Background and experience
I am a Professor of Art Education at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Agder, where I have worked since 2005. My research examines how encounters with art can shape experiences in schools, teacher education, and society at large, and how art can open spaces for dissensus, sensibility, wonder, and critical reflection. I am committed to the intrinsic value of art and to its capacity to challenge established understandings and offer new ways of engaging with the world.
My work involves critical, aesthetic, autoethnographic and arts based approaches. In recent years, I have increasingly explored sensuous, situated and artistic modes of inquiry, including in the ongoing project My Stunning Stream: Made with a Little Mischief (2020–). Collaboration has been central throughout my career, including long term partnerships with teachers, artists and cultural institutions.
Areas of responsibility
- Leader of the research group Art and Children & Youth (since 2017)
- Leader of the PhD specialisation Art in Context
- Co-leader Arts in Action: Itches and Edges in Arts and Art Education 2026
- Co-leader Arts in Action: Doing Diversity 2024
- Leader: Arts in Action:Urgencies in Arts and Art Education 2022
- Co-leader Inclusion in Action: Urgencies in Arts and Art Education
- Editorial board member of the series Art and Culture in Education (Cappelen Damm Academic)
- Board member of the Agder Academy of Sciences
- Convener for Art, Culture and Education in NERA: Nordic Education Research Association
Teaching
I teach art pedagogy, art dissemination, aesthetic theory and arts based research at teacher education, bachelor’s, master’s and PhD levels.
PhD candidates (completed and ongoing):
• Monica Klungland (completed 2021)
• Heidi Kukkonen (completed 2023)
• Helen Eriksen (completed 2023)
• Anne Elmis Vestergren (completed 2025)
• Egil Ovesen (ongoing)
• Julie Kirkeng (ongoing)
Research
My research is situated at the intersection of art, education, aesthetic theory and democratic perspectives. I am particularly interested in how art can create productive disturbances that open for reflection, disagreement, sensuous engagement and new ways of understanding.
Recent publications include:
- Dissens and Sensibility: Why Art Matters (Intellect, 2024)
- Being Human Today: Art, Education and Mental Health in Conversation (Intellect, 2024, editor)
I publish widely in peer reviewed journals, monographs, edited volumes and special issues, and I also enjoy communicating research through opinion pieces and public scholarship.
Current and recent research projects:
- Skapende kunstmøter
- Art on Campus
- My Stunning Stream: Made with a Little Mischief (2020–)
- pARTiciPED (2021–2024, Research Council of Norway) – leadership team member, leader of Work Package 4
I work closely with artists, teachers, museum educators, students and cultural institutions. Long term partnerships — including collaborations with Kunstsilo (formerly Sørlandets Kunstmuseum) — have played a central role in my research. Through these collaborations, I seek to develop research and educational practices that honour the complexity of art while encouraging experimentation, disagreement, sensuous attention and new ways of being in the world.