ICYMI - 2021/2022 AGM

October 4, 2022 @ 10AM EST
ONLINE VIA ZOOM 

Our Annual General Meeting for the 2021-22 year took place online via Zoom on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

Members or the general public can read the AGM Minutes here.

Following the AGM, we had a presentation from Bente Aster - Senior Advisor, Cultural Heritage with Kulturtanken - The Cultural Schoolbag Program in Norway.

What is Kulturtanken – Arts for Young Audiences Norway?

  • A government agency responsible for the arts and culture for children and youth in Norway.

  • This includes overall responsibility for The Cultural Schoolbag programme (TCS).

  • Kulturtanken reports to the Ministry of Culture and Equality and cooperates closely with The Ministry of Education and Research.

  • 40 employees, large variety of expertise: school & education, research & development, the 6 artforms dept, administration dept. 

  • TCS as part of the national cultural policy in Norway

A national commitment to ensure that all school children in Norway experience, get familiar with, and develop an understanding for professional arts and culture of all kinds

  • Includes 11 counties and 354 municipalities - Local relevance and ownership

  • Celebrated 20 years in 2021, so began in 2001

The Cultural Schoolbag Program…

  • Provides an average of 3 art experiences/pupil/year, 820 000 pupils in Norway

  • Engages 3-4000 artists, performers, presenters and art-educators every year

  • Standard fee is 650 CAD per performer per day, plus diet and travel costs

  • State funding of approx. 38.9 mill CAD per year, through the National Lottery Fund

  • Counties and municipalities together contribute with approx. 23.8 mill CAD 

  • Total budget 2021: 60.5 mill CAD

The activities cover the entire spectrum of artistic expressions – from film, literature, music and cultural heritage, to performing and visual arts.

Quality, selection and evaluation of TCS is very important.

  • Around 2000-2500 submitted proposals every year

  • National digital platform

  • Local and regional programme committees

  • 75 % of the cultural heritage offered is booked at the municipal level, as an example. Less bookings at the county level, as cultural heritage is perceived as part of the local identity by many.

From Norwegian Legislation, the Education Act states, “Education in school shall, in cooperation and understanding with the child’s home, open doors to the world and the future, and give the pupils an historical and cultural insight and foundation.”

The TCS is an educational tool

  • Principle: TCS shall be relevant to and interact with the schools’ educational aims and plans.

  • Relevance to school subjects: music, dance and drama, arts and crafts, physical education, norwegian, sámi language, english, history, the social studies etc.

  • Challenge: The demand of high artistic quality and artistic autonomy is often a priority of the programmers, while the school system is more focused on utilitarian relevance of content.

pARTiciPED is a research project that focuses on empowering teaching students as agents of change in cross-sectorial collaborations. The Cultural Schoolbag collaboration with Norwegian schools will serve as an example in this project. The project is funded via the FINNUT program of the Research Council of Norway. More information can be viewed here:

https://www.hiof.no/lusp/pil/english/research/projects/participed/

Bente was happy to share her contact information should any members of Arts Education Network of Ontario wish to reach out to her:

Bente Aster
ba@kulturtanken.no