F.E. Sillanpää The most famous student of the former Haukijärvi school is no doubt F. E. Sillanpää, a Nobel-prize winning writer.

In the year 1901 Miss Sigrid Richter donated the land she had bought to the municipality of Haukijärvi so that they could start building a school. The Next year the first school building was built to the site. After the full, compulsory education began in 1934, the second school building was built and completed in the year 1941. In both buildings flats were made for the teachers, where they lived while their teaching periods. In the school students studied religion, Finnish, geography, history, math, biology, drawing, writing, singing, gymnastics and handcrafts. School trips to the near villages were done using skis, bikes and by walking. The school was significant for the village – it educated and cultivated the children and guided them into cultural hobbies, such as playing music. The facilities were also used for various celebrations and festivals organized by the village members. There was also a library meant for the whole village, which was operational until the 1970’s. The school closed its doors in traditional sense in the summer of 2009 as the students were transferred into a larger school. In 2010 artists Teemu Räsänen, Pekka Ruuska and Inga Mustakallio founded Arteles Creative Center into these historical facilities and since the beginning of 2013 Arteles has been run solely by Teemu Räsänen. During the colourful past years Arteles has gone through several changes and steps of development. Over 20 persons have worked in the center and a great amount of voluntary work has been required to make it the Creative Center it is today. What comes to the resident history, the first artists arrived in June 2010 and the place has been blooming with creativity since. By the end of 2020 there has been over 1000 selected artists & creative professionals from over 50 different countries freely exploring, experimenting & expanding their creative practice and thinking.