Firestorm Foundation – empowering female artists

Firestorm Foundation and the SSE Art Initiative are collaborating from 2025 to 2027 to promote knowledge, discussion and concrete change around the representation of women and nonbinary artists. The partnership connects artistic practice with education and research, using SSE as a meeting place for artists, students, researchers and the wider public.

The collaboration supports several complementary strands of work:

• Public conversations: seminars and artist talks examining visibility, value and working conditions in the art world;
• The SSE Art Collection: acquisitions and donations that increase the presence of women and nonbinary artists across the School;
• Research: an annual SEK 50,000 Master’s thesis scholarship for work on gender equality, representation and the art market; and
• Knowledge sharing: connecting artworks, exhibitions and academic perspectives so that the programme contributes beyond individual events.

The programme pages below document the artworks, talks, scholarship and 2025 thesis developed through the partnership.

Firestorm Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation established in Stockholm in 2021 by Cristina Ljungberg. Its purpose is to address structural imbalances in the art world by strengthening the visibility, documentation, collection and long-term recognition of women and nonbinary artists.

The foundation combines collecting with knowledge creation. Its collection comprises around 200 works and brings together historical pioneers and contemporary voices, including Hilma af Klint, Tracey Emin, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Bourgeois and Ulla Wiggen. The collection provides a basis for research, publications, exhibitions and public conversations about artistic value, representation and cultural memory.

Firestorm Foundation works with museums, universities and cultural institutions to ensure that these perspectives reach different audiences. Its collaborators have included Moderna Museet, the Guggenheim Museum, the Swedish Institute in Paris and the Stockholm School of Economics Art Initiative.