From Teatersentrum to PAHN

Tove Bratten, director of Performing Arts Hub Norway from 1993, Tove Bratten, takes us through the foundation's history until now.

The association Teatersentrum, whose English-language name was long The Norwegian Association for Performing Arts, was established in 1977, on the initiative of independent theatre and dance companies, of which there was an increasing number in Norway at the time. 

– The term "independent companies" meant that the artists chose for themselves what to perform and how to organise their artistic work. The term "independent performing arts", which is more used today, points back to the same artistic viewpoint, Bratten says.

Among the founders of Teatersentrum were Collage Dansekompani, Danseloftet, Dukketeaterverkstedet, Filiokus Teatret, Fri Ballett, Grenland Friteater, Høvik Ballett AKA Hovik Ballet, Musidra, Perleporten Teatergruppe, Saltkompagniet, Teater 4, Teater Rundt-Omkring (established by the father of politician Audun Lysbakken, Sigurd Lysbakken), Thesbiteatret (The Thesbi Theatre) and Tramteatret.

– The background for the independent companies' initiative was, among other things, a suggestion from the senior executive Johs Aanderaa in what was then The Ministry of Church and Education, under which cultural affairs were sorted. He encouraged the companies to establish a common-interest organisation, so that the ministry could relate to one single channel, rather than singular input and contacts. This channel was also meant to assist the ministry with knowledge of policy shaping for this new part of Norwegian performing arts.

Late 1970s until early 1980s

VISIBILITY AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

The new association wanted to work for improved living conditions, status, and visibility, and for independent theatre and dance companies, and for establishing a touring network. One important political issue was to establish a national support system for activity, to benefit the independent companies. 

– The support system became part of the national budget as early as 1982, if I remember it correctly, so it did not take very long. Some years later, Teatersentrum was also granted government support as a competence centre, Tove says.

The first daily manager of the organisation was hired. Teatersentrum provided activity statistics, reflecting the actual image of the companies' contribution to Norwegian culture. As part of the visibility work, the organisation established the first theatre festival for independent companies in Norway as early as the summer of 1977, and the journal Spillerom, for which the daily manager was the editor, was also established. 

– In Spillerom, one could raise issues not discussed in other media. It was necessary to make clear that independent performing arts represented a variety of expressions, and that this was not amateur theatre.

– At this time, there was a stated opposition between performing arts institutions and independent performing arts companies. The institutions maintained a traditional, literary view of theatre, and you may say that the contemporary expression was maintained outside of the institutions, by the independent performing arts companies where a multitude of aesthetic strategies and artistic oeuvres were developed, and where the aim was to set their own artistic agendas, with expressions one didn't find within the institutions.

Late 1980s

A VENUE OF ITS OWN

With government support granted, the next major initiative and break-through for Teatersentrum was to establish Black Box Teater in 1985: A venue of its own, at the centre of the capital, dedicated to showing independent performing arts, with the support of the municipality of Oslo.

- The ministry had taken responsibility for production support, and through support for Black Box, the municipality of Oslo took responsibility for showing what was produced, Tove says. 

In the beginning, Black Box was managed as a rental venue, based on the first come, first served principle. Bratten became the daily manager for Teatersentrum in 1993 as a step in the development towards a more quality-controlled artistic profile. The municipality of Oslo had declared a wish for stronger artistic management. The former leader of Teatersentrum, Inger Buresund, became daily manager and artistic director of the theatre, and Bratten was offered the job as daily manager of Teatersentrum.  With her background from theatre studies in Bergen, among other things, she came directly to Teatersentrum from the position as theatre and dance consultant in the municipality of Bærum.

–  The politically close collaboration between BBT and Teatersentrum strengthened the visibility of independent performing arts in Norway. BBT became the flagship, where "The production of the month" underlined BBT's profile, while the theatre could also be rented and be a kind of "The Norwegian Touring Theatre in reverse", as companies from all over the country could present their works for new audiences and a larger section of the media. Arguing the significance of The Norwegian Touring Theatre in reverse gained acceptance in the Parliament, and we lobbied for government support for BBT when the Parliament discussed Åse Kleveland's first Culture Report (white paper). At the same time, the work for BBT to attain membership in Association of Norwegian Theatres and Orchestras started, because it was important to us that the rest of the professional theatre in Norway would acknowledge the quality of independent performing arts and the venue for independent performing arts. 

Early 1990s

THE NATIONAL TOURING NETWORK FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS (SCENEKUNSTBRUKET)

In 1993, Teatersentrum applied for and was granted 50 000 NOK from Arts Council Norway, to start the work to establish a multiyear test project called Norsk Scenekunstbruk, whose English name is The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts. 

–  This project was a response to a wish from the board of Teatersentrum, to establish a touring system for independent companies. The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts found inspiration in Pilotgalleriet, which was in turn based on a dissipation project I had earlier explored for Arts Council Norway. In that, we were to convey modern visual art to children and youth through existing structures.

The model was adjusted and developed for independent performing arts. The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts was created in 1994, with four counties as partners. 

 –  The model for The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts is based on pre-evaluation of the quality of performances within the production bank. When buying productions, the arranger would get a refund for a certain percentage of the cost, financed by public funds. The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts was organised as a separate result and budget area within the enterprise of Performing Arts Hub Norway. And the selection of productions was made independently of membership within PAHN. The annual meeting accepted this. At the same time, the school system was going through exciting times, and this gave the project a flying start.

Late 1990s

CHANGE OF NAME

–  As Ellen Aslaksen's study from 1997 showed, many of the young artists at the time were more interested in the individual and the artistic, than of being part of the organised culture, with the collective solutions of the 1970es, Bratten says:  

–  In tune with the way the field actually worked, we changed the member criteria in 1994, so that the company requirement was removed, to the benefit of producing artists' work. We also changed the bylaws, from "working for independent companies" to "working for independent performing arts". This change in orientation from collectives to artistic practice included young artists and companies.

