The Arts Council Norway (, often shortened to ''Kulturrådet'') is the official

arts council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Based in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, it is a Norwegian state institution created in as a result of a

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

decision in 1964. Arts Council Norway's administration is in charge of a broad spectrum of administrative tasks and functions within the cultural field, including artists' grants, the Audio and Visual Fund and a number of other funding schemes. In 2010, Arts Council Norway was merged with ABM-utvikling, the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority. The library functions were transferred to the

National Library of Norway The National Library of Norway () was established in 1989. Its principal task is "to preserve the past for the future". The library is located both in Oslo and in Mo i Rana. The building in Oslo was restored and reopened in 2005. Prior to the e ...

. In 2015, the archive functions were transferred to the

National Archives of Norway The National Archives of Norway (''Riksarkivet'') is the institution responsible for preserving archive material from Norway, Norwegian state institutions, as well as contributing to the preservation of private archives. It does this work in cooper ...

. Arts Council Norway administers funding schemes for literature, music, performing and visual arts, museum development, youth culture, cultural heritage and creative industries. Arts Council Norway also develops, funds and commissions cultural research projects and evaluations of major projects funded by the Cultural Fund. In addition, the administration is the main contact point for the EEA Grants Culture,

Creative Europe Creative Europe is a European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors. In its first phase, going from 2014 to 2020, it had a budget of € 1.47 billion, which were expanded to € 2.44 billion in its second phase (2021-2027). His ...

and other international cultural cooperation efforts. The administration also houses the secretariat for The Cultural Rucksack.

The Arts Council

The arts council is charged with managing the Norwegian culture fund, reviewing applications and allocating funds to achieve cultural objectives at the members' academic and artistic discretion, but consistent with the sitting Parliament's priorities. The council also serves as an advisory body for the public in cultural matters. The Council may, on their own initiative, hold conferences, perform cultural experiments and initiate studies. The council annually awards the Arts Council Norway Honorary Prize (). Chairman of the arts council is Yngve Slettholm.

Arts Council chairs

* Sigmund Løvåsen (appointed 2022) * Lars Petter Hagen (appointed 2020) * Tone Hansen (appointed 2016) * Yngve Slettholm (appointed 2012) *

Bentein Baardson Bentein Baardson (born 6 November 1953 in New York City) is a Norwegian actor, instructor and theatre director. He was born in New York, and is the son of Brynjolv Baardson. Bentein Baardson graduated from Teaterhøyskolen in 1975. He has set ...

(appointed 2009) * Vigdis Moe Skarstein (appointed 2001) *

Jon Bing Jon Bing (30 April 1944 – 14 January 2014) was a Norwegian writer and law professor at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL), and the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. Bing was considered a pioneer in internation ...

(appointed 1993) * Oddvar S. Kvam (appointed 1985) * Edvard Beyer (appointed 1973) * Hartvig Kiran (appointed 1981) * Leif J. Wilhelmsen (appointed 1965)

Administration

Halvdan Skard Halvdan Skard (born 1 December 1939) is a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party, Labour Party. He was born in Oslo as a son of Åse Gruda Skard and Sigmund Skard, and through Åse the grandson of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht. H ...

was the director from 1983 to 1992, but was then granted an absence of leave to become chairman of the

Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities () is an employers' organisation in Norway. It was founded in 1972 as a merger between the Union of Norwegian Cities (''Norges Byforbund'', founded in 1903) and the Norwegian Associati ...

. On 18 December 1992 it was announced that Lidvin Osland would serve as acting director until 1 July 1996. Osland stepped down as planned, but his successor was not appointed immediately, as the council rejected all applicants and asked for other candidates. On 20 September 1996, it was announced that

Halvard Kausland Halvard Magne Kausland (25 April 1945 – 21 December 2017) was a Norwegian jazz guitarist and civil servant. Biography He hailed from Sund. He received his education from the ''Norges kommunal- og sosialhøgskole'', Agder Regional Coll ...

had been appointed as acting director from 1 November 1996 to 31 March 2000. However, Kausland withdrew three days before actually assuming the post. The deputy director briefly advanced to become acting director during this vacancy. On 20 December

Ole Jacob Bull Ole Jacob Bull (born 11 March 1948) is a Norwegian translator and cultural director. He holds the cand.mag. degree from 1974. He worked as director of the Norwegian Writers' Center from 1980 to 1982, studied abroad from 1982 to 1983 (and 1979 to ...

was appointed. In early 2004, Skard finally quit as director. Bull applied to become the new director, and got the position on a permanent basis in July 2004. Since October 2010, director of Arts Council Norway was

Anne Aasheim Anne Aasheim (22 April 1962 – 30 March 2016) was a Norwegian editor. She was born in Porsgrunn and started her journalist career in the neighboring city's largest newspaper '' Varden'' in the late 1970s. She worked in '' Dagen'' and '' Bergens ...

, previously

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

''. After her death in 2016, Kristin Danielsen was appointed as director.

Directors

* Kristin Danielsen (appointed 2016) *

(appointed 2010) *

(appointed 1997) * Lidvin Osland (appointed 1993) *

(appointed 1982) * Åsmund Oftedal (appointed 1977) * Ingeborg Lyche (appointed 1966)

References

External links

A short guide to Arts Council Norway

Norsk kulturråd official website
{{Authority control Culture of Norway Arts councils Organisations based in Oslo 1965 establishments in Norway Arts organizations established in 1965