Jury

Chairperson of the Jury, Vice Chairperson of the Board

Leena Niemistö, MD, PhD, Honorary Doctor of Administrative Sciences, is a board professional and investor. She served as CEO of Dextra from 2003 to 2016 and as Deputy CEO of Pihlajalinna from 2013 to 2016. Niemistö was Chair of the Board of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet from 2016 to 2025. She has also chaired the jury of the Ars Fennica Award since 2004. Niemistö is Chair of the Board of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Vice Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Finnish National Theatre and Chair of the Delegation of the Foundation for Economic Education. In addition to board work in arts and education organisations, Niemistö has served on the boards of numerous companies and organisations, and currently sits on the boards of Pihlajalinna, Raisio, Nexstim, Nightingale Health and Digital Workforce Services, among others.

Member of the Jury, Museum Director (Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki)

Kiira Miesmaa is a Finnish museum director and art historian specialising in contemporary art. Since 2024, she has served as Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, part of the Finnish National Gallery. Before joining Kiasma, Miesmaa held a management position at a contemporary art gallery in Helsinki for more than ten years. During this time, she worked closely with Finnish and international artists, museums and galleries, led the gallery’s participation in international art fairs, and played a key role in developing its operations. Previously, she also served as Exhibition Manager at Kunsthalle Helsinki, where she was responsible for the exhibition programme, curatorial direction and exhibition production. Miesmaa holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Turku and served for seven years as a board member of HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme).

Member of the Jury, Museum Director (HAM Helsinki Art Museum)

Arja Miller joined Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) and Helsinki Biennial as director in March 2023. Prior to this, she was Chief Curator of EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2017–2023) and Chief Curator of Collections at Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art (2008–2017). She has worked with numerous prominent artists, such as Pierre Huyghe, Elmgreen & Dragset, Chiharu Shiota, Daniel Buren, Tatsuo Miyajima and Alicja Kwade. Miller has also curated thematic group exhibitions, including ”In Search of the Present” at EMMA, which explored the relationship between art, technology, and nature. She has co-curated major international group shows at Kiasma, such as ARS11 and ARS17, which focused on contemporary African art and artists’ responses to the digital revolution, respectively. An accomplished writer, her areas of focus include museums as discursive spaces, installation art, new media art, and the intersections of art, sound, and music. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Helsinki (1997) and a qualification in Business management in the museum context from the Management Institute of Finland (2012–2014).

Member of the Jury, Art Critic

Sanna Lipponen is a freelance writer and art critic. She writes art reviews for, among others, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily newspaper and is one of the founders and editors-in-chief of EDIT, an online publication focusing on contemporary art. In 2022, she was awarded the E. J. Vehmas Award for Art Criticism.

Member of the Jury, Director of Collections and Exhibitions (Kunstsilo, Norway)

Else-Brit Kroneberg is Director of Collections and Exhibitions at Kunstsilo in Kristiansand in Norway. She is responsible for the management, development and accessibility of the museum’s art collections, as well as for work related to collection strategy, research and curatorial projects.

Kroneberg studied at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and the University of Bergen, where she received a Cand.philol. degree in Art History in 2000, specialising in contemporary photography. She has curated numerous exhibitions spanning historical art, contemporary art and crafts. She is currently pursuing a PhD project focusing on photography in the Tangen Collection.