Seminar: Oslo – a more accessible city for artists

Free sign up

We are launching a new report on accessibility and universal design in the artists’ studios in Oslo. The survey was commissioned by Oslo Open and carried out by the Fafo research institute. A reference group made up of partners from organisations FFO, UngFunk, UKS, and BO has contributed throughout the process. With this survey, we aim to offer insight into the current situation and propose improvements when it comes to access to workspaces for disabled artists.

We’ll also broaden the perspective and explore how cultural organisers can achieve greater accessibility – for both artists and audiences – in terms of production and presentation. What can we in Oslo learn from colleagues in Bergen and Barcelona?

Program

10:00
Artist, curator, and access consultant Aidan Moesby will be the event host

Welcome speech by Sigmund Løvåsen, Chair of Arts Council Norway (in Norwegian)

Frida Rusnak from Oslo Open, Gunhild Frisell and Terje Olsen from Fafo reseach Institute present the report (in Norwegian)

Rauand Ismail from Norwegian Live introduces the Accessibility Handbook – a practical tool for creating more inclusive events (in Norwegian)

11:00
Break

11:15
Case study: Curator Veronica Valentini presents the project Diversorium from Barcelona

Panel conversation: Veronica Valentini, Eva Rowson from the studio and concert venue Bergen Kjøtt, and visual and performance artist Franzisca Siegrist discuss accessibility in the arts, drawing on experiences from Oslo, Bergen, and Barcelona. The panel is chaired by Aidan Moesby.

12:00–12.30
Coffe, mingle, and a light snack

Background

Artists in Oslo rely on a mixture of private and municipal infrastructure to meet the need for studios. Building regulations and historical lack of wider considerations make studios and many art institutions inaccessible to artists with disabilities. Studio leases are often short-term and unpredictable, making them difficult to adapt. Inaccessible studios prevent artists from working. This in turn makes them and their work invisible, and they become less likely to show work in exhibitions. Often they can’t access openings and network events.

With greater awareness of difference and interest in diversity, Oslo Open and Norwegian Live seek to put the discussion of representation and inclusion, based on the accessibility to appropriate work space, front and centre.

The survey and the seminar have been generously supported by the Balansepotten, Bufdir and Arts Council Norway.

Panel participants

Veronica Valentini and Diversorium

Veronica Valentini is a Barcelona-based curator, educator and researcher working at the intersection of visual arts, education, and social context. Her work focuses on the creation of new audiences, cultural rights, accessibility practices, and the design and management of cultural projects from an intersectional perspective. She is the founder and director of E.M.M.A. and BAR project, as well as the co-curator of exhibitions and a visual arts training program at HAUS – Espai d’Art i Pràctiques Contemporànies. Additionally, she serves as the head of international residency and research programs at Hangar, Barcelona.

In 2018 she joined as mediator Concomitentes (the Spanish version of the European network New Patrons), a national art programme aimed at citizens that promotes the creation of artworks that engage with their social context. In this role, she has co-developed Diversorium. Live arts and a space for coexistence, a crip and queer party space for everybodies. Initiated alongside activists Maria Oliver and Antonio Centeno Ortiz from the Independent Living Movement, Diversorium advocates for a communal space in which to come together, celebrate, and “move” the discriminations that separate us. Diversorium has been presented in various formats, at discoclubs, music festivals, art centers and civic centers in Barcelona, Stockholm and Paris, and at the recent Manifesta 15 biennial. In 2025, Diversorium will be opening the Current – Art and urban space festival in Stuttgart.

Eva Rowson

Eva Rowson is Managing Director of Bergen Kjøtt, one of Norway´s largest non-profit cultural centres for music production, with 28 music and recording studios and 2 interdisciplinary stages, and an award-winning venue for accessibility and inclusion. Eva is one of the co-founders of “GRIP”, Norway’s only sound engineering training program aimed at welcoming more cis women, non-binary and transgender people into this industry. Rowson is a board member of AKKS Norway that works for gender equality and nurturing new talent in the Norwegian music scene, and leads the course “Collaborative Practices” at the Faculty of Art, University of Bergen.

Franzisca Siegrist is a Swiss-Spanish visual artist based in Oslo. Her work is primarily in performance art, but she also works with installation, objects, photography and video—always with the performative as a starting point. The questions she explores often revolve around migration, belonging, social norms, the environment, and how her own background and everyday life is reflected in particular aspects of our society. Siegrist has exhibited her work in 20 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Aidan Moesby

Aidan Moesby is an artist, curator and writer bringing a nuanced and insightful approach to the emotional context of working with climate change. Through a body of work that is playful, intimate and deeply human, he occupies spaces where art, technology and wellbeing intersect. His practice includes Disability Arts and mainstream representation, nationally and internationally, across physical and digital platforms.

Practical information

The seminar will take place on the ground floor of Kulturhuset, Youngs gate 6, Oslo.

Accessibility

• The venue is wheelchair accessible
• Step-free entrance and accessible toilet
• We’re trying to arrange a sign language interpreter via NAV (not yet confirmed)
• English will be interpreted into Norwegian Sign Language
• Please get in touch if you need a sign language interpreter to take part!
• The venue has a hearing loop
• A variety of seating options will be available
• You’re welcome to move around during the seminar
• Food with vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free options

Language

• The programme before the break will be in Norwegian
• After the break, the presentation and panel discussion will be in English
• Oslo Open’s report and NKA’s Accessibility Handbook are in Norwegian

Live Stream

• The seminar will be live streamed here, and the recording will remain available
• The stream and recording will have subtitles in the original language

Contact us

We want the event to be accessible to as many people as possible. Do you have questions, feedback or access needs we haven’t mentioned here? Please contact:
Frida Rusnak, tel: 99 77 25 34, frida.rusnak@osloopen.no