Staff - IHME

Paula Toppila

Paula Toppila is the Executive Director and curator of Pro Arte Foundation and IHME Contemporary Art Festival since 2007. During her directorship the Festival has produced new commissions in public space in collaboration with artists Antony Gormley, Susan Philipsz, Superflex, Miroslaw Balka, Yael Bartana, Jeremy Deller, Kateřina Šedá, Theaster Gates and The Black Monks of Mississippi and Henrik Håkansson. With Christan Boltanski IHME continued the on-going project Heart Archive in libraries of four cities in Finland. Toppila worked as curator at Frame Finnish Fund for Art Exchange 1998-2007 and is curator of several Finnish and international exhibitions both in Finland and abroad e.g. Finnish representation of Sao Paulo Biennial in 2001 and The Fourth Pirkanmaa Triennial in Tampere, Finland in 2009. She has co-curated e.g. Momentum – The Nordic Biennial in Moss, Norway in 2000. She has contributed to Siksi, Taide, Flash Art and Framework magazines. She has a Master of Arts Degree in Art History. She participated in Curatorial Training Programme of De Appel Foundation in Amsterdam 1997-98 and Business College Helsinki´s vocational studies in leadership and management 2018-2020.

Päivi Matala

Päivi Matala works in the field of cultural producer and communication at the office of IHME Helsinki since 2017. She has a Master of Arts degree in Art History. Päivi has also topped up her expertise with studies in audience work, service design and product development. Since 1997 she has worked on a variety of projects and audience-work schemes, most recently as Museum Educator at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Gallen-Kallela Museum and Amos Anderson Art Museum. She has also worked at Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Kirpilä Art Collection and Designmuseum. She has done training periods at Nordic Institute of Contemporary Art and at Finnish Cultural Institute in New York. She has written several articles on the field of audience engagement and she’s been part of editing teams for several different publications.