Free Art with Nuart Support!

Discussion: Take a look at the website for Stavanger Municipal Scheme for Art in Public Spaces And on the first page, you’ll find a task illustrating exactly what kind of art the municipal art schemes facilitate.

discussion

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Here the municipality builds, and here the new municipal art is created. Budget: NOK 2.7 million. According to cultural journalist Saturn, the funds allocated to the art field in Stavanger are small. We, as facilitators of so-called street art in this country, have never come close to throwing away an amount of this magnitude.

Art potential

Jean Saturn, like Ellen Riboli-Mellberg, cannot see the difference between art under the auspices of the municipality and art in the public space, and thus claims that there are separate rules for art projects in the public space. No no. Moreover, public spaces are much more than municipal buildings. In fact, most of the property in the public domain is privately owned. What is the municipality and the municipal art plan doing to facilitate art here?

Can’t you see that the potential for art is much greater than what the commune facilitates, much greater than the critics of Noiret can imagine? Do you really think that only public buildings, which make up a small number, should be allowed to hold art? Or do the homeowners themselves have to pay for art that we can all enjoy? Here, the Nouart Festival has taken a turn and I also work in the same wide place in eastern Norway. Together, we are part of a global art movement that is shaping cities and places around the world.

It is precisely when taxpayers fund art that broad swaths of people should also be able to experience more art, that is seen as relevant, that meets them where they travel and where they live, that makes them proud of their city. Noart is totally raw at this. Nuart’s ability to create a lot of artwork with few resources is beyond question. What they can achieve with a million and a half kroner of municipal subsidies, we can only speculate, but I would expect quality and you should, of course, too.

arm’s length

Saturn uses the arm’s length principle as an argument against the proposed assignment. This principle must be respected. Therefore, it is appropriate to recall that it is the politicians who decide which artistic organizations will receive money and how much it is today. Nothing new under the sun there. But if a basic premise of modern Norwegian cultural policy is that art should be free, how compatible is this with the municipal arts scheme in Stavanger, if art is to be confined to a small number of municipal building projects? Now the politicians in Stavanger have a golden opportunity to get the art released again, by supporting Noart.