The Nordik board consists of two regular board members and one supplicant member from each of the Nordic countries. In addition to the regular members, the association’s secretary is elected separately. To contact the board, e-mail us on info (at) nordikarthistory.org or contact one of the boardmembers directly.
Leena Svinhufvud
Chair of the board
Leena Svinhufvud completed her PhD in 2009 at the University of Helsinki where she also holds title of docent in art history. She has specialized in the history of modern textile design. Her research topics include also gender and craft, oral histories, exhibitions and museum collections and most recently, citizen curation and audience-generated data. Leena works as Educational Curator and Head of Learning at Design Museum Helsinki since 1998.
Email me: leena.svinhufvud@designmuseum.fi
Julia Svarvar
Secretary
Julia Svarvar is a PhD Student in architectural history at the department of Art History at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. Her thesis is about urban bath houses in Finland 1870 to 1930.
Email me: julia.svarvar@abo.fi
Fred Andersson
Supplicant member
PhD in art history (Lund University), docent with a specialization in visual communication, head of the Visual Studies minor at Åbo Akademi. Has published on Nordic avantgarde and popular culture from a communicative and semiotic perspective.
Email me: fred.andersson@abo.fi
Signe Endersen
Board member
PhD in art history from University of Oslo (2015). Senior Curator at Munchmuseet (Oslo). Research and curatorial interests: European modern art with particular focus on new visual media, gender, identity construction, and material culture.
Email me: signe.endresen@munchmuseet.no
Christina Pech
Board member
Christina Pech is an architectural historian and senior lecturer in Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Oslo. Research interests focus on the historiography of architecture, exhibitions, and institutions in the post-war period. A current project, funded by Arts and Culture Norway, concerns Nordic architecture museums, particularly the Norsk Arkitekturmuseum. For more information and publications, see: https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/art-history/tenured/chrispec/
Email me: christina.pech@ifikk.uio.no
Malin Graesse
Supplicant member
Malin Graesse holds a PhD in art history from the University of Oslo and was a Postdoctoral fellow in environmental humanities at the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities at University of Stavanger. She will be a technical advisor at the National Museum in Oslo from early spring 2026. Her research focuses on the relationship between design and the environment, and she has worked on topics such as social design and textile art.
Email me: malin.k.graesse@uis.no
Hedvig Mårdh
Vice chair
Hedvig Mårdh is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies with a specialization in Art History and Visual Studies at Karlstad University. She also works as a researcher at Nationalmuseum. Her scholarly work explores the visual aspects of cultural heritage, with particular emphasis on museums, urban planning, and public art. Mårdh is part of the editorial board of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History.
Email me: hedvig.mardh@kau.se
Håkan Nilsson
Board member
Håkan Nilsson is professor in art history at Södertörn University and research mainly on post-war modernism and public art. He previously held a position as professor in art theory and history at Konstfack (2003-2017). Nilsson is currently project leader for the project Designed Living Environments – Transdisciplinary Learning funded by KK-stiftelsen (The knowledge foundation) aiming at establishing a transdisciplinary course on advanced level for professionals working with in public art public realm, in co-operation with professor Loulou Cherinet at Konstfack and Ph.D Sofia Wiberg at KTH. He is the author of Måleriets rum (2009) and editor of two anthologies on public art, Placing Art in the Public Realm (2012) and Omförhandlingar (2021). Nilsson has also written numerous of articles and catalogue essays, and has been writing art criticsism in morning papers (Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet) on a regular basis since 1997. Previous research projects: Art (Without) Spaces (2005-08) Room, Power Ideology (2012-15) Collaboration, Synthesis, Spatiality – on Ideas and Ideals in some Post-War Artist Groups (2016-2019) (all funded by The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies) and Renegotiations (2018-20) where he was project leader for research project on public art, commissioned by Public Art Agency Sweden.
Email me: hakan.nilsson@sh.se
Andrea Kollnitz
Supplicant member
Andrea Kollnitz is Professor of Art History and currently Head of the Art History department at the Department for Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University. Her research interests include art and national identity; transnational perspectives on the Nordic avant-garde; art and fashion; surrealism in the Nordic countries and artistic self-fashioning.
Email me: andrea.kollnitz@arthistory.su.se
Susanne Bruhn
Board member
Susanne Bruhn, PhD Fellow in art history and design studies at CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark. Since 2012 she has been a board member of the Danish Association of Art Historians. Research: Danish craft and design from 1880-1960 with a special interest in ceramics, design history, exhibition and collection studies.
Email me: susannebruhn@live.com
Lisbet Tarp
Board member
Lisbet Tarp is associate professor in art history at Aarhus University, Denmark. She holds a PhD in early modern art history with focus on European decorative arts, natural philosophy, and art theory. Research interests also include Ole Worm (1588-1654) in relation to 17th century science and collecting. In her recent project, Digital art history, Tarp has collaborated with computer specialists and conservators at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark. Tarp is a board member of the Danish Art Historians Association (2022), Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad (2021), and a steering group member of the Danish Network for House Museums (ODM – The Association of Danish Museums) (2022).
Email me: tarp@cc.au.dk
Sanne Flyvbjerg
Supplicant member
Sanne Flyvbjerg is a Danish writer, curator and interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of text, visual art, and narrative environments that respond to the stories embedded in local settings. She collaborates across art, music and design projects, contributing writing, curation, and conceptual development to exhibitions, public art commissions, and literary works. She is curator at CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, focusing on international collaborations. MA in Literature and Art History.
Email me: brev@sanneflyvbjerg.dk
Heiða Björk Árnadóttir
Board member
PhD in Art History and Theory (University of British Columbia) and M.A. in Museum Studies (University of Iceland). Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Iceland. Research interests include: museum and exhibition history, modernism and postwar art and culture, the Cultural Cold War and the role of the proximal senses in art.
Email me: heidabjork@hi.is
Ragnheiður Vignisdóttir
Board member
Ragnheiður Vignisdóttir is the Head of Education and Publishing at the National Gallery of Iceland. She holds a BA in Art History from the University of Iceland, with an exchange semester at Sorbonne University in Paris, along with a diploma in Cultural Mediation and a master’s degree in Editing and Publishing. Ragnheiður has led numerous educational projects, and she is the author of educational materials now used in teacher training and co-author of peer-reviewed articles on museum education. Research interests include visual literacy and art education. Ragnheiður also serves as secretary on the board of ICOM Iceland.
Email me: ragnheidur.vignisdottir@listasafn.is
Brynja Sveinsdóttir
Supplicant member
Brynja Sveinsdóttir is a curator and director of Gerðarsafn – Kópavogur Art Museum in Iceland. She holds an M.A. in Curating from Stockholm University (2014), an M.A. in Applied Cultural Mediation from the University of Iceland (2011) and a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Iceland (2010). Since completing her studies, Brynja has worked extensively on exhibition-making, both through independent curatorial projects and in positions at art museums. In addition, she has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts and the Reykjavík School of Photography. Before taking on the position of director of Gerðarsafn, she worked as a curator and collection manager at the museum from 2016, was Exhibition and Education Project Manager at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography in 2015 and served as Assistant Curator at Moderna Museet in 2014.
Email me: brynjas@kopavogur.is
NORDIK The Nordic Association for Art Historians 