The Annual Review of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture took place on 11 February. The meeting examined the school’s and the departments’ results and essential achievements in 2018, granted the Pallas Athene Prizes and announced the School of Arts, Design and Architecture Alumna of the Year.
An exceptional year
"The year 2018 was exceptional for the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. For the first time, an international ranking placed us among the world’s ten leading art and design universities by granting us the ninth position", states Anna Valtonen, Dean of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
"I believe that the future will offer us increasingly interesting opportunities. We aim at designing unique, multidisciplinary projects that will provide Finland with novel, creative capacity and business activity. Our relocation to Otaniemi has provided us with the potential to facilitate closer and more streamlined collaboration in Aalto and its ecosystem."
Three Pallas Athene Prizes awarded this year
The Pallas Athene Prize has been awarded every second year since 2001 as a recognition for particularly distinguished work that promotes aesthetic values and creative skills. Pallas Athene Prizes were awarded to Jenni Haukio, Matti Alahuhta and Anita Lehikoinen.
In her position as a poet, literature expert and the wife of the current president of Finland, Master of Political Science Jenni Haukio has actively highlighted the role and meaning of aesthetic culture in the society. Jenni Haukio has emphasized talented young artists’ significance to Finland and promoted Aalto University’s high-grade, distinctive and internationally competitive education and research in the field of design. Haukio has also supported sustainable Finnish design know-how with her attire choices. The dress worn by Mrs Haukio at the Independence Day Reception of 2018 was realised by the School of Arts, Design and Architecture’s Textile Design students who used the Ioncell technology developed jointly by Aalto University and the University of Helsinki.
Doctor of Science (Technology) Matti Alahuhta played a central role in the initiation of Aalto University. As the first chairperson of the Aalto University Board, Alahuhta participated in remodelling the operating methods and structures of the Finnish society and in laying the foundation for progressive education in Finland. Alahuhta has acted as an advocate of creativity and renewal in Finnish companies and societal institutions. Alahuhta’s contribution in empowering creativity, innovativeness and customer-orientation as forces that renew and develop the society has been significant.
Anita Lehikoinen, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture, was a crucial actor for the implementation and stimulation of the Finnish university reform. According to Lehikoinen, the societal role of universities is not restricted to the development of education and production of research data, but they act as independent educators unaffected by the society’s changes. Lehikoinen has also highlighted the significance and value of internationality and humanism and demanded the operators in the education field to actively participate and take stands in the social discourse. As the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Lehikoinen has contributed to maintaining culture, art and creativity in an important role in the society.