In October, an international media arts residency programme will begin at Oulu’s brand new Kotilo Children’s Cultural Centre, bringing together professionals from three UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts to work with schoolchildren. Oulu is already involved in several collaborative projects between media arts cities, with results that benefit both local artists and residents.
In 2023, Oulu was designated a City of Media Arts in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. This also made Oulu part of an international network of media arts cities. Since then, the network’s activities have developed from individual contacts into concrete collaborative projects.
“Network-building always takes time before the right forms and partnerships for collaboration emerge. There is genuine interest in Oulu within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. We currently have several different city-to-city projects underway with six Cities of Media Arts,” says Hanna Jakku, the City of Oulu’s focal point for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
International collaboration visible in Oulu and around the world
The results of collaborating will be seen in Oulu, for example, at the Lumo Light Festival in November. Japanese artist Fujimori’s digital and interactive work Yuki Frame is based on snowflakes programmed by schoolchildren in Oulu. The work will be displayed at the new Tiima Museum and Science Centre.
Content created in Oulu also travels around the world. Oulu Museum of Art’s Yuima Nakazato Glacier exhibition will be presented at the Sapporo International Art Festival in Japan at the beginning of next year.
City2City collaboration between UNESCO cities is not merely a platform for exchanging artworks; it also opens up new opportunities for local arts and culture professionals to work internationally. One example is the international Feels Like Home artist residency, which will begin at Kotilo Children’s Cultural Centre in October.
A new residency model for Kotilo
During the residency, Danish animator Rasmus Tobias from Viborg, Norwegian game developer Per Kristian Coskun from Hamar and Oulu-based art educator Paula Puumalainen will spend five weeks in October and November working with fifth-grade pupils from Lintulampi School.
Collaboration with Viborg and Hamar began in early 2026 in response to Oulu’s need to develop a new kind of residency model as part of its children’s cultural services. The aim is to strengthen children’s creative agency, experiment with new ways of working in media arts and develop a model that could later be used in other UNESCO Creative Cities.
“Media arts are a strategic area of development for Kotilo, and the residency programme allows us to explore what they actually mean in our context. We have a long history of film and literary arts education, and now we can complement these with game development and animation while exploring the new possibilities they offer for children’s self-expression and storytelling. This is precisely why this kind of collective residency practice is so interesting to us: it brings together art education, game development and animation in an entirely new way,” says Meri Kallio, Curator of Media Arts at Kotilo Children’s Cultural Centre.
Kallio believes that while Kotilo will learn new approaches to animation and game development from the resident artists, the professional artists will in turn benefit from Oulu’s strong expertise in arts education for children and in strengthening children’s agency.
Home can be a place, a feeling or a memory
The theme of the first residency is home. Together with the children, the theme will be explored through perspectives such as belonging, safety, memories, the environment and community.
“Home is not only a physical place. It can be a feeling and an experience of belonging. Through artistic practice, we can reflect on what makes a home – scents, a sense of safety, people or perhaps shared memories,” Kallio explains.
The residency team met for the first time in Oulu at the end of August. Tobias and Coskun got to know Puumalainen and Kotilo and made a video greeting for pupils at Lintulampi School. They are looking forward to returning to Oulu and working not only with the schoolchildren but also with one another. Within the international group, the artists’ different areas of expertise complement each other.
“I work with programming, art and music – perhaps media art really is the best way to describe what I do. This time, I do not have to wear so many hats, as we will work together and complement one another’s expertise,” Coskun says.
“We are not a one-person army; we can genuinely draw on each other’s strengths. That will be interesting,” Tobias continues.
Audiences will get a first glimpse of the work created during the residency at the Frozen Nights children’s media festival in November. The completed work will be displayed at Kotilo Children’s Cultural Centre next year, with the aim of later presenting it in Viborg and Hamar as well.
Follow the residency
The work carried out during the Feels Like Home residency will be followed throughout the autumn. In October, the artists will arrive in Oulu to work with pupils from Lintulampi School, and updates on the residency and the development of the resulting artwork will be shared through Oulu Creative City channels.
The City of Oulu has launched a new Creative City website that brings together the latest news about Oulu as a UNESCO City of Media Arts, its international collaboration, and open calls and opportunities for artists and artworks. Current updates are also shared on Instagram at @oulu.creativecity.
The joint Welcome to My Homepage open call by the Cities of Media Arts of Oulu and Austin is also currently underway. Artists and other creative professionals based in the Oulu region are being sought for an international virtual artist residency taking place in January 2027. The application deadline is 15 October 2026.