At the same time, the organisation changed its name, from Teatersentrum to Danse- og teatersentrum (DTS), including dance as well as theatre. 

–  Our practice in gathering the whole independent field was to be reflected in the name of the organisation. 

Early 2000s

TRAVEL SUPPORT AND FOUNDATION

The close dialogue with artists is decisive for what one may call Performing Arts Hub Norway's entrepreneur activity: In addition to the mentioned Spillerom, a theatre festival for children and youth, Black Box Teater and The National Touring Network for the Performing Arts, PAHN has also initiated and established the online publication Scenekunst.no, in collaboration with Association of Norwegian Theatres and Orchestras, and later the national performing arts archive Sceneweb.

– All our initiatives have started the same way as PAHN did, springing out from needs in the field, going from the ground up. The major changes have always been initiated by the artists and the companies. PAHN has a hybrid platform: We have become an institution of sorts, but a small one, close to the artists. This makes it possible to keep track of changes in the field, and to act on these. And this has results.

2010 until now

NATIONAL MEMORY

When PAHN started Sceneweb in 2008, it was due to seeing the need for a shared, national archival policy for Norwegian performing arts. With project support from Arts Council Norway, for a three-year pilot period, a database solution especially adjusted for performing arts archives was developed, including an open webpage where users can freely search the content of the database. After ten years of collection work, the archive now contains information on more than 84 000 productions, organisations, venues, and people, from near 170 donors. Sceneweb is the only (digital) archive to provide a coherent presentation of the Norwegian field of performing arts, and its history. The work is done in close collaboration with The National Library of Norway.

– It has been and still is challenging to gain political understanding for the significance of documenting performing arts history. Performing arts are ephemeral and fall between categories, in that most support programmes within the archival field are oriented towards archiving and documenting physical objects. It is not easy to attain the necessary resources. For instance, we sorely need modernisation of the webpage, and archival workers to work continually in registering and conveying the material. But we are not giving up. Without knowledge of and access to our near as well as distant history, we lack important elements in the understanding of our contemporary performing arts. 

INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION AND EXCHANGE  

–  Sceneweb is one of three core areas in today's activity. The international work is PAHN's second core area, and an important part of the work on building the field, Bratten says:

In addition to administrating The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' travel support programme for Norwegian performing artists' professional work at an international level, PAHN advises The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relevant issues connected to performing arts. This assignment is shared between PAHN and other managerial arts organisations within other art forms, such as NORLA, OCA, NC, DOGA, MUSIC NORWAY and Norwegian Film Institute. 

With the international mandate, the need for an English-language name of the organisation arose. Performing Arts Hub Norway, shortened PAHN, was chosen as the name in international contexts. 

–  We are seven organisations working on international cultural advocacy and promotion. In 2015, we established the network Norwegian Arts Abroad, shortened NAA, for the sake of mutual strength and for better to coordinate the international work. NAA is now a viable, result-oriented network.

PAHN collaborates with The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in arranging expert visits to Norway, and Norwegian presence at selected festival and trade gatherings all over the world. These marketing measures are supported by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In recent years, we have succeeded in an Asian effort, while strengthening the Norwegian presence in general. We work closely with Norwegian embassies and consulates. We are utterly dependent of their local knowledge in the countries we work with. We work from a long-term strategy plan, which is also developed with basis in this close collaboration.

In addition, The Norwegian Ministry of Culture has assigned PAHN the responsibility to strengthen the apparatus surrounding the international performing arts activity, the level of management/producers and promotion.

– In this, we have established two pointed programmes for the field, and these have proved to be efficient and sought-after, Bratten says.

–  In other words, we work with the whole food chain, and establish measures where we, after evaluating suggestions and experiences, find that it is most needed. This, we get through close dialogue and international interaction. The measures should be relevant and not least efficient, for the artists, for the companies, and for the use of funds!

POLITICAL WORK

Political work is a central part of Performing Arts Hub Norway's activity. 

– One may say that this is our third core area. We can simply not build a field aiming for high international demand and activity without working on developing the basis for independent performing arts production at home, in Norway. Our political work affects the whole ecosystem independent performing arts are part of. This ecosystem is not a closed bubble, not at home, nor internationally. When an artistic idea begins its journey towards production, or a visiting performance, a whole apparatus of efforts is activated. The ideas do not fall from the air by themselves, but arise in different meetings between artists, Bratten says, eagerly:

– Today, the aesthetic difference between institutions and the independent field is significantly reduced, compared to the time when Teatersentrum was established. Today, in many ways, one talks of a complete sector of performing arts, in which the largest divide is different management conditions for professional production. We still have work to do in strengthening the systems, in money and in the organisation of different support programmes. We are concerned with establishing new programmes, within and outside of Arts Council Norway. Today, there is a particular challenge concerning the future for established artists, as the current support programmes within Arts Council Norway are not sufficient to maintain established companies. These are also our international flagships and contribute to interest for newer initiatives within Norwegian performing arts. We also need to remember that performing arts are expressed live - the art form to gather and activate the highest degree of live human resources - and thus it is a costly art form. It needs long-term thinking and economic predictability, she concludes.

DAiLY MANAGERS/DIRECTORS OF PAHN FROM 1983 UNTIL NOW

Gunnar Nyquist

Tore Amblie Bjørback

Inger Buresund

Tove Bratten

Antoine ja Bás-Prinssas (1997) by Sampo Teater og Calbmis – Photo Harry Johansen

All images in this article are taken from Sceneweb