ArtCHAT Creative Network For Youth

Rjukan : Bergen 2015

Connecting my young artists growing up in the UNESCO mountain town of Rjukan, with their peers in the UNESCO coastal city of Bergen.

The purpose behind the project was to connect young people growing up in Norway who share a common interest and cultural background, who struggling to find a sense of belonging in the places they live, find a sense of belonging within the country they live. Norway.

Many of my ArtCHAT participants growing up in Rjukan at the time felt isolated and sidelined by their peers – they felt they were seen as ‘different and art as being not cool, and thanks to frequent down prioritizing of the arts in both the school system and local politics – they also felt sidelined within their local community.

Working together with the local culture schools in both Rjukan and Bergen, we managed to get funding to start a creative network for Youths, and to take the ArtCHAT youth on an exchange to Bergen. Working together with pupils from Bergen culture school, the youth created a temporary installation in the church tower of Nykirken – Bergen’s highest church.  

Several of my former ArtCHAT participants have kept in touch over the years, and despite not being able to secure funding past 2015, some of the connections and friendships made during this trip have lasted into young adulthood.