Environmental and Sustainability Plan
Our Philosophy
We live in a world in which the majority of life is denied a voice, consequently many of those voices are dying and disappearing. Anthropocentric thinking has placed humans above all other living beings positioning the planet as a site for endless extraction. Muijala exists as a direct refutation of this mindset by embracing a turn toward deep ecology: a widening of the self that understands humans as intrinsically entangled with nature. Formed as an artistic project of engaged ecological listening, artist residencies, and community participation, our aim is the creation of a livable future for all living beings.
Our approach
We understand sustainability as an entangled set of actions and relations that reflect and respect diverse ecosystems and the diverse communities we serve.
Sustainability encompasses not only ecological, but also social, financial, and personal practices that are socially inclusive and financially viable on top of being environmentally considerate, and which build long-lasting support structures and meaningful partnerships.
We understand sustainability as both a goal and a method – something to aim for, but also something to practice daily through the way our residencies are structured, the relationships they cultivate, and the values they uphold.
Land Stewardship: ecological sustainability, rewilding and reconnection
Muijala is located between the village of Reila and the Hierkonpolku forest preserve in Southwest Finland. Neither primary forest nor cultivated land, once a gardening school, later an army base, Muijala is a landscape shaped by both human and non-human agency. By creating a space of reciprocity in collaboration with the landscape, we collectively explore what unique forms of knowledge, encounter and coexistence these borderlands make possible and how they might function as bridges between human and more-than-human worlds.
Rewilding:
We are committed to a low impact approach with limited intervention. We aim to live in reciprocity with the land:
- Creating and protecting habitats for native plants and wildlife, promoting biodiversity, and allowing the land to thrive.
- Encouraging practices such as wild food foraging and herbalism, and the careful sourcing of organic materials.
- Through the creation of a Pollinator Garden and green house where artistic and ecological processes can unfold in relation to one another.
Reconnection:
With our project cultivating community, we are transforming an old grain storage building into an autonomous artwork and platform for artistic exchange, workshops and events. The sculptural space will serve as a laboratory for new forms of artistic practice, collaboration and community engagement.
A physical archive of experiments created by our artists in residence: recipes for natural dyes, paper, clay and other artistic explorations stemming from the landscape, will be housed in the space as shared traces passed from one artist to another as well as visitors to the space. By intertwining plant cultivation with artistic experimentation, investigating what comes from the land and what we can in turn give back, the sculpture will become a living artwork and an accessible, communal learning space centering environmentally responsive forms of material engagement.
Ecological sustainability:
We promote regenerative maintenance through composting, soil enrichment, and organic material sourcing that supports the integrity of the land. We create closed-loop systems on our site that honour the cycles of life, reduce waste in our artist studios, and foster soil health and biodiversity.
We recycle non-compostable materials with a focus on reducing waste/reusing cardboard, glass and metal materials in our kitchen and studio spaces.
Residency: social sustainability, nurturing community, equity and inclusion
Our residency supports artists engaged with art and ecology through transdisciplinary art forms. We encourage the creation of work that honours the natural world, stems directly from the land that surrounds us and explores the interconnectedness of all life forms. Our goal is to invite and nurture a diversity of perspectives around human and more-than-human relationships thereby establishing a deep ecological practice that widens our understanding of our very existence as a network of relations. We believe art can hold a space for new understandings, relations and structures, inspire feelings of connection and create complex networks that blossom into flourishing ecosystems.
Regenerative culture and social sustainability:
It’s important to us to try to actively heal and restore damaged social, cultural, and environmental systems. Rather than just looking to cause less harm through our actions, our goal is to create art and cultural practices that give back more than they take, to strengthen communities and ecosystems, while embracing natural rhythms of growth, rest, and renewal.
Nurturing community:
Rather than one-off, short-term residency experiences, we aim to create space for deep relational practices, where artists become part of Muijala and have space and time to learn from and give back to the land as well as the local community.
- We encourage extended residency stays of 1-3 months.
- We invite a slow practice: valuing time, care, and sustainability over speed and output. Resisting the pressure to constantly produce, and instead making space for observation, experimentation, rest, and relationship-building.
- We invite a practice that fosters deeper engagement with place, people, and process.
- We create a space for working with more intention, attention, and resilience.
Access and Inclusion:
We acknowledge the limits of individual capacity, respect the need for rest and reflection, and try to design workloads and processes that allow people to stay engaged and healthy over time.
Using our ecofeminist values as a guide, we strive to create a culture of care where sustainability is practiced not only in what we produce, but in how we work and relate to one another.
We are disability led and focus on providing opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists of all ages and backgrounds. Since 2023, we have hosted over 100 international artists (of which 90% identify as women or LGBTQIA+. We take into account the diverse accessibility needs of our staff and artists, offering personalized support to ensure that everyone can participate fully in our residency and community activities.
We offer sliding-scale fees for artists and participants, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent anyone from engaging with our programs.
Economic and Infrastructural Sustainability: resilient, regenerative
We are constantly striving to develop structures of support that align with our ecological and social values and understand this work as ongoing and collective.
Through circular economies such as resource sharing, material reuse and recirculation, we seek to develop a regenerative practice that isn’t solely reliant on financial support.
We commit to the following circular and communal actions:
- selecting and sourcing materials and services locally whenever possible
- living as much as possible from and in direct relationship with the land by cultivating regenerative gardening practices
- using non-toxic, recyclable or bio-degradable artistic materials
- sustaining a shared materials bank
- Creating, sharing and sustaining a growing, communal Living Archive and Library of artistic ecological practices via our network of visiting artists
Infrastructurally we commit to the following:
- waste sorting and recycling
- using second-hand or repurposed furniture, tools and equipment whenever possible
- installing energy-saving lighting and appliances
- minimising the use of disposable products
- limiting water and electricity use
- limiting the use of fossil fuels by car sharing, limiting group shopping trips to once a week if possible and heating the premises only when necessary.
Long Term Strategic Resilience:
By fostering acts of exchange, and forming networks of artists and collaborators willing to share knowledge and time, we will continuously deepen our relationship with our residency and local communities by creating a de-centralised, multi-voiced support structure to help carry the long term artistic and ecological work of Muijala forward. We will do this by:
- Creating programs that can endure beyond a single grant cycle
- Nurturing partnerships that grow over time
- Continuously developing a core of artist/volunteers to help share the many aspects of running and organizing our residencies, public programs and maintenance projects.
Monitoring and Reporting:
Our commitment to accountability involves:
Continuous Evaluation:
We regularly assess the ecological, social, and economic impact of our activities, using holistic metrics that account for the health of the land, the vitality of our community, and the sustainability of our financial models.
Transparency:
Regularly sharing updates on our sustainability practices and their outcomes, ensuring transparency with our community, partners, and stakeholders.
Into the Future
Muijala has always been more than a residency space, it is a social sculpture that echoes the natural world by forming deep roots and networks of support that counter extractivist mindsets that place the individual above the whole. By cultivating an emergent artistic practice based on a commitment to myriad forms of cross-fertilisation and a relational ethics grounded in ideas of reciprocity, we aim to create a series of entangled networks blossoming into a flourishing ecosystem.
