Taking the Initiative nominated for a prestigious Audience Development prize, and we’ve only just begun!
Who’d have thought that a project that has hardly got off the ground would win a nomination from NPU this year – NPU being the audience development agency for Norway.
Together with the broader work Bergen Municipality is doing around audience development, diversity and inclusion, Taking the Initiative was one of 10 projects selected for the 2022 Award, because of its focus on socially engaged practice – using artists-in-service to the community in a way that is grassroots driven, and with no specific predetermined outcomes in mind.
Our project exemplifies how a city authority can bring together strategic intent, grass-roots activity and international expertise to invest in radical long-term projects that offer an alternative to the status quo.
On the day, Trine Sejrup, one of two artists recently engaged to deliver the project in Loddefjord and Olsvik, and Siri Breistein travelled to Oslo to talk about the ethos, intention, process and associated risks of the project – and we got a round of applause backstage.
Since the award ceremony, we have been approached by Bærum municipality near Oslo which is interested in finding out more about our work. They will be visiting Loddefjord and Olsvik to meet the artists in November. This is a hugely exciting development in our ambitions for Taking the Initiative – not just in make a meaningful difference to people’s lives in Bergen, but in showing by example alternative ways of engaging with communities.
If truth be told, this nomination is probably premature. With the Loddefjord and Olsvik work recently underway, and our plans for Arna taking shape, it still feels as though we are at the beginning, even though so much thinking and questioning has got us to this point. Our hope is that, further down the line, we will be nominated again, and WIN, because we will have stories to tell of the difference we made, and how we achieved it.
