Joensuun Artist Association 80 years - Anniversary exhibition 26.11.-21.12.2025

JOENSUUN ARTISTS' ASSOCIATION 80 YEARS - CELEBRATION EXHIBITION

Joensuu Artists' Association celebrates its 80th anniversary with a celebration exhibition, which will be held at the Ahjo Art Center in Joensuu from 26 November to 21 December 2025.

Tuija Hirvonen-Puhakka, the chairwoman of the Joensuu Artists' Association, talks about the association's anniversary.

The exhibition is our eighth celebration exhibition this year. This is not just a number in the flow of years, but a testament to long-term work, maintaining culture, making art visible and, above all, the people – artists – who are the heart and backbone of this association. This is living proof that art lives. It breathes, grows and takes its place in the world – right here, right now.

The history of the Joensuu Artists' Association is not just numbers and decades, it is a story about people. About artists who have given of their time, heart and soul. They have shaped the shape of this society – with their works, their actions, their uncompromising passion.

Artists are not only creators of creative work – they are interpreters of time, lyricists of emotions, crossers of the visible and invisible border. They are also – quite concretely – the factors of attraction, holding power and enchantment in their area. And these words are not empty phrases – they carry real meaning: artists influence, build and renew. They create bridges from the past to the future, from the local to the universal.

We often do not think about how extensive networks art keeps alive: studios, framers, printers, art supply stores, transport companies – even coffee roasters live partly on the side of this rich cultural ecosystem. Artists build all of this quietly but resolutely. With big hearts, often with small resources.

For 80 years, the Joensuu Artists' Association has been one of the cornerstones of the cultural landscape of its region. It has given a home to art – but also a voice to the artist. Its activities are extensive and meaningful: Ahjo Art Centre, Joensuu Art Loan Office, Grafiikanpaja, Kitee Contemporary Art Exhibitions – they are all windows to the world where visual art meets its audience.

The association does not only operate in galleries and exhibition halls. It is involved in decision-making, in percentage art, in the fields of education. It highlights the most important thing: art is not decoration. It is a lifeline. It is part of a living and sustainable society. It is part of the future that we are building now – here and today.

And yet, at the center of everything has always been the person – the artist. The one that often remains outside the frame, but whose handprint is visible everywhere: in galleries, on the walls of cafes, in public spaces – and sometimes also on the walls of homes, amidst small wonders.

Art is not just a picture, a work of art or a sculpture – it is an encounter, an experience, a mark on the soul. It is a conversation without words. It is the moment when the viewer becomes silent and feels – something great, perhaps even inexplicable. The future is not a given. The art field is living a time of change – structural changes, financial pressures, uncertainty. But one thing does not change: art carries. And so do those who make art. Thank you, members of the Joensuu Artists' Association – you don't just make art. You are art.

Long live art. Long live the Joensuu Artists' Association. Long live 80 years of creativity and courage!

Opening:

November 25, 2025, 6-8 p.m.