How do Norwegian Festivals Contribute to Artistic Development, Social Communities and New Forms of Political Participation? (FESTIPOL)

The overall aim is to investigate how support from the Arts Council Norway help Norwegian festivals to reach broader political aims related to artistic development, political participation and social community formation in practice?

How do Norwegian festivals contribute to artistic development, social communities and new forms of political participation? What is the role of support from the Arts Council Norway in such processes and how do festivals create new ways of being together socially, aesthetically and politically as audiences and artists interact?

These are some of the questions that researchers at OsloMet will investigate in the FESTIPOL project.

The project will evaluate music festivals and festivals related to performing arts, literature, visual arts, and interdisciplinary festivals. Through analysis of cultural policy documents, interviews with musicians, artists, audiences, festival directors, professionals from the cultural industry, and administrative staff, as well as surveys, we will discuss the effect of the Arts Council Norway's support of festivals in light of broader ambitions within Norwegian cultural policy.

In addition, we discuss whether the high level of subsidies for the previous ‘hub-festivals’ (knutepunkt-festivals) favour some at the consequence of others and discuss alternative solutions with regards to subsidies.

FESTIPOL will provide new knowledge that may contribute to important developments within cultural policy.

Marianne Takle is Project Manager and will have overall responsibility for the cultural policy analysis and the project as such. Kjetil Klette Bøhler will be Deputy Manager and have the main responsibility for the investigation of festivals with main focus on music festivals.