Cultivating Common Ground: Longevity, mobility and renewal in the Trondheim art scene
This week I had the privilege of joining Verdensrommet’s 5-year anniversary at ✨ 𝙑 𝙁𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙑𝘼𝙇 — 𝙋𝙐𝘽𝙇𝙄𝘾 𝙏𝘼𝙇𝙆 Kunsthall Trondheim. We discussed artist mobility, lappeteppeøkonomi, and the structural mismatch between Norway’s single-employer visa logic and the income realities of artists - a gap that creates precarity for non-EU artists and threatens the scale and vitality of our shared art communities.
At a time when access to higher education in Norway is also tightening for applicants outside the EU - a pathway that has been crucial for international artists choosing to build their lives and practice from here - it’s more clear than ever why Norway should enable a truly international art community through alternative, artist-aligned visa tracks. Not as a privilege for invited artists, but as a cultural investment in Norway’s artistic competence, global networks, audience growth, innovation and long-term cultural potential. The work ahead lies in building alliances, deepening the dialogue with UDI, and pushing for systemic political change that supports sustainable artist lives in Norway.
Thank you to the organisers, my fellow panellists, and Verdensrommet for holding and driving this important conversation. The space you create and the communities you champion matters!
🌎
📸 Sara Shooshtari
I have a surprising number of fully grown idiots in my feed gleefully sharing every other Greta-and-IDF-bread meme, so I made one too. Maybe not a meme exactly, but you get the idea.
Like and share. 🫶😘
Rubio’s got a point - nothing ruins "mutually beneficial" relations like a war getting in the way of carving up Ukraine like a buffet of pipelines, grain, and rare earths, while the bear is sitting on your election server. Thanks for making it clear where your allegiance lies - always good to know which flag is flying behind the talking points. 🖕
