Consultation response: Artistic year

Today, Scenekunstbruket has been consulted by the Family and Culture Committee in connection with the White Paper Kunstnarkår. There are three areas in particular that we provide feedback on; Artists and the Cultural Rucksack, Framework agreements and predictability, and Infrastructure for performing artists.

Consultation response Meld. St. 22 The arts

Scenekunstbruket notes that White Paper 22 Kunstnarkår is able to draw up the overall guidelines for performing artists in Norway. In terms of more specific goals and priorities, it is positive that the government wants to sharpen its international efforts as part of the cultural promise. In all likelihood, this will also benefit performing artists working with young audiences, who create art that is highly sought after internationally. It's also good news for artists that the government wants to further develop the unique scheme we have in the Cultural Rucksack.  

We need to elaborate on three areas in particular in Kunstnarkår:
 

Artists and the Cultural Rucksack 

Since 1994, Scenekunstbruket's dissemination network has been essential for getting performances on tour and thus also jobs for artists in the independent performing arts field. Since the establishment of The Cultural Rucksack in 2001, Scenekunstbruket has been the largest supplier of quality-assessed performing arts in DKS and in 2022 contributed to 67 performances being shown 2,386 times to over 200,000 children.

DKS was established to provide all children and young people with art encounters in school and has thus become a very important workplace for artists, which is also pointed out in Kunstnarkår 5.4 (p. 69): "In 2022, for example, around 3,100 artists and cultural mediators had commissions through this scheme." We wonder about the lack of coherence in this year's reports, which are intended to form the basis for policymaking. DKS and Kulturtanken A report consisting of a survey of DKS and an evaluation of Kulturtanken (2023) barely mentions the role of artists in DKS, even though artists are crucial for DKS to exist at all and function according to the goal of ensuring that children and young people receive equal and professional art and culture. Since the establishment of DKS, Scenekunstbruket has seen the efforts that artists have made to help shape and develop this scheme into what it is today. Artists who are dedicated to presenting their art in DKS and who use their profession and professional life to create art for the most important audience. This means that artists cannot be excluded from the work of further developing this unique scheme. No consultation has taken place on the report on DKS and Kulturtanken, so we ask the Storting to make the following comment on Kunstnarkår 13.10 (p. 127) "Priorities and further follow-up - The government will further develop the Cultural Rucksack in connection with proposals in the survey of DKS and the evaluation of Kulturtanken.": Artists must be involved in the work of further developing the Cultural Rucksack.  

Framework agreements and predictability 

Scenekunstbruket has developed a price calculation system that is based on the framework agreement for DKS. This means that the artist receives a more predictable income, as it takes into account both the artist's administrative costs and, not least, any losses for the production through a contribution margin paid by the organizer. This scheme thus contributes to a healthy artist economy and predictability for the organizer. The calculated basic prices in Scenekunstbruket's system are then the starting point for the reimbursement the organizers receive. We ask the Storting to consider similar reimbursement schemes to ensure reasonable payment for artistic work as described in chapter 9 (pp. 83-90) of Kunstnarkår, in its further work on artist finances.  

The infrastructure for performing artists 

In the discussion of the infrastructure for performing artists on pages 25 and 26 of Kunstnarkår, it is pointed out that most performing artists are freelancers and that the independent field is dependent on venues for its productions. Cultural centers are mentioned as one of the venues used by the independent field. However, there is currently very limited independent performing arts programmed by the cultural centers due to little or no programming expertise - and / or finances (exceptions are found in, for example, Bærum Cultural Center and RAS at Sandnes Cultural Center). The potential for performing arts at the cultural centers across the country is not mentioned in St.melding 22 Kunstnarkår. Here we refer to the report Mobilization for mobility. Dissemination of independent performing arts (2021), which was delivered by Telemarksforskning on behalf of the Arts Council. One of the report's conclusions is that there is a need for a dissemination network for independent performing arts in Norway that enables organizers to gain access to a programming economy and programming expertise. It describes, among other things, the potential of collaboration between Dansenett Norge, Norske kulturhus, Scenekunstbruket and Riksteatret and writes that the experiences here "indicate that an expanded national touring scheme across the art forms of dance and theater may be an interesting avenue to explore. Given an important premise, of course: that independent productions and artists can take part in the business". In light of this, we would like to remind you that our reimbursement scheme for organizers (which we currently have with the counties in DKS) can also work with the cultural centers so that the independent performing arts field gets more venues, the performances get a longer lifespan and the artists more jobs (with reasonable payment ref the point above). And not least, more audiences get to experience the diversity of the performing arts produced in the country. All this without large administrative costs, but with funds going directly to the artists and the dissemination of art. We expect that future policy-making will be able to see several of the reports that have been published in recent years in context for a better overall picture. This will be in the best interests of artists and the arts.   

Photo: Uni - Antero Hein