New and Old: Multimedia as a Tool for Providing Interpretation and Meaning: Reflections on the Finnish Art Education History Project

During the last decade, Pirkko Pohjakallio, a researcher at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, has been involved in historical research. In her presentation of a recently produced CD-ROM, she emphasizes the role of art education in building a national identity and in shaping gender roles. Children’s pictures are also used to analyze how educational concepts and philosophies have changed. Without this new medium, it would be much harder to organize the riches of the pictures in the collection for students and researchers to explore.