Persons also worked with numerous guest lectures at the time, James Turrell, Betty Woodman, and Lewis Baltz.
[1] Persons is the creator and founder of The Helsinki School, based upon a Professional Studies program that was unique in how it used its academic platform to create an environment that blended teachers, students and former graduates together in a contextual dialogue through group exhibitions, publications and the utilization of the international art fairs as a means for teaching, referencing and presenting their works to the international community.
Its name was introduced in an article by Boris Hohmeyer, Aufbruch im hohen Norden (Breakthrough in the Far North), in art Das Kunstmagazin in 2003.
Moreover he had a position as senior advisor to the Borås art museum [sv] and was a head of the jury for the Hasselblad "Young Artist" Award, Gothenburg between 2003 and 2005.
[4] Apart from his role as an academic member, he collaborated with various artists and publishing houses such as Hatje Cantz, releasing book contributions such as 6 volumes of The Helsinki School (2005-2019),[5] Grey Crawford: El Mirage (2018),[6] Dominik Lejman: Painting with Timecode (2014),[7] POLISH!