Oslo and Bergen are about to become slightly cheaper to live in. At the same time, they are going to become noticeably more expensive. That’s how the politicians want it. Let’s take Bergen first. This week, city councilor Reidar Digranes (Sp) announced that over two-thirds of the city’s annual artist grants will not be paid out. Of the 3.9 million that had been set aside for this purpose, the city council chooses to retain 2.7 million. Not for a while. Not until next year. Nah. After the application deadline had expired, after the applications had been written and submitted by the hopeful artists. THE CAPITAL OF VESTLAND: There is no shortage of Bergens who will tell you that Bergen has a cooler cultural life than Oslo. What will disappear are 33 grants of between NOK 18,000 and NOK 40,000, and seven work grants of NOK 236,000 each. For the forty artists who could receive these grants, it would mean an enormous amount. For the economy of a large municipality like Bergen, it means almost nothing. You don’t get much road, or light rail, for 2.7 million. The city council, for its part, points to an acute lack of money. This lack of money may have something to do with the fact that the municipality has also set aside 57 million to reduce the property tax, as well as committing to a new and expensive study of the light rail track to Åsane. The sum of all this was anyway a red cloth for the several hundred demonstrators who turned up in front of the town hall in Bergen on Thursday to protest against the cuts. City councilor Digranes may not have appeared as if he took the artists’ fears completely seriously when he remarked that the demonstrators had been lucky with the weather. LUCKY WITH THE WEATHER: Councilor Reidar Digranes has provoked the artists. Photo: Synnøve Malt / news The vast majority of active artists have made significant personal sacrifices in order to pursue their art. Almost no one gets rich from creating visual art or writing novels. The vast majority have low incomes throughout their adult lives. And artists who live outside Oslo make more sacrifices than others. In Oslo, the supply of part-time jobs in the cultural industry, on assignments for libraries and literature houses, is far greater than in other Norwegian cities. Yes, Oslo is also more expensive to live in. But overall there are completely different opportunities there to be able to earn a fee from here and a fee from there, and thus be able to go on summer holidays with the family this year as well. Most artists based in Bergen will probably crane their necks and say that they would rather be in the western capital than in Oslo. I myself lived in Bergen for a couple of years, and got used to hearing about how much cooler the artist environment was there than in Oslo. That living at a distance from the center of power, being able to have independence and an oblique view of the big institutions to the east, was an advantage. COSTLY: After many years of political dispute over the light rail in Bergen, a new route to Åsane is to be investigated. This eats up money in the municipality’s budget. Photo: Simon Skjelvik Brandseth / Simon Skjelvik Brandseth / news I don’t feel any strong need to rank the cultural life in Oslo and Bergen. There are plenty of others, especially Bergens, who do. But the point is in any case impeccable. We need powerful, vibrant artist communities in places other than Oslo. It is healthy for the national culture. And it is, not least, good for Bergen. The old cultural city should be able to offer its citizens places to go in the evening, theatres, exhibitions, panel debates. There may be fewer of them now that the city council gives forty artists a reason to sit on the sofa after dinner and ask their spouse if they should perhaps move to Oslo after all. Not that the atmosphere is much better in Oslo during the day. Just before the city council in Bergen dropped its bucket of ice water on the heads of the city’s artists, the city council in Oslo gave one of the tiger city’s traditional theaters a cold shower. Oslo Nye Teater has been told that they have to operate for very, very much less money until next year. CHILDREN’S THEATER: Oslo Nye Teater has created puppet theater for children in the Trikkestallen at Torshov for many years, here from “Mio min Mio”. Photo: LP Lorentz Oslo municipality has decided to make dramatic cuts in support for the theatre. From an annual transfer of NOK 90 million, the theater will have to operate for NOK 53 million, i.e. a reduction of NOK 37 million. Oslo Nye Teater plays on four stages. The largest is the theatre’s own main stage. Then they put on performances at the beautiful and protected Central Theatre, which was built in 1897, in its own theater basement, and in the Trikkestallen at Torshov, where the puppet theater has long been a favorite destination for the city’s families with children. With the new cut, it is clearly unthinkable to maintain current operations at this level. 90 million is a lot of money. It is natural that there will be debate about how a cultural budget should be distributed. CRITICAL RECOGNITION: Ine Marie Wilmann has played the title role in “Anna Karenina” at Oslo Nye Teater. Photo: Lars Opstad / Oslo Nye Teater Nevertheless, it is surprising that those who govern Oslo really feel they have a mandate to make a move that entails an irreversible change to one of the city’s largest cultural centers, as the residents know it. That they are so sure that this is something the voters want and bless. Here, too, there is muttering that the political leadership does not take this into account, while at the same time they are happy to spend 315 million on reducing the property tax. The big mistake that was made was presumably that Oslo municipality took over responsibility for Oslo Nye Teater in 1999. Such a theater building is really too big for a municipality. At the time, the municipality ordered that the theater be looked after and strengthened. In the years that have passed, they have done the opposite, tightened the requirements for earnings and failed to properly compensate for price growth and wage growth. BROTHERS ON THE STAGE: The brothers Jonas and Jacob Oftebro recently played in “Lang dags ferd mot natt” at Oslo Nye Teater. Photo: Trygve Heide / news There are mutterings in the industry that Oslo Nye may have been too smart, bowing and nodding and cutting again, year after year, thus giving the impression that it was always possible to tighten up more. But the question is whether the problem is not more fundamental. Because Oslo municipality has signaled time and time again that they really think owning a theater is a chore. It is so far an honest matter. But the responsible thing to do would then be to bring the theater under the state again. There is no reason to believe that the state would want something like that, but sometimes someone simply has to take responsibility, even if the task is difficult and expensive. Instead, the citizens of both Oslo and Bergen are now losing something. They lose the novels that are not written, the concerts that are not held, the theater performances that are not staged. But hey, there will be a few kroner less in property tax. Published 20.09.2024, at 16.41
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Oslo and Bergen are becoming cheaper, and more expensive, to live in. – Statement
