The Iceland University of the Arts is a self-governing institution providing higher education in fine arts, theatre, dance, music, design, architecture, and art education. The role of the Iceland University of the Arts is to encourage progressive thinking in the arts and to stimulate innovation and development in different fields. The IUA offers education in the arts at the university level and conveys both knowledge and professionalism in the arts to Icelandic society. It operates in a global environment and measures itself against academies that excel in arts education in neighbouring countries.

The MA Design: Explorations & Translations at the Iceland University of the Arts brings together the complementary practices of applied design and fictional/speculative design to deal with contemporary issues related to the Environment and rapidly evolving technological landscape. Our international faculty leads courses in critical material and technological innovation and systems thinking, mapping the landscape and industries of Iceland as an experimental ground reflecting the global context. Based on thorough research and an experimental process, the students´ projects are interdisciplinary in essence. They are manifested through relevant media, from material prototypes to publications, video and virtual / augmented reality media works, and have been exhibited and awarded internationally.

Thomas Pausz, who is the main figure of the partnership with LHI is a critical designer and artist born in Paris and based in Reykjavik. His practice focuses on the exploration of alternative ecologies, and the possible unforeseen interactions between life forms, technology, and media. He was artist in residence at the Delfina Foundation in London in 2016, interim artist at the Srishti School of Arts in Bangalore in 2017, and was a Fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude. Thomas is Associate Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts and programme director of the MA Design Explorations & Translations.

NTNU is a university with an international focus, with headquarters in Trondheim. NTNU has a main profile in science and technology, a variety of programmes of professional study, and great academic breadth that also includes the humanities, social sciences, economics, medicine, health sciences, educational science, architecture, entrepreneurship, art disciplines and artistic activities.

The decolonial arts education research and practice group is an inter institutional and inclusive platform for artists, researchers and teachers engaged in higher education. The group also invites and includes interested parties from the field of practice, locally and globally. The research group is a location to collaborate and energise arts education in the Nordic region towards pluralistic understandings of art making, teaching, and scholarship. They specifically seek to do this through expanding meanings of the relationship between decoloniality, art and arts education through topics such as ethics, whiteness and critical race theory, inclusion/exclusion, Nordic migration, indigenous knowledges and methodologies, power positions and curriculum.

The Icelandic Art Center promotes and supports Icelandic contemporary art internationally through grants, collaborations and projects. It facilitates professional partnerships, visitor programmes and international collaborations between artists. The Center serves as an information point for curators, press, artists and art institutions.

The Icelandic Art Center is the commissioner of the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It takes part in Nordic, European and international projects of different scales on a regular basis. The Center connects different parties within the artworld and assists with collaborations. It works closely with artists, museums and galleries on various projects.

The Icelandic Art Center was founded in 2005 and is a self-governing institution funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.