RiddoDuottarMuseat manages one of the world’s largest collections of d\u00e1idda (S\u00e1mi contemporary art) and d\u00e1iddaduodji (artistic heritage crafts) at S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna (S\u00e1mi Art Collections). The department is responsible for the stewardship of approximately 1600 works representing over 250 artists active from the 1800s to the present. The collection provides access to artworks across a wide range of mediums illuminating significant periods of <\/span>S\u00e1mi<\/span> art history. As an Indigenous-led institution, S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna advances the vision set by its founding S\u00e1mi artist and community leaders to expand capacity for intergenerational exchange of artistic and cultural knowledge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna has its roots in the development of the S\u00e1mi art field. The collection originates from the establishment of S\u00e1miid Vuork\u00e1-D\u00e1vvirat \/ S\u00e1mi Museum in 1972 as both the first S\u00e1mi cultural institution in Norway and the foundation of the RiddoDuottarMuseat consortium of museums. From the beginning, the S\u00e1mi art collection benefited from Arts Council Norway support to acquire mainly duodji works. However, the collection also began acquiring works from artists who would establish the influential S\u00e1mi D\u00e1idujoavku (SDJ \u2013 S\u00e1mi Artists\u2019 Group) in 1978 and later form S\u00e1mi D\u00e1idda\u010dehpiid Searvi (SDS \u2013 The S\u00e1mi Artists\u2019 Union) in 1979. These contemporary artworks by members of S\u00e1mi D\u00e1idujoavku were the first acquisitions purchased directly by the museum, broadening the collection\u2019s scope and commitment to S\u00e1mi artists.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The relationship between the collections department and S\u00e1mi artists laid an important foundation for the visibility and institutionalization of S\u00e1mi art. To this day, the collections department maintains a spirit of collaboration with local art spaces, including S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddaguovdd\u00e1\u0161 (SDG \u2013 S\u00e1mi Center for Contemporary Art), established in 1989 as part of the legacy of S\u00e1mi D\u00e1idujoavku.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over time, the art collections department became a separate unit, initially through a three-year project position from 1998 to 2001. In 2002, it was formalized as a core department responsible for managing\u00a0the rapidly\u00a0expanding collection. Today, S\u00e1mi\u00a0D\u00e1iddamagasiidna\u00a0consists of three staff members\u2014the head of department, collection manager, and curator\u2014as it prepares for the long-anticipated establishment of a new S\u00e1mi Art Museum.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The team consists of professionals with expertise in art and culture, including art history and curatorial practice. They work to promote S\u00e1mi art\u2014duodji and d\u00e1idda\u2014through exhibitions, events, digital platforms, and by making the collection accessible for research, publications, and loans to local, national, and international exhibitions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Per Asle Sara<\/strong> is the head of the S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna – RiddoDuottarMuseat department. He has a strong professional interest in how art can function as an expression of identity, belonging and resistance, especially within visual art in a S\u00e1mi context. He is particularly interested in how visual expressions can contribute to increased awareness of social and political issues, with a special focus on S\u00e1mi, political contemporary art.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Per holds a master’s degree in art history from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Through work in museums, exhibitions and various projects, he has years of experience as an advisor, panelist, mediator, writer of art communication texts, editor, spokesperson, co-curator and exhibition organizer. Among other projects, he has worked as co-curator for the exhibition Visualizing Arctic Voices at the Center for Northern Peoples, translated the associated exhibition catalog into Northern S\u00e1mi, and served as advisor and text contributor for The Land Has a Mind to Speak and S\u00e1mi Horizons at MARKK in Hamburg. Recently, he has organized the Sami Parliament’s purchasing exhibition \u00c1igegovat in collaboration with the Sami Parliament’s purchasing committee and S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddaguovdd\u00e1\u0161.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Per Asle grew up in K\u00e1r\u00e1\u0161johka and comes from a S\u00e1mi reindeer herding family. He also has an art education from the Karasjok Art School, where he was among the first cohort of students. In addition to his role as department head, he also works as an illustrative artist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ulrikke Marie Strandli<\/strong> is a\u00a0collections\u00a0manager at the S\u00e1mi\u00a0D\u00e1iddamagasiidna\u00a0\u2013\u00a0RiddoDuottarMuseat. Her areas of interest include how duodji and\u00a0d\u00e1idda\u00a0can provide new and expanded perspectives on S\u00e1mi history, culture, and society, as well as strengthen identity and cohesion in S\u00e1pmi over time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ulrikke holds a master\u2019s degree in art history from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. In her master\u2019s project, she worked with coastal S\u00e1mi cultural heritage and examined how museums and collections have contributed to shaping knowledge and narratives about S\u00e1mi communities. This has given her a particular awareness of the importance of insider perspectives in the management and dissemination of S\u00e1mi art and culture. Through her studies and project work, she has gained experience in exhibition development and the communication of Indigenous art. She is affiliated with the research group Arctic Voices and has contributed to the exhibitions Visualizing Arctic Voices at the D\u00e1vvi \u00c1lbmogiid Guovdd\u00e1\u0161 \/ Centre for Northern Peoples, and Stories from the Arctic Contact Zone, which was shown at the Arctic Youth Conference in 2025.