We are delighted to welcome Enni-Kukka Tuomala as the next Open House Artist in Residence for North Cambridge. Enni will be working with communities in North Cambridge from now until March 2021.

Enni-Kukka Tuomala is the next Artist in Residence for Open House, following Emma Smith, Isabella Martin, Harold Offeh, Hannah Kemp-Welch and most recently, Wright & Vandame. Open House has welcomed an Artist in Residence each year since 2015, selected by the community, with an aim to explore the local area, collaborate with local residents and create new artwork together.

What does Enni’s art practice involve?

Enni is an empathy artist and designer. Her practice focuses on transforming empathy from an individual feeling into a collective and radical power, to create positive social change through public artworks, experiements, interventions and communications.

How was Enni selected?

Four artists were shortlisted from an open call. Each of the shortlisted artists was invited to develop a workshop for a local community group, an activity for a primary school, to discuss their art practice with the Open House community panel and to tell us why they would like to work with people in North Cambridge. After careful deliberation, Enni was selected by the panel for the 2020 residency.

What can we expect from the residency?

Over the next 12 months, Enni will be running the Campaign for Empathy – the world’s first community-centred campaign to promote empathy as a way to foster a sense of community and connection in a time of physical distancing and social isolation. She will work with individuals and community groups who are based in the area, and she aims to make North Cambridge the most empathic community in the UK.

Open House will be running free workshops and activities with Enni and our team of artist facilitors in North Cambridge throughout the year.During the launch of the Campaign and for the foreseeable future, all activities will take place remotely via online tools, the phone, and the post.

Follow #CampaignForEmpathy on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated.