Vanessa Uhlbäck, Erika Ryppieva and Micol Curatolo presenting PY PODCAST 2022. Credits: Aman Askarizad.
The Future Futures Talk Show 2024
PUBLICS Youth PODCAST launch. Credits: Aman Askarizad.
Book Launch of Reaching Out: A Book about Agency, Care, Identity and… at PUBLICS, February 23, 2026. Photo: Aman Askarizad
PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board is a collective of young poeple working within our organisation to implement, question and expand our activities. PUBLICS Youth partners with the Teen Advisory Boards of Index Foundation (Stockholm) and PRAKSIS (Oslo) as part of the Future Futures network which brings together the three youth groups to share their on-going work and experience.
As part of their tenure, the Boards have produced podcasts and publications where they document and share their work and ideas.
Future Futures: Reaching Out Publication 2025
Reaching Out: A Book about Agency, Care, Identity and… offers insights into how young practitioners approach publishing as a field of relations. In their respective contexts, the young people who developed the content of this publication met with artists, writers, curators and publishers to consider questions of authorship, voice and visibility. The resulting interviews and conversations, reflections and visual contributions offer propositions for how art institutions might use the strategies deployed here to connect with wider communities, different voices and new publics.
This volume is part of Future Futures: Reaching Out, a three-year-long collaboration between Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation (Stockholm), PRAKSIS (Oslo) and PUBLICS (Helsinki). Each organisation works with a group of young people who for an entire year act as advisers and collaborators. Through a range of activities, Index Teen Advisory Board (ITAB), PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board (PTAB) and PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board (PYAB) have reflected on how printed matter is still relevant in a digital world. Collectively they have explored how books, (maga)zines, etc. continue to act as meeting points between people and ideas across time and space.
Authors: Hibo Nora Abbi, Amran Ahmed, Viivi Auerlehto, Vilhelm Rosenström Domeij, Pärinaz Estebsary, Kiara Eifert, Ingrid Bjermeland Hesledalen, Aino Kaatra, Elin Karlsson, Bror Høgåsen-Hallesby, Helen Ibrahimian, Auguste Karsokaite, Casper Langenskiöld, Nea Lähdekorpi, Anahita Mollazehi, Dylan Murray, Diane Nozynska, Tiffany Olafson, riddhima rat, Assol Sokolova, Dasha Taushan, Noah Visted, Evi Volosnikova, Miya Zenina, Moa Zhang, Sofia Orellana Gamboa, with contributions from Jo.o Doria de Souza, falk, Amelia and Adam Greenhall (ANEMONE), Sara Kaaman, Hikari Nishida, and Mia Wennerstrand, as well as interviews conducted by PUBLICS Youth with Rami Alwhithawi, Angela Eldips, Sofia Koivuneva, Pepe Sivunen, and Eme Tahtinen.
Editors: Gerrie van Noord, Bilge Hasdemir, Tony Karlsson Savci, Kristian Schrøder
Design: Tuukka Kaila
Publisher: Rooftop Press
See here: Reaching Out Online Publication Material
The Future Futures Talk Show 2024
The three episodes of The Future Futures Talk Show bring together young creatives, artists and filmmakers to discuss how film can redirect our gazes. The talk show is hosted by the members of PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board (Helsinki), Index Teen Advisory Board (Stockholm) and PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board (Oslo). It was recorded live at Konstfack Stockholm in November 2024.
𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒔
‘On Controlling the Narrative’ by Index Teen Advisory Board with artist Roxy Farhat
‘How Exposure Shapes Perspectives’ by PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board with film producer Malin Hüber
‘How to Film the Present?’ by PUBLICS Youth with artist Vanja Sandell Billström
PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board PODCAST 2023, live on Helsinki Open Waves
𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝟏, 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆
Aliina Kemppainen, Yu Yue, and Vitória Freitas share about positioning themselves in the local cultural scene. People contribute to the making of culture in many ways, and being present and in conversation affects others a great deal. This is already a powerful form of advising! Aliina, Yue, and Vitória remind us that the first step to make a safer space for others and for collective work is to break down conventions and expectations, and to allow everyone’s personal ways of working.
𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝟐, 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕
Stella Massa, Emmi Surwillo, and Yu Yue break down the question of inclusion, by reflecting on the infrastructures and habits of the creative industry. They share their first professional experiences and the struggle with salaries and overwork, and call out the risk of tokenism – when institutions use their power to include young voices without working towards real equality and collaboration. Their response is a desire to escape performativity.
𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝟑, 𝑽𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆
Vitória Freitas, Aliina Kemppainen, Stella Massa, and Emmi Surwillo present how they have worked with sound and voice during the last year. They remind us of the importance of sharing the platforms we have access to with those who are being silenced and discriminated against. Sound is an exciting medium to work with to explore language and meaning with freedom and directness. We can find courage and agency in working together, while being mindful of the difference between one’s personal and collective voice.
PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board PODCAST 2022
In episode 1. PUBLICS Youth 2022 In Conversation, Anastasiia Lapteva, Manda Loipponen, Valeriia Masliukova-Malova, Erika Ryppieva, Róza Turunen, and Vanessa Uhlbäck recollect some of the conversations and activities that they have experienced as being part of the Board. In their words, playfulness and togetherness emerge as strategies to navigate the moment of passage from teenagehood to adulthood, and to reclaim self-definition in the shift from education to professionalization. The Boards also reflect on the status of the Youth as a collective within the organization of PUBLICS; and on the experience of engaging with art while being in dialogue with others.
Podcast recorded on 6th December 2022. Recording and editing by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen.
In episode 2. Harold Offeh on working with PUBLICS Youth, artist and educator Harold Offeh and project coordinator Micol Curatolo reconsider their experience of working with PUBLICS Youth, putting into perspective the role that projects like Youth Advisory Board play in both the personal trajectory of one’s growth, and the infrastructures of contemporary art education and professionalization. Harold Offeh worked with the Youth on the political and cultural meaning of voice and play, and how those are made public. Together they have explored how voices appear in popular visual culture, questioning the relation between digital performativity and the politics of voice.
Podcast recorded on 15th December 2022. Editing by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen.
Index Teen Advisory Board PODCAST
How do we know? – Institutional listening and young agency features Malin Issa, Sarika Ullah, Felix Krausz Sjögren, Luna Sackett, Vigo Roth and Isabella Tjäder discussing the process of making the Teen Advisory Boards publication by the same title.
Going to a Conference: In Character In this podcast episode ITAB members reflect on how we are expected to behave in arts spaces. Featuring: Sadia Hassan, Nellie Barazandeh, Mikkel Inchley, Sumaya Elmi, Annine Slettebø, Noah Gylver, Hannah Røsholt Siger, Zeinab Al-khatib, Nasteha Hassan Mahamed, José Velasquez Esteban, Emil Pita, Sarika Ullah, Simon Sjöberg, Malin Issa, Adina Edfelt and Felix Krausz Sjögren.
PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board PODCAST
Language in art – from young perspectives How does language affect our relationships and comfort levels? A discussion with PTAB members Ari Sigurdarson, Dugagjin Osmanaj, Emil Temim, Fariha Malik, Gard Møller-Johansen, Ilwaad Mahamed, Mey-Thip Mortensen, Sujani Sutharsan.
Discussing decolonisation What is decolonisation, why do we need it and how to approach it? A conversation by PTAB members Sadia Hassan, Nellie Barazandeh, Mikkel Inchley, Sumaya Elmi, Annine Slettebø, Noah Gylver, Hannah Røsholt Siger, Zeinab Al-khatib, Nasteha Hassan Mahamed, José Velasquez Esteban, Emil Pita, Sarika Ullah, Simon Sjöberg, Malin Issa, Adina Edfelt and Felix Krausz Sjögren.
How do we know? Institutional listening and young agency in the arts
How do we know? at Today Is Our Tomorrow at PUBLICS, 2022. Credit: Aman Askarizad.
Buy the book at PUBLICS Library and download the free PDF here.
The book was co-created by 16-21 year olds participating in the Teen Advisory Boards of Index (Stockholm) and PRAKSIS (Oslo) together with PUBLICS Youth (Helsinki) and organisers at Index, PRAKSIS and PUBLICS, as well as others they met along the way. The young boards at these organisations convene regularly and work to improve artistic and institutional practice from the inside.
This book represents two years of activity and features contributions from both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 Teen Advisory Board membership. The first part of the book reflects 2021-22 activities, including TAB members meeting in person together with Publics Youth in Helsinkim where they participated in the conference, Today is Our Tomorrow at PUBLICS. Supporting this are lightly modified reproductions of TAB zines generated in 2020-21: PRAKSIS’s publication In Character: The Game Manual, and Index’s magazine In Character: Index Teen Advisory Board. Together, the three sections offer three distinct perspectives on TAB members’ explorations and discussions.
As well as documenting activities and sharing TAB members’ reflections on the arts and culture today, the sections contain practical details of workshop strategies and practices engaged by board members as a means both to encounter and intervene in the world of the arts. Thus, the book serves not just as documentation of two years of vibrant, joyful creative activity and youthful critical thinking, but as a potential tool for others looking to embed young people’s views, hopes, concerns, experience and knowledge into the core of their organisational and/or cultural practices.
