Visual: Valerio Di Lucente & Jono Lewarne
We are glad to welcome this year’s PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board members as part of Opening Doors.
Hilla Honkamäkilä
Juliana Hyrri
Aala Karhumaa
Liila Linnea Kilpiö
Näpsä Lehtinen
Kinga Magdalena Mucha
Waleed Ahmed Rana
Eeva Rauhala
Armita Shirnejad
Anh Nguyen Ton Thuy
Opening Doors is a new three-year collaboration between PUBLICS (Helsinki), PRAKSIS (Oslo), and Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation(Stockholm), working with the PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board, PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board and Index Teen Advisory Board.
The project focuses on youth access to arts and culture, how accessibility is experienced, where barriers are encountered, and what could be improved.
This year’s focus is on language and communication. Across the three cities, each board works locally with three host institutions of different scales.Through site visits, observations, and conversations, boards will examine accessibility, identify barriers, and develop small-scale interventions, and follow how changes take shape over time.
Together, the boards co-develop a Youth Cultural Access Observatory across the three cities, which leads to a set of documented findings and practical proposals aimed at strengthening youth access to arts and culture.
Follow the activities on PUBLICS Youth‘s social media to learn more about the project, what the boards are focusing on and PUBLICS Youth’s work, and this year’s local host organisations.
Opening Doors is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of EU.
PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board members at PUBLICS, in front of the PUBLICS library, from the first meeting on April 18, 2026. Photo: Bilge Hasdemir
MEET THE PUBLICS YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS 2026
Hilla Honkamäkilä (she/her), 20, is an Oulu-born illustrator driven by a curiosity spanning culture, religion, politics, music, ceramics, and visual arts. An avid consumer of culture, she has been making art in many forms since childhood. She is passionate about community-driven change, which has brought her to a number of projects, including as part of the team behind Nuori Taide 2027. She hopes to one day work as an illustrator.
Juliana Hyrri (she/her), 19, dreams about an artist’s career and, in the future, wishes to educate children about arts and creative thinking. She loves painting, but she has also made audio art in which she questions nationality. Currently, she is trying out printmaking and its different techniques. In her art, she likes to explore relationships between people, as well as her own feelings. She loves visiting exhibitions and learning about other artists’ perception of the world. Juliana also has a mild obsession with cats.
Aala Karhumaa (they/them), 20, is an artist using many art forms, from oil painting and illustration to music and poetry. Currently, their art explores gender dynamics, religion, shame, isolation, and queerness. They have a passion for research, and hope to study religions and art in the future. Aala wants to embrace self reliance, feminine energy, and caring, with the things they put out into the world.
Liila Kilpiö (she/her), 19, loves crocheting and music. Since she has studied music at school since she was 10 years old, it has always been a big part of her life. Liila is also interested in political issues and culture.
Näpsä Lehtinen (she/her), 21, is a wanderer fascinated by human existence and its entanglement with the living world. Experiencing and creating art is an exploration into her own being as well as that of others, and the intersections between the two. For her, art is a fundamental right to feel, question and share our existence.
Kinga Mucha (she/her), 19, is originally from Poland and currently studies Design at Aalto University. She is passionate about storytelling through various channels and forms: literature, illustrations, figurines, and space. Her favorite artworks are the ones filled with weird creatures and hidden stories. She likes to explore the shifting relations between art, culture, history and society.
Waleed Ahmed Rana (he/him), 20, is a first-year law student at the University of Helsinki. His background in creative writing has given him experience in journalism, primarily focusing on social justice and art critique.
Eeva Rauhala (she/they), 18, is a multidisciplinary artist by heritage, a rebel philosopher by heart, and a computer nerd by habit. They have a love for art that is weird, deep, and contemporary, and would like to see its continued proliferation. Her work often uses technology as a medium or tool of art and her experience ranges from design to website creation to the development of interactive installation artworks for museum exhibition.
Armita Shirnejad (she/her), 20, is an Iranian artist based in Finland. Passionate about visual and performing arts, she plays violin and explores creativity while aspiring to study architecture.
Anh Nguyen Ton Thuy (she/her), 19, is a Design and Media BA student at Aalto University. She loves arts and crafts, journalling, and discussing conspiracy theories. She is also a true gen Z, which means she is chronically online and lowkey addicted to doomscrolling. She is excited to work with other gen Zs sharing the same mindset and ambition as her.
A warm welcome to PUBLICS Youth Advisory Board 2026!
Follow PUBLICS Youth activities 2026 here
Also,
See the PUBLICS Youth activities 2025 here
See the PUBLICS Youth portfolio 2024 here
See the PUBLICS Youth portfolio 2023 here