Art Throughout Life – Artist-Educators Nina Vanas, Liisa Rautiainen, Olli Simola, Hannes Turakka
13.10.2026–17.1.2027

The exhibition presents four northern artists and art educators, with works from the collections of the Aine Pictorial Art Foundation, the Aine Art Museum and the City of Tornio, as well as loans from the Kemi Art Museum.

On view are works by Nina Vanas (1906–1977), Liisa Rautiainen (1919–2018), Olli Simola (1929–1990) and Hannes Turakka (1914–2006), artists who worked in Tornio and Kemi.

How can you combine being an artist with teaching? How do you get children and young people excited about art?

In the exhibition you can also put your own creativity to work. Arrange a still life, make a quick sketch, play with line, look closely at your surroundings.

For the exhibition, memories have been collected from the students of Nina Vanas, Liisa Rautiainen, Olli Simola and Hannes Turakka. Over the decades, these artist-teachers gave their students a picture of what it truly means to be an artist: world travellers, encouraging guides who fed the imagination. Vanas, Rautiainen, Simola and Turakka became art educators for a lifetime.

All four artists were also driving forces in promoting and developing the art scene in Northern Finland.