Nominees for Gulljerven 2023

We received a lot of great suggestions for Gulljerven 2023, and it gives us great pleasure to announce this year's nominees.

The proposals received are processed by a committee, and the selection of nominees is submitted to this year's jury, which consists of:

Bernt Bjørn, actor, director
Kristin Sundelin, responsible for performing arts DKS Troms og Finnmark
Piero Issa, dancer, choreographer
Katja Lindeberg, actor, director

The winners will be announced at the Gulljerven awards ceremony on Thursday, November 30 during this year's Showbox performing arts festival for young audiences. 

Gulljerven is an award to honor all those who stand up for the performing arts for young audiences, and help bring it to children and young people in every corner of Norway. Established in 2019, and awarded by Norsk Scenekunstbruk.

NEW ARRIVALS OF THE YEAR 

Who has made a name for themselves in the performing arts for young audiences in recent years? Do you see a creative or performing artist who could be the new big thing in the field, and who we need to pay extra attention to?

Fanny Bjørn. Bjørn made her debut as a costume designer and stage designer in the performance Veien sitt ansikt in 2023, with an exciting look at the function of costumes in the performing arts, and how they can be central to the telling of stories. Bjørn has been associated with several performing arts projects in Troms, with great commitment and with performing arts methods as tools. In the field of costume design, we see a promising start to a career that will be very interesting to follow in the coming years. 

Kaleb Haile. Haile is an actor with a strong stage presence. He has acted in several productions recently, including Sirkus Grønland - a street performance and Tigerbussen. He has his own calmness in the roles he conveys, and dares to spend time on stage and establish characters and situations that new actors can often be afraid of. Those who have worked with him say that Haile is quick-witted, artistically solid and solution-oriented. In addition, he is helpful and spreads joy at work so that others thrive in their working day. Haile is someone you want on your team.

William Arnø. Arnø made his debut in the school year 22/23 in the company Madam Pysj with leading roles in both Star Wårs (with Å) on tour in two counties and Harry Påtter (with Å) on tour in four counties and one municipality, before stepping into the leading role in the company's latest production, Påkemon (with Å), opening at Sentralen in the summer of 2023. "Anyone who has been on tour knows what this requires. Arnø has performed almost at top sporting level throughout the period, both in terms of endurance, high artistic level and not least with an exceptional contact with the audience.

Ida Utvik. The dance performance Rock-a-bye was Utvik's master's project in choreography at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2023. The starting point was "rock" in the sense of stone, rocking and music. The dance performance was intended for young children aged 6-18 months, and was a living installation where the children were surrounded by scenography and dancers, sounds and light, and where they could explore the space together with the dancers. With his first production, Utvik has shown himself to be an open and listening choreographer who has gained great insight into the art universe for young children, and who can develop more good performances for the very youngest.

Remi Johansen Hovda. Hovda is also known as the drag artist Nabi Yeon Geisha, is a drama and theater educator, university lecturer and one of the founders of Princessilicious. Hovda has developed and toured with Dronningtimen fortellerstund; queer retellings of fairy tales. As a Nabi Yeon Geisha, Hovda is an important role model for young people, and by combining traditional fairy tales with the performativity of drag art, both art forms are developed. With The Queen's Hour, Hovda lays the foundation for a more tolerant society and a better life for those who feel excluded.

OLDEST CITIZEN OF THE YEAR 

The award goes to an artist/company that has worked with performing arts for children and young people for a long time, and which through its artistic work has provided many good art experiences to the young audience.

Rom for dans. Rom for dans has children and young people at the core of its artistic and educational work. They have been very active for many years, and have produced several performances for young audiences, always in exploratory formats. Rom for dans has developed its own methods at the intersection of pedagogy, dance and choreography. Their work in educating and facilitating young dance artists gives them a unique position in the field of performing arts, and they have worked purposefully to recruit artists to work with young audiences. In addition, they have collaborated with, among others, the teacher training program at Østfold University College to give students the tools to work with dance and movement. 

Frida Odden Brinkmann. Brinkmann has worked as a professional juggler, circus performer and producer since 2008, both independently and with renowned companies. In 2010 she produced Circo Herencia, a duo performance with Gaston Sanchez, which has visited 11 counties and been performed more than 500 times, and her solo project 1 1⁄2 from 2013 has been performed a total of 350 times at home and abroad. Ufroståegli from 2018 dealt with exclusion and language barriers, and became a visual, physical and musical performance for young and old. She is one of the few women in the world who can juggle 9 bouncy balls at the same time! Today, Brinkmann is still touring with her three productions and with each performance she helps to spread the joy of circus to new generations.

