Staff

Paula Toppila (left) and Saara Moisio, kuva: Veikko Somerpuro

Paula Toppila

Paula Toppila has been the Executive Director and Curator of the Art Foundation Pro Arte since 2007. Toppila also produced the commissioned works of art for the IHME Contemporary Art Festival (2009-2018) in public space by Antony Gormley, Susan Philipsz, Superflex, Miroslaw Balkan, Yael Bartana, Jeremy Deller, Katerina Seda, Theaster Gates with The Black Monks of Mississippi and Henrik Håkansson. Christian Boltanski’s continuing work The Heart Archive was performed by IHME in four city libraries in Finland. Toppila led the organizational change from the IHME Contemporary Art Festival to IHME Helsinki, which currently combines art, science and climate work. The aim is to promote freedom of art, eco-social civilization, a sustainable and democratic society and a diverse good life.

Toppila has worked as a curator at the Frame  in 1998-2007, and has curated several Finnish and international exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, e.g. Finland’s representation at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2001 and the fourth Pirkanmaa Triennial in Tampere in 2009. Toppila has co-curated e.g. Momentum – at the Nordic Biennale in Moss, Norway in 2000. He has contributed to Siksi, Taide, Flash Art and Framework magazines. He has a master’s degree in philosophy, majoring in art history. He has supplemented his skills with both curatorial and leadership and management training.

Saara Moisio

Saara Moisio has worked as a communications planner at IHME Helsinki since April 2022. She has a masters and doctoral degree in theatre research from University of Helsinki. She has also a bachelor degree in business administration and marketing communications.

Moisio defended her doctoral dissertation about the dynamics of value creation in the audience experiences of contemporary dance in January 2022.  In her studies she has focused on performance analysis, arts management, marketing and communications, audience studies and qualitative research methods. At the university she has been teaching a course on how to study spectators’ experiences of performing arts. Before her PhD project she worked in various performing arts organizations in communications and production. She has also written reviews and articles about dance in online journals Liikekieli.com and Mustekala.

Saara Korpela

Saara Korpela is eco-coordinator at IHME Helsinki. She has a Master of Arts degree and has studied Russian translation and interpretation, environmental protection, water and waste management, as well as sustainable development.

She has been actively involved in the urban environmental organisation Dodo ry, planning and implementing local and international discussion events and campaigns. Korpela has worked in various customer-service and coordinating functions, and as a translator in the private and public sectors. Her longest appointment was at the Finnish Customs, where alongside her other duties she took part in initiating and piloting an environmental management programme. At Ekolo Wholesale, a company that retails organic and environmentally friendly goods, she worked in marketing communications.

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