About Kulturytring

Kulturytring is a Norwegian cultural policy festival – Norway’s largest and most important forum for art and cultural policy.

Save the dates! The 2025 edition will be on 23rd to the 25th of June.

Kulturytring was held from the 19th to 21st June 2023, in collaboration with Drammen municipality and Viken county. The festival, which was organized for the first time in 2021, is likened to the political gathering Arendalsuka. Comprising of all aspects of culture, Kulturytring is a forum for debate, exchange of knowledge and ideas, as well as an art and culture festival. When registration closed on 1st March, it became apparent that the number of delegates and registered scheduled programs have doubled since 2021.

Kulturytring is Norway’s largest cultural policy forum, is an arena for knowledge and debate on cultural policy, with the goal of making art and culture visible in the area of policy-making. The objective is to strengthen art and culture through debate and opposing opinions in an open and inclusive arena for all areas of art and culture.

Last year’s Kulturytring was organized as a large physical festival that brings together all aspects of the cultural fields in Norway, putting art and culture on the political agenda during the election campaign in 2023. Scheduled programs include debates, sharing of research, talks by politicians and panel discussions, as well as a solid cultural program with concerts, stage productions, open galleries, exhibitors and much more.

For three full days, politicians, cultural fields, researchers, artists, young talents and the general public gathered to put art, culture and freedom of expression on the political agenda. There was debates, lectures, research, concerts, stands, and a bustling public life with cultural policy in focus.

NOKU anticipates several thousand delegates in attendance every day, with scheduled events from morning until evening. If you work in the area of arts and culture, don´t miss the next one in 2025!

Background

Cultural policy in Norway must be strengthened at a local, regional and national level. Therefore, it is essential to develop and share expertise, discuss opposing opinions, build understanding and insight into the topics that are vital for a sustainable and diverse artistic and cultural life.

Through new channels, public conversation constantly provides room for more people to express themselves. At the same time, echo chambers often develop. When this occurs, conversations do not lead to grappling with opposing opinions, but become reinforcing spaces where no new impulses enter the discussion. Culture is not shielded from this: Cultural policy, like other policy areas, is more complex than the impression debate on social media often gives, where the public and the cultural elite are pitted against each other – nevertheless, these are also aspects that must be included in the overall picture.

Kulturytring 2021

Kulturytring was organized for the first time in 2021 as a forum for knowledge and debate, as well as an art and culture festival. Amid the pandemic, Kulturytring took place as a 3-day digital event with over 80 scheduled programs, with close to 4,500 digital views. More than 50 organizations contributed with their own events. In 2023, approximately 100 contributors are expected on the program, representing a wide range of topics: from culture and public health, artist economy, local cultural policy and freedom of expression, to children and youth culture, new research, artists and international guests.

About the Norwegian Cultural Forum | www.noku.no
Norwegian Cultural Forum (NOKU), the initiator of Kulturytring, is a competence and interest organization that brings together the entire cultural sector in municipalities and counties across Norway.

NOKU’s goal is to strengthen professional competence, as well as promote art and culture as significant contributors to social development and the quality of life. Our aim is to bring together the cultural sector to create an integrated conversation about art and culture and to strengthen culture as an area of political policy.

English translation: Angela Amoroso