Sea Seminar: Encouraging interest in protecting the Baltic Sea through art – Illustrated poetry for kids and the young

Poet and Artist Outi-Illuusia Parviainen

Environmental education need not be only facts! Practicing empathy and reflecting on one’s own doings through illustrated poems helps with approaching unpleasant problems like littering or polluting the sea. Colorful illustrations about the Baltic Sea in the book Mitä levää! (What the algae!) make nature seem like a wonderland in danger and help with influencing attitudes and behavior for the better. Poems and songs from our childhood often stay in the memory for long. Combining literary work with an environmental message is effective.

Outi-Illuusia Parviainen (MBA, BA) is a poet and visual designer but also a marketing and leadership professional. She holds interest towards behavioral insights and believes that art can be a powerful tool to sow the seeds of change when it comes to protecting nature. She has done live art and written lyrics for music and is looking forward to seeing her Baltic Sea poetry take all possible forms on and off stage. Parviainen likes challenging her thoughts through collaborations of many sorts and looks for other nature-loving brains to meet. Any language is a good language, as she embraces the thought of performing in different languages and having her work translated. She sails on the Baltic Sea and teaches her kids to appreciate the wind.

The Sea Seminar series is a collaboration between the ÅAU profiling area The Sea and SOS. The seminars are organized once a month with a hybrid setup (click here for online participation), and they are open to everyone interested in marine and sustainability issues.