Honorary Award: Gunn Strand Eliassen

This award is not awarded every year, it was last awarded in 2022. This year we believe in Scenekunstbruket that it is appropriate to honor this person's over 30 years of efforts for the performing arts and young people with the Gulljerven Honorary Award.

It all started in the 1990s – the decade that more or less marks the beginning of what we can call a golden age for Norwegian professional performing arts for children and young people. In Fredrikstad, she began her education at the Norwegian Puppet Theatre Academy, which would later become the Academy of Performing Arts. In the early years, she worked on a number of her own productions, before the task of promoting took over. Not all municipalities are blessed with such a driving force that fights strongly for the performing arts.

The work the laureate has done for the professionalization of the performing arts for young people nationally, and especially outside of Oslogryta, has been absolutely essential. Through his work, especially as artistic director since 2004, this worthy winner has built a central meeting place and performing arts destination in Norway. With an unstoppable commitment to the young audience's encounter with the performing arts, the winner has developed an arena in step with the art field over three decades.

Listening, professional and generous – with a rare do'er mentality, are some of the superlatives that describe the award winner. She has made the Sandefjord Performing Arts Market a crucial exhibition arena for performing artists. This has in turn contributed to many performances having a good and long life on the roads around Norway, to the delight of generations of schoolchildren.

At the Market's 30th anniversary earlier this fall, she was, as usual, last at the party and first in the fjord, the next morning.

The Gulljerven Honorary Award 2025 goes to the performing arts artist in Sandefjord, Gunn Strand Eliassen!