Rimfrost Productions. Rimfrost made a name for itself as a company that wasn't afraid to tackle difficult and challenging themes with the production Morten 11 år in 2013. Since then, Rimfrost has continued on its path of always daring to tackle challenging themes, in a stage language that meets the audience in a good combination of seriousness and humor. Rimfrost has toured all over Norway and become a central company for Norwegian performing arts for young audiences, with a solid foothold in Northern Norway. They have created their own recognizable artistic identity and storytelling style, where important stories about interpersonal relationships, communities and identity are always told with a dramaturgy that gives the young audience hope. They have won the Hedda Award twice, in 2018 and 2022.

Nadir Guendouz. Guendoz has been a main subject teacher at Nordic Black Xpress for 20 years and will soon retire. He has led and guided more than 100 multicultural students over those 20 years, actors who today are a major part of Norwegian art life. He has developed his own method for seeing and developing people into artists and has generously shared his knowledge over the years. An important contributor and supporter for many. The artistic development that has taken place in the Norwegian performing arts field is largely thanks to Guendoz, and several of his students carry his legacy into the performing arts for young audiences.

CABLE PULLER OF THE YEAR 

The award goes to a steady technician who performs solid work before, during and after the performances. It can also go to a dancer, actor or performer who knows how to pull their cable, who shows strong commitment and exquisite precision during the up and down rigging.

Kai Luni Fjell. Fjell is a skilled technician who, in addition to having solid knowledge of the subject, is also good at finding practical solutions to the challenges you face as a touring company. He has a special ability to be very patient and composed and gets things done, even under high pressure, while taking good care of the people around him. In addition to being creative and solution-oriented, he is good at teaching what he knows so that everyone can work as a team, which is often necessary in independent companies. Fjell has been traveling around on a DKS tour all year.

Mikael Karlsen. Karlsen is the head of department and lighting designer for InTune Lysdesign in Bodø. He works 24/7 to ensure that DKS Nordland and the independent performing arts sector have sound and lighting available for their productions. Karlsen never says no - an ability it is uncertain whether he has. He's always at work for the performing arts and music scene in Nordland, and has time to respond to email inquiries mostly between 02:00 and 05:00, which he also does.

Shiva Sherveh. Sherveh is a hard-working technician with broad artistic skills. She always has a smile on her face, which helps when things get hectic at work. She works as a stage manager, set design assistant, lighting designer and technician, with projects in all formats, often associated with Nordic Black Theatre. In 2023, she worked in various ways with Shadows of the light (Mahsa Mousavian/Nordic Black Theater), Ivar's inn (Mine Nilay Yalcin) and Hør'a dagbok (Riksteatret). Quite simply, a rock-solid woman at the helm.

Philippe Schneider. Emma premiered in 2022, Schneider's first production as a technician and lighting designer. Rarely has anyone done so many consecutive productions in such a short time. These include Fantasikontoret (Det Andre Teatret), Rasisten (Antiteatret/Oslo Nye), Mellom (Buskerud teater), Kakerlakk (Kompani Krøbel/SPKRBOX), Kampen om skraphaugen (Elvekompaniet), Blooming (Carl Aquilizan). A natural talent and a hard-working designer and technician we'll be seeing a lot more of - everywhere.

BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 

Is it a school, a cultural center, a county, a theater, a festival or another host that is always fantastic to visit? Is there someone who has gone the extra mile to make sure things run smoothly?  

Blå Grotte. Kulturhuset Blå Grotte in Fredrikstad has been nominated for its care of young performing artists on tour. The cultural center facilitates and provides access to the house's resources over several days when possible. Blå Grotte shows great goodwill and respect for young freelancers, who are followed up in the best possible way. The staff do what they can to ensure that artists have a good experience, and it is said that they never forget a face that has stopped by.

Oslo Fringe Festival. The festival has become a key player, screening arena and platform for young performers, and for the independent performing arts in general. Oslo Fringe has managed the feat of being just the right amount of fringe, they have worked actively with programming, and with this managed to recruit new audience groups. The staff and organizers make themselves available around the clock, and don't hesitate to help out with porters, prize draws and handing out drinks cups during the festival. It is with selfless work and appearance that they hold a theater party for the audience down at Langkaia in Oslo.

