Art as an Icebreaker for Dialogue: Creative Pathways to Relational Biodiversity

This presentation highlights art’s unique capacity to open meaningful dialogue from Indigenous holistic perspectives. At the Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art (MCCA), artworks are approached not as isolated objects but as living expressions of relationships between people, ancestors, animals, lands, waters, air and the wider environment. Exhibitions position artworks in conversation with the artists’ own voices, supported by workshops, film programs and direct encounters with knowledge holders.

Through these experiences, participants are invited into a relational understanding of biodiversity as a living, reciprocal connection among land, beings and community. Art becomes a shared, culturally grounded space where Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews meet, fostering learning rooted in respect, responsibility, humility and relationality.

Central to this work is the motto “Art as an Icebreaker for Dialogue”, which guides One Arctic/MCCA’s shift from collection to connection, ownership to relationship and display to dialogue. In this approach, the curator becomes a facilitator whose role is to create spaces for reciprocity, ethical engagement and meaningful exchange. The transformative power of art enables this shift: it connects across cultures, communicates complex ideas and opens informal, trust-building environments where dialogue can unfold naturally. These shared creative encounters build collaboration, inspire education, advocacy and action, and unlock the creativity needed to envision more sustainable futures.

By centering Indigenous leadership and land-based practice, the session illustrates how creative engagement deepens ecological awareness and supports community-driven approaches to sustainability. Rather than presenting environmental challenges solely through scientific or policy-oriented frameworks, the work emphasises interconnectedness, lived experience and the responsibilities that emerge from being embedded within ecosystems.

Drawing on One Arctic/MCCA’s curatorial practice, dialogue facilitation and long-term partnerships across the circumpolar North, the session demonstrates how museums, cultural and other memory institutions can serve as platforms for knowledge exchange and the revitalisation of diverse ways of knowing in the face of global environmental change. Ultimately, it advocates for the role of Indigenous-led, creative methodologies as essential contributions to global biodiversity conversations.