Program - Culture Day 2026

"From Local Ambition to European Opportunities"
How Municipalities and Cultural Organizations Can Build Capacity for International Collaboration

We’re looking at how international work—projects and external funding—can expand the scope of action and create new opportunities for municipalities and cultural organizations.
But how do you actually seize these opportunities?

Kilden performing arts centre and the municipality of Arendal is sharing its experiences in exploring opportunities for cooperation in Europe—with support from the Agder European Office and Agder County Council.

Featuring:
・Marius Thoresen, International Advisor, Agder County Council
・Thore-Andre Thorsen, Executive Director, Agder European Office
・Eva Mari Andreasen, Research Director Kilden performing arts centre
・Kristine Andersen Norberg, Cultural Advisor, Arendal Municipality

Organized by #vårtagder and Agder County Council

Much artistic work is underpaid.
The principles regarding fair compensation for artistic work are clear, but a strategy for putting these principles into practice is still needed.
Through reflection and concrete perspectives, we explore how fair compensation can become more than just an intention and actually contribute to lasting change. We look toward the long-term benefits: a more robust arts sector, higher quality, and greater predictability for artists.

Featuring:
・Live Rosenvinge (Moderator) - President, Norwegian Dance Artists
・Harald Furre - CEO, Kilden Theater and Concert Hall
・Per Emil Grimstad - President, Norwegian Actors' Union
・Geir Egil Bergjord - President, Norwegian Visual Artists
・Cecilie Nissen - Director, Kristiansand Kunsthall
・Trude Storheim - State Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Norwegian Labour Party
・Mirel Høyer-Berntsen - Family and Culture Committee, Socialist Left Party
・Haakon Bekeng-Flemmen - Senior Advisor, Norwegian Directorate for Culture

Organized by the Artists' Network

By Israa Mahameed, Munken, and Agder County Council

"Uutslettelig" is a participatory installation and a living memorial to the victims in Gaza.
The installation consists of large pieces of fabric filled with handwritten names. In the light, the writing appears white against black, while in the dark, the names glow with an insistent presence.
Through the collective act of writing, freedom of expression is activated at a fundamental level: each participant contributes a concrete expression that becomes part of a larger community. Every handwriting is unique, just as every life is unique. The installation creates an open space for reflection, grief, and solidarity, and explores how names can serve as a form of resistance against anonymization and dehumanization.
During Arendalsuka, the installation is presented as a darkroom exhibition, where the audience encounters the work and the glowing names in silence. A writing workshop will be held on Wednesday as part of Culture Day.

State Secretary Trude Storheim will officially open Culture Day 2026.
Under the theme “Culture for a New Era,” Culture Day brings together stakeholders from across the cultural sector for discussions on transformation, social development, and the role of culture in addressing new challenges and opportunities. The opening ceremony marks the start of the day’s program.

Organized by the Norwegian Directorate for Culture

Research from OsloMet describes Norwegian cultural policy as sedimentary and lacking in democracy—characterized by lobbying, opaque distribution practices, and a one-sided focus on palliative measures rather than structural reforms. KS points out that the cultural sector has long positioned itself in opposition to societal values rather than in harmony with them, which has placed culture on the sidelines of the broader political landscape.

In the reports *The Moral Economy of the Cultural Sector* and *Political Dynamics of the Cultural Sector*, Oslo Met describes a sedimentary government cultural policy characterized by a democratic deficit. Oslo Met explains how moralizing expectations from the cultural sector shape cultural policy into a monetary policy that is primarily focused on providing additional funding, rather than implementing other policy measures, such as structural changes. The policy is also described as lobby-driven and as having opaque distribution practices.
KS, for its part, has pointed out that a long tradition of creating a dichotomy between intrinsic value and societal value may have sidelined the cultural sector within the broader political landscape, leading to culture being pitted against other policy areas rather than considered in conjunction with them. This is detrimental to both the cultural sector and society as a whole. A one-sided focus on keeping politicians at a distance, rather than highlighting the room for maneuver in the “arm’s-length” debates, may also have contributed to politicians shying away from cultural policy rather than engaging with it.

How can we address this issue and ensure that cultural policy becomes a more attractive policy area, one that is based to a greater extent on transparent, agreed-upon democratic principles?

With
・Line Anni Solbakken, Moderator. Special Advisor on Culture, KS (Local Government Association)
・Erik Henningsen. Director of Research, OsloMet
・Jacob Nødseth (V). Chair of the Main Committee for Culture, Sports, and Inclusion, Vestland County Council
・Haagen Poppe (H). Member of the Family and Culture Committee, Stortinget
・Jens Storli. Executive Director, Council for Art and Culture in Trondheim

Organized by KS

The proposals from the Savings Bank Committee have sparked debate about the role of savings banks in society.
Is customer profit a driving force for strong local communities? Or does it come at the expense of contributions to culture and volunteerism?

Featuring
・Terje Svabø, journalist – moderator
・Harald Furre, CEO, Kilden performing arts centre
・Siri Haugan Holden, Executive Director, Norwegian Cultural Organizers
・Tore Bråthen, Professor, UiA, UiT, and BI
・Jan Erik Kjerpeseth, CEO, Sparebanken Norge

Organized by Kilden performing arts centre the Spekter Employers' Association

Artist Israa Mahameed joins host Elmedin Zunic for a conversation about the art project “Uutslettelig”—a participatory installation and a living memorial for the victims in Gaza.

The conversation explores how art can serve as a space for collective memory, expression, and resistance to anonymization and oblivion. Through this project, Mahameed examines how names, handwriting, and participation can foster reflection, presence, and human connection in the face of war and annihilation.