The Winter Light Festival. This is a festival organized by Nordland Theatre, which collaborates with large parts of cultural life in the north. Among other things, the festival collaborates with DKS Nordland and contributes to the development of the performing arts and young audiences in the region. For the past two years, the festival has also arranged Vinterlys in Bodø in April. Vinterlys is nominated for having established a festival that has gained great ownership in the city and is an active contributor to art experiences for local children and young people. 

SUSTAINABILITY HERO OF THE YEAR 

The award goes to an actor who has worked with sustainability in the field of performing arts for children and young people, someone who through their artistic or administrative work has put art and the environment on the agenda. For example, an extra sustainable itinerary, a staff that has been reused in unthinkable combinations, or costumes, props and set design elements that have had adventurous journeys through different performances and companies, or otherwise work to make the field more sustainable.

Ecoheroes by STICKY Productions. The performance creates a great emotional commitment to what surrounds us and what we may be losing. The performance's desire to influence the world does not compromise on the artistic, but is a cohesive artistic work at all levels. "As the web of life in the forest is revealed, community becomes central to this imaginative world," STICKY Productions writes about Økohelter. They build this community between everyone and everything in the room, through several rituals that are experienced full of love and coexistence. The performance has a strong artistic voice and is "activist art" for children at its best.

Ingri Fiksdal/Fredrik Floen. Reuse of the stage design for Spectral/Lavaskogen. In the dance performance Lavaskogen, the set design elements and costumes from the performance Spectral are reused and put together in new ways. Even though the materials and tactile elements are preserved, the scenography and costumes take on new life with the three dancers on stage in Lavaskogen. It lives as a twisted, threatening organism that slowly changes into a hospitable world for the children watching - a kind of reverse climate decay. The piles of fabrics give connotations to mountains of clothes, forest floor and lava, to apocalypse and new life. The reuse of stage design and costumes is artistically interesting and puts the two performances in context with each other.

Frikar. The company has taken a central role in preserving and developing halling and folk dance, both as part of our cultural heritage, but also as an important component of the Norwegian performing arts field. In his exploratory performances, he combines different genres, often out in nature as site-specific experiences or with nature as the main element. Through its work, Frikar also engages in public education, where audiences and local communities can learn about folk dance, acrobatics, nature and contemporary dance. They convey knowledge about Norwegian traditions and art to young audiences through performances, DKS tours, courses and activities. In this way, they help to make our cultural heritage more sustainable in the face of a new era.

THIS YEAR'S (D)JERVESTE 

The award goes to a person or actor who has spoken up for art in the past year. To someone who has researched, written about, supported, lifted or worked with structures. To someone who has fearlessly dared to ask questions about the conditions of art or artists, or in other ways has put art on the agenda.

Bernhard Ellefsen. For many years, Ellefsen has argued for the importance of art in the Cultural Rucksack. In Morgenbladet, he has helped to highlight the DKS debate in the newspaper's columns and thus also put the Cultural Rucksack on the agenda in national media. Ellefsen raises critical perspectives on the scheme and the bureaucracy behind it, always with knowledge and objectivity. In his opinion piece "Staten må ikke glemme hvorfor Den kulturelle skolesekken er så viktig" ("The state must not forget why the Cultural Rucksack is so important" ) in Morgenbladet in the spring of 2023, he argues with professional weight that the DKS report "cannot be said to provide much wind in the sails of art" and thus illustrates what is at stake.

Tani Dibasey. Sometimes there are artists who turn the spotlight on the art field itself and expose the structures that most of us hoped were not there. With a necessary protest, Dibasey has both through her artistic work and statements addressed the Norwegian performing arts field, where some are outside and some inside. With both Black Boys Don't Cry and The Racist, he has opened the theater to new audiences. A clear voice that not only challenges the status quo of the performing arts, but will also make it easier for those who come after him to turn on the same light.

Preserve Theater Studies petition in spring 2023, by Millan Persdotter Persson. There are many people to be credited in the work to preserve a position in theater studies at the University of Bergen. Employees at the university and other voices in the academic communities worked both with internal and external mobilization. Professor Keld Hylding and research fellow Grethe Melby, among others, were important figures in this work. Persdotter Persson is nominated on the basis of the Bevar teatervitenskap! petition, which highlighted the broad support from many quarters, but which also served to unite the field by highlighting former students and the scope of the subject.

