Shifting the stage – a year of artist development

In 2026, Scenekunstbruket partner in the Nordic-Scottish project Shifting the stage. During the year we offer international development and exchange for artists with disabilities, deaf/hard of hearing and/or neurodivergent artists.

It has been a hectic six months so far, starting with an artist laboratory in Glasgow, then a residency in Helsinki, before two festival visits ended the spring. Now, just over the summer, we organized Scenekunstbruket a residency in Trondheim, before the last and final festival visit to Showbox in November.

Our partners in the project are Assitej Finland, BIBU in Sweden and Imaginate in Scotland.

January: Lab in Glasgow

Scenekunstbruket sent artists Aino Hakala and Jean-Baptiste Baele to a week of workshops at an artist lab in Glasgow. Together with artists from the other partner countries, and led by lab leaders Ellen Renton and Luke Pell, the participants explored different approaches to creating performing arts for a young audience.

Baele is a dancer and choreographer based in Kristiansand, and Hakala is an actor and director, among others associated with Teater Manu.

March: Residency in Finland

In March, Assitej Finland organized a residency for two Finnish artists, Satu and Maima Tani, who also participated in the stay in Glasgow. Assitej Finland has its own performing arts festival, Bravo!, which this year had a work exhibition of Satu and Maima Tani's project, Soft Sea . Managing Director of Scenekunstbruket , Tine Valavuo Tyldum, visited Bravo! and the work exhibition, and described it as one of the highlights of the festival.

May: Festival visit to BIBU in Sweden

In May, Scenekunstbruket brought Norwegian-Sami actor Kim-Runar Klodiussen to Sweden's largest performing arts festival for a young audience, BIBU. Klodiussen debuted in 2021 with the autobiographical performance Har Ikke Meg: Fortellinger om Min Tourettes , and is interested in creating more performing arts for a young audience.

At the festival, the Shifting the stage group had its own eventful program with performances for a young audience and professional events all over Helsingborg. Other participating artists were dancer Kadar Khristan from Finland, stage artist Lizah Cronemyr from Sweden and playwright and actress Hannah Low from Scotland. In addition, we had a meeting with the Australian stage artist Caroline Bowditch, who also opened the festival.

June: Festival visit to the Edinburgh International Children's Festival

With actor Toivy Ty Terjesen left Scenekunstbruket to Edinburgh and Imaginate's performing arts festival for a young audience. Imagine and Scenekunstbruket has several collaborative projects behind it, including the two major EU projects PUSH and PUSH+.

At the festival, Terjesen saw several performances and professional programs as inspiration for his own work and participated in networking events to make contacts with other international artists and programmers. The Shifting the Stage group also consisted of actress Catrine Lundell from Sweden, performance artist Satu Tani from Finland and director Ivor MacAscill from Scotland.

August: Residency in Trondheim – DansiT

In August, Shifting the stage hosted the first week of an artist residency for the Swedish dancer and choreographer Emilia Wärff, who works at Danskompaniet Spinn from Gothenburg. The residency was arranged by Scenekunstbruket in collaboration with DansiT in Trondheim , which has several years of experience in developing artists with disabilities. Wärff was also involved in the Shifting the stage lab in Glasgow and brought dancer Annika Vestel to Trondheim.

During the residency, they worked, among other things, on the book Alla vi , which has played an important role in Wärff's life. They also met dance artist Elen Øyen who works with the Dansekollektivet and the mentor in the Shifting the stage project, Stine Nilsen, artistic director at Dansens hus.

November: Festival visit and symposium at Showbox in Oslo

The final event in the project will be the closing symposium at Showbox in November 2026, which will include a working screening of Wärff's piece, and discussions about performing arts created by artists with disabilities. We hope that a large group of artists from the four partner countries will come to conclude the project, to get to know the Norwegian performing arts field, see performances and participate in social and professional events at the festival.

About Shifting the stage

The aim of Shifting the stage is to build a Nordic-Scottish community of artists with disabilities who are engaged in or interested in art for young audiences, and to inspire artists to create performing arts for a young audience.

The project is a collaboration between four organizations that all produce performing arts festivals for children and young people. Through the one-year project, we create space in our festivals and other events to share knowledge and experiences with national and international networks. The project is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Contact .

Partners :