New website and new book about outsider art in Finland

This is the logo of a new website about contemporary finnish folk art. ITE is the abbreviation of itse tehty elämä, which means self-made life. As it is said on the site: "ITE is art which is dependent on its maker’s environment and experience; it is a way to live a good life that emphasizes aesthetic values".

The website is in english, which gives a broad international audience acces to information about the -in my opinion- very interesting and fascinating world of finish outsider art. This is particularly important because so far just a few resources in english are available on this subject.

In april 2011 a book about ITE art in english, the first in its kind in Finland, was published:

Seppo Knuuttila (Red), ITE art in Finland. Helsinki, 2011. -120p. ISBN 978-952-5870-40-4.

In 2004 Raw Visison  already had a number of articles about Finnish ITE art in its issue nr 46.

The website has information about expositions, conferences and other actual activities, and there is a section about life and work of individual Finnish artists. I understand the current version is just the beginning, the site will further develop.

This project is supported by the Union for rural culture and education and  the Kokkola ITE Contemporary Folk Art Museum (and, although it is not explicitly stated who are authoring the site- I am quite sure that Minna Haveri and Raija Kallioinen are rather active in editing it).

Must visit, must read!