The discussion will also address the role of art in the public sphere, the relationship between art and politics, and how participatory art practices can create space for conversations that are often marginalized. In the context of Arendalsuka, the discussion raises questions about freedom of expression, democracy, and which stories are given a voice in the public sphere.

The conversation will be moderated by artist Elmedin Zunic.

Artists, cultural workers, and cultural organizations face a daily reality marked by precariousness, financial uncertainty, and limited influence. Access to political processes is unevenly distributed. Actors with institutional ties and established networks are better positioned to influence cultural policy, while large segments of the independent sector have little opportunity to do so.

When project-based funding is the norm, the cultural sector must constantly fight to justify its existence. This means that a long-term perspective remains absent from political plans—not because culture lacks relevance, but because it is pitted against other areas of society.

In this debate, we are bringing together politicians and cultural leaders for a discussion on this topic and on what it will take for the full spectrum of the cultural sector to actually help shape cultural policy.

Featuring:
・Joakim Aadland. Executive Director, Balansekunst
・Bente Estil. Member of Parliament, Norwegian Labor Party
・Asta Busingye Lydersen – Moderator
・Per Emil Grimstad – President, Norwegian Actors’ Union
・Haagen Poppe. Member of Parliament, Conservative Party

Organized by Balansekunst

Art and culture should be for everyone, but participation and recruitment remain unevenly distributed. Does cultural policy help to reduce social inequalities, or does it perpetuate them? What does social sustainability mean in practice, and how can we tell if we’re on the right track?

In a public debate marked by clear divisions, contemporary art is cited as an example of elitism and wasteful public spending. Internationally, art and culture are also part of political discussions about identity and values. At the same time, we live in a turbulent world. As spending on healthcare, security, and emergency preparedness increases, culture may be perceived as less essential in public budgets. This raises a simple question: Who is art and culture really for, and why should the public pay for it?

We invite you to join the discussion on how the cultural sector can contribute to equal access, participation, and diversity, and build fair and inclusive structures within the sector.

Program:

Haakon Bekeng-Flemmen, senior advisor in the Department of Cultural Analysis at the Norwegian Directorate for Culture, presents findings from the report *The State of Culture 2024 – Accessibility*.

Researcher Jørn Ljunggren will give an introductory talk on class, gender, and minority positions in Norway’s cultural sector.

Panel Discussion with
- Shanti Brahmachari, founder and artistic director of TekstLab.
- Torgeir Uberg Nærland, professor at the University of Bergen.
- Aon Raza Naqvi, author.
Moderator: Øystein Strand, director of the Norwegian Directorate for Culture

Organized by the Norwegian Directorate for Culture

How can artificial intelligence make museum collections more searchable, accessible, and relevant to a wider audience?

Museums hold vast amounts of knowledge: works of art, archives, texts, documentation, images, and metadata. Artificial intelligence opens up new opportunities to link information, identify patterns, create new ways to engage with the collections, and make cultural heritage more accessible to the public, academic communities, and researchers.

However, when AI is applied to art and cultural collections, important questions also arise: Who controls the knowledge that is generated? How do we ensure quality, context, and verifiability? What about copyright, consent, and artists’ rights?

Kunstsilo invites you to a discussion on how AI can be used responsibly and creatively in museums’ work with their collections. We will highlight specific examples from the museum sector, including the National Museum’s experiences with local language models linked to collection data, and discuss how AI can contribute to new forms of search, outreach, and knowledge development.

Welcome to a timely discussion about what happens when museum collections are not only digitized—but can also be read, linked, and interpreted by artificial intelligence.

Other topics discussed include issues related to copyright, access, and responsibility in the context of new technology.
Featuring:
・Torill Haugen (moderator) — Head of Digital Outreach and Development, Kunstsilo
・Tord Nilsen — Developer and Advisor for Digital Projects, The National Museum
・Daniel Nordgård — Professor of Music and Digitization, UiA
・Jan Fredrik Stoveland-Alfsen — Partner, PwC

Organized by Kunstsilo

The cultural sector is vast and complex, and encompasses many different voices. How can we set political priorities based on this reality? Can the cultural sector itself contribute more unifying input through local and regional cultural councils or other models?
Telemarksforskning has, on behalf of KS and NOKU, mapped the scope and structure of local and regional cultural councils in Norway. The researchers will present their findings, and we will discuss how we can strengthen the collaboration between the municipal sector and the cultural sector.

Featuring:
・Line Anni Solbakken. Moderator. Special Advisor on Culture, KS (Local Government Association)
・Jacob Nødseth. Chair of the Main Committee for Culture, Sports, and Inclusion, Vestland County Council
・Jens Storli. Executive Director, Council for Art and Culture in Trondheim
・Bjarne Dæhli. Advisor, Norwegian Cultural Forum
・Berit Inger Øen. Head of Culture, Bærum Municipality

Organized by KS and NOKU

Slam Poetry with Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa

Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa (born May 15, 1986, in Oslo) is a prominent Norwegian actress and slam poet. She has made a strong mark on the theater stage, in film, and on television, in addition to being one of Norway’s most prominent voices in slam poetry.

Organizer: The Artists' Network

At Culture Day, we discuss how the cultural sector can address the challenges and seize the opportunities of a new era. Culture Day, held during Arendalsuka, is an annual professional conference for the cultural sector, hosted at Munken in Arendal. The event brings together stakeholders from the arts, culture, politics, and business for debates, conversations, and professional presentations on cultural policy and conditions for artists.

Starting at 4:00 p.m., we invite everyone interested to a backyard party with music and mingling. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Welcome!

Munken is located a 5-minute walk from Pollen in Arendal, specifically at Munkegaten 4.