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ulrikke was born and raised in Romsa \/ Troms\u00f8, with a coastal S\u00e1mi background and a strong connection to Sk\u00e1rfv\u00e1ggi \/ Skardalen in G\u00e1ivuotna \/ K\u00e5fjord and \u00c1k\u0161ovuotna \/ Oksfjord in R\u00e1isa \/ Nordreisa in Northern Troms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pablo N. Barrera<\/strong> joins RiddoDuottarMuseat as the inaugural curator of the S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna \/S\u00e1mi Art Collections Department. Pablo brings over fifteen years of experience collaborating with local art communities to produce exhibitions and apply innovative strategies supporting formal and informal learning of Indigenous art. His research focuses on Indigenous artists operating within the context of global Indigenous movements and colonial organizational structures. He is committed to mentoring the next generation of Indigenous curators and to raising public awareness of the invaluable role that Indigenous artistic perspectives contribute toward globalizing art history.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pablo holds master’s degrees in art history from Yale University and Harvard University, and a bachelor\u2019s degree in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to arriving in S\u00e1pmi, he served as Associate Curator at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, where he organized over 40 exhibitions in a region representing 38 federally recognized tribal nations, curating major solo, group, retrospective, survey, and public art exhibitions. In addition to his professional experience in the museum and heritage sectors, Pablo has juried international survey exhibitions, given lectures and presentations across three continents, and been invited as guest curator for landmark exhibitions in the Southwestern United States region. He has also independently curated shows in London, Seoul, and New York, and held research and advisory committee positions for institutions including the Fulbright Fellowship, the Getty Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and various artist-in-residence programs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pablo has written on the artistic representation of cultures that experienced colonization, including exhibition catalogue essays, a paper on Mesoamerican art production as part of the Columbian Exchange between Colonial Spain and East Asia (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute) and a co-authored chapter on Korean vernacular architectural heritage (Springer International). He was born in Chicago to immigrant parents; his father is a member of a Wix\u00e1ritari Indigenous community in Jalisco, Mexico, where Pablo spent his formative years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The dissemination of d\u00e1idda (S\u00e1mi contemporary art) and d\u00e1iddaduodji (artistic heritage craft) is central to the department\u2019s mission. Dissemination takes place through research access, publications, and the lending of works for local, national, and international exhibitions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna holds a central role in facilitating access to the collection while the museum is closed in preparation for new construction. The department hosts visiting scholars and community members wishing to study archival materials by appointment. Artworks will continue to be regularly exhibited at the S\u00e1mediggi \/S\u00e1mi Parliament in Karasjok. Works from the collection can also be seen at RiddoDuottarMuseat\u2019s institutions throughout Finnmark county, including <\/span>Pors\u00e1\u014bggu\u00a0musea\/<\/span>Porsanger museum’s Art Arena in Lakselv and Guovdageainnu gili\u0161illju\/Kautokeino Municipal Museum. Works and archival materials are also made available toward disseminating projects at collaborating institutions, such as universities and the DigitaltMuseum where S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna publishes a rotating selection of 50 artworks every year as part of a common database for Norwegian and Swedish museums and collections.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over time, the collection has evolved to encompass a wide range of artistic expressions. Acquisition schemes crucial to building the collection were initially through Arts Council Norway and later transferred to the S\u00e1mi Parliament in 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, S\u00e1mi\u00a0D\u00e1iddamagasiidna\u00a0administers yearly additions\u00a0purchased\u00a0through the S\u00e1mi Parliament’s art purchasing scheme: a committee hired at two-year intervals by the S\u00e1mi Parliament. The committee consists of four S\u00e1mi artists, two members, and two deputy members tasked with leading the purchasing of S\u00e1mi contemporary art and\u00a0d\u00e1iddaduodji\u00a0throughout S\u00e1pmi.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S\u00e1mi D\u00e1iddamagasiidna has a new team. This presentation offers an introduction to the department, the history of the collection, and its work to manage, develop, and disseminate d\u00e1idda and duodji. It also presents Head of Department Per Asle Sara, Collections Manager Ulrikke Marie Strandli, and Curator Pablo N. Barrera, their backgrounds and professional interests, and their work within the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":14913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-thesamiartcollection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14929"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14959,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929\/revisions\/14959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdm.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rdm.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gudenesdans-kopi-scaled.jpg\")
HISTORY<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rdm.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/magasin-scaled.jpg\")
TEAM<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rdm.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SD-389-6-scaled.jpg\")
MISSION<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rdm.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SD-01294_2fotoPerAsleSara_RDM.jpeg\")
ACQUISITIONS<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n