Mariken Lauvstad. Lauvstad is an honest player in the Norwegian performing arts community and is nominated for her work as a critic and writer. For many years, she has been a clear communicator of the performing arts for adults and children, through reviews, opinion pieces, essays and chronicles in publications such as scenekunst.no, Periskop, Morgenbladet and Shakespearetidsskriftet. Lauvstad is not afraid to stir the theater pot and over the past year has asked questions that engage the industry and create debate.

MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR

The award goes to someone who constantly delivers behind the scenes, who takes care of the big and small things for a production or tour - from budget, production plans, tour plans to hot coffee. Would there be any performing arts without producers? Be they independent producers, performing artists who work as producers themselves, producers in the counties or performing arts consultants.

Katrine Kirsebom. Kirsebom is a producer for performing arts in DKS Viken (formerly Akershus). She has a background as a dancer, and this background as a performing artist means that she meets performers in the independent field with a very special sensitivity. She is down-to-earth, friendly and professional at the same time. Kirsebom gives honest advice and is highly valued among artists. She is responsible for programming performing arts for tens of thousands of children and young people, and is reflective in relation to her own role and the responsibility she has for programming from the independent field.

Anja Kjærnli. Producer for SPKRBOX and Mine Nilay Productions. Kjærnli is a real hard worker with the competence and drive to do most things. Nothing fazes Kjærnli; she's been through several trials by fire to prove it. And with solid professional expertise in cultural and project management to boot, she meets both colleagues and partners with an impressive calmness that allows the production's other actors to get excited without being noticed: The anchor Anja holds on to.

Joakim Borgen and Bror Kristiansen. Borgen and Kristiansen from Madam Pysj are the producers behind the most popular performances in DKS in several years. In other words, they are behind more than 300 performances in 2022 alone, a total of 878 performances in DKS since their debut in 2018. In 2023, the company celebrates its 10th anniversary with the premiere of a new production, Påkemon (with Å), which completes the trilogy of performances with Å, which have almost become classics. Together with the company, the producers have provided successful theater sessions for more than 75,000 children and young people in schools across the country.

SPECIAL ARTISTIC EFFORT

The award goes to an artist, group, ensemble or institution that has distinguished itself over the past two years with an idea/performance/concept for what performing arts for a young audience can be.

Guandaline Sagliocco. For 35 years, Sagliocco has made a name for herself with her poetic, playful and absurd performances for children and young people. Her subtle characters add not only a lot of humor to her performances, but also a vulnerability that is hard not to be moved by. She balances her expression between laughter and tears, through razor-sharp timing and sincerity. With her highly creative performances, including the Art trilogy Voff ! Art (2008, Tone ! Art (2011 ) and Scene ! Art (2018), she has delighted over 200,000 children over the years. In the last couple of years she has had several projects in Telemark and great success with Bibliotek-Karens Bibliotek (2023).

Feil teater. In recent years, Feil teater has distinguished itself as a performing arts actor with a willingness to take artistic risks and audience appeal, with a particularly high level of production. One of the group's goals is to perform for children who do not have the financial means to see performing arts on their own. They have performed several shows in alternative stage spaces and outdoor spaces, including Det historiske slaget om bakgården/Det historiske slaget om skolegården (2020), which has toured several times, Agentene og det sjukt farlige oppdraget, and Nordpolen magiske trikketransport (2022). One of the group's hallmarks is the way they involve the audience by establishing safe staged spaces, and performances that bubble with humor, energy and charisma.

Elle Sofe Sara. Sara is a choreographer who has several performances aimed at a young audience. She is a multi-artist, a bearer of tradition and a bridge builder in the performing arts, highlighting Sami movements, artistic expressions and collective memory. Her performances revolve around everything from small rituals to major social confrontations. The focal points of Sara's art particularly appeal to young people; in Jorgáhallan (2012), older customs and movements are recreated for a new generation, and The answer is land (2021) stages the community between people and nature. Sara is also one of the founders of the Dáiddadállu artist collective.

There is disqualification in the jury in some categories. The jury members in question are not involved in the processing of the nominations in the category in question. Please contact us for questions or more information, if desired. gabrielle@scenekunstbruket.no