale than the confines of the traditional sphere of art.
 
Unlike conventional fine arts education, the Fine Arts programme is not bound by traditional tools and instruments—instead, the education emphasizes a research approach and social activity. Students are encouraged to deepen the know-how they have acquired through previous studies and to develop forms and tools of making art relevant to contemporary and future art that transcend beyond the reach of traditional fine arts education.
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1) Kunst ist nicht ein Spiegel, den man der Wirklichkeit vorhaelt, sondern ein Hammer, mit dem man sie gestaltet. (Bertolt Brecht)