Tromsø University College will in August 2007 commence a fine arts educational programme. 15 students and their instructors are to develop the road ahead. How is a contemporary artist to practice his art at the present? The wish to have a Fine Arts education at university level at Tromsø has been strong ever since the University of Tromsø was founded. 35 years were to pass before that wish finally came true. How will the location of the academy in the far north affect the programme itself? How can an artist become dedicated to the world when using Tromsø as her and his point of departure?
Art-Arctic
The Academy of Fine Arts at Tromsø is the northernmost in the world. The site is Tromsø, a small town in North-Norway: The gateway to the Arctic. All around it the Arctic extends in all directions, but the area is rich in resources, both natural and cultural. Nature is powerful and awesome. The populated areas are scattered, complex and characterised by adaption to the surroundings. In this vast field of tensions the students of the new Academy of Fine Arts next year are to find ways of exercising their art. Here we need an explorative and critical modern art with an awareness of its connectedness in its investigations, reflections and shared actions.
Tromsø is a rapidly growing and pulsating but small town with an ever increasing urbanity. The town possesses qualities of its own that we wish to be a part of and share in. The Academy of Fine Arts is to become a point of encounter for contemporary art in Tromsø and the rest of North-Norway. The town’s size and character are well suited to manifesting a dedicated and active presence through artistic practice.
A strong foundation in the Arctic and in Tromsø cements the potential for a global orientation. The academy is to become an international forum for teachers and students who also relate actively to conditions in other parts of the world. Traditionally people of Tromsø have shown dedication and solidarity and it has been a town where community interest have been ranked higher than selfishness.
By means of projects, collaboration and dedicated interest for world issues the Academy of Fine Arts and its teachers and students will work to connect Tromsø to knowledge abroad and enter into networks. Understanding cultural differences and conflicts strengthens the capacity to develop a sustainable artistic practice. Sustainability requires democracy and social and cultural tolerance.
The Academy is not to become an education in contemporary art, but a forum where international contemporary art will constitute a suitable field of action for different types of activities related to dedication to social issues and art. This is a further development of the art of the previous century, the art of which therefore also is a required object of study. By means of projects and a varied practice a basic openness, mobility and flexibility could provide influence and a potential for development The Academy of Fine Arts – the institution itself and its studies - should always aim at being in a state of continuous change.