Kai Lehikoinen is a Director of Research Centre at Uniarts Helsinki. He leads Uniarts Helsinki’s CERADA Center for Educational Research and Academic Development and is Vice Director for the ArtsEqual Research Initiative and Team Leader for the Arts, Health, Welfare & Care Research team. His research interests stretch from cultural meanings of choreography to boundary work in the arts, arts education, democracy, gender, health and wellbeing, organisation development, and innovations. His recent publications include research articles on dance in eldercare, a book on dance analysis and three co-edited anthologies – one on training artists for innovation, the other on artists as developers in organisations, and the third one on arts and wellbeing.

He has contributed to a number of European projects. Most recently, in ELIA’s NXT Making a Living from the Arts, he addressed expanding professionalism and the teaching of employability skills in higher arts education. In ArtsEqual, his responsibilities include knowledge transfer and societal interaction with many stakeholders. He is also a board member for the Finnish Society for Research in Art Education, a member of the Advisory Board of the Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence, an expert for the Nordic Culture Fund, and a member of two national task forces: one on arts and artist policy, the other on arts and culture for health and well-being. A graduate of the University College of Dance (Stockholm), Kai holds an MA (Dist.) in Dance Studies and a PhD from the University of Surrey (Guildford). His doctoral dissertation focused on discourses of masculinity in dance education for boys.