6 Particular priority areas in the further development of the Cultural Rucksack

6.1 Expansion of the Cultural Rucksack to upper secondary school

In its report to the Ministry of Culture in 2006, the Archive, Library and Museum Authority concluded that the Cultural Rucksack should be expanded to include day-care institutions and upper secondary school as well. The Government now intends to introduce the programme in upper secondary school.

Pupils in upper secondary school are 16 to 18 years of age, a phase in their lives when they are facing important choices. They are having to decide on issues such as who they are, what kind of further education they should choose and where they are going to live. Art and culture can give these young people valuable space in which to reflect on these questions, and provide shared experiences that may be lacking in the ordinary school day.

One of the principles of the Knowledge Promotion Reform is that school pupils should be presented with forms of art and culture that have an original perspective or express a sense of community, and that stimulate the pupils’ imagination and creativity. The expansion of the Cultural Rucksack will help to ensure that these principles are followed in the teaching at all levels. The reform covers both primary and secondary school, and the general part of the national curriculum and the principles on which the teaching is based apply to all school levels. Upper secondary school is the first step towards further education and working life, and the pupils have to choose between a greater range of subjects, taught by more specialised teachers, than in lower secondary school.

Young people who have completed lower secondary school or the equivalent have, on application, the right to three years of full-time upper secondary education (section 3-1 of the Education Act). The county is responsible for ensuring that this right is fulfilled. There are about 500 upper secondary schools in Norway, which are mostly located in cities or urban areas, and around 180 000 pupils in upper secondary school (excluding apprentices) were registered for the school year 2005–2006.

Many counties have offered cultural programmes designed for upper secondary pupils for many years. Thus there already exist a large number of cultural initiatives and programmes for this age group that take account of the structure and content of upper secondary education.

As in primary and lower secondary school, it will be important to involve the school owners and the schools themselves in the Cultural Rucksack programme at upper secondary level. Since the county is both the upper secondary school owner and the authority responsible for administering the programme at county level, this should be a simple task, which means that a smaller amount of resources per pupil will be needed. At the same time it is important that the school principals and teachers play an active role in incorporating art, culture and the cultural heritage into the ordinary school day.

As in primary and lower secondary school, the success of the programme requires cooperation between the school and cultural sectors. The schools must play an active role in these efforts, and the county authorities must actively involve the schools, for example by establishing networks. The division of responsibility between the sectors must be clearly defined and planning must be carried out as a cooperative activity.

In addition to these efforts, the county authorities should organise competence-building activities in the field of art and culture that are financed over their own budgets. Furthermore it will be important to involve the municipalities as well, since in many cases it will be an advantage to coordinate the county programme with those of the individual municipalities. This will require cooperation at the local level.

Care must be taken to ensure that the principle of differentiated teaching and the requirement that the Cultural Rucksack must be part of the school’s academic programme also apply to pupils in upper secondary school.

The programme for upper secondary school should ensure that all pupils are equally able to enjoy cultural activities of a high quality provided by professionals. Multicultural activities should also be offered.

Since the Cultural Rucksack was introduced, the parties involved – artists, cultural workers, county and municipal authorities and schools – have acquired a great deal of experience and expertise in the field, and this should be utilised in the efforts to introduce the programme at upper secondary school. It important to foster a common awareness among all those involved that appreciating art and culture is an important supplement to the ordinary teaching at every school level.

6.1.1 Pilot projects in seven counties

In 2007 pilot projects were started in the counties of Vest-Agder, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Møre og Romsdal, Hedmark, Oppland and Troms, all of which applied to participate. The Ministry of Culture imposed the following conditions:

• The project must ensure that all pupils are equally able to enjoy cultural activities of high quality provided by professionals.

• Multicultural activities should also be offered.

• The project must be planned and implemented in cooperation with the education sector, and the division of responsibility between the sectors must be clearly defined.

• Plans must be made for competence-building activities in connection with the project that are financed over a different budget.

The counties of Hedmark and Oppland are planning a joint programme for the schools in their regions, so as to take advantage of the best available competence in both counties. Several counties intend to begin with a few schools and gradually expand the scope of the programme, and some counties already have a programme but intend to expand it.

NOK 0.5 million has been set aside for evaluating the pilot project.

Photo: Pupil at Gjøvik upper secondary school

6.2 Better networks and meeting places

County networks

Those who work with the Cultural Rucksack on a daily basis need to meet and exchange experiences. The network of county cultural coordinators meets twice a year, and the meetings are sometimes attended by representatives from the education department at the county governor’s office.

A wide range of matters, including practical problems, are discussed at the meetings, which may also feature some form of cultural production. The county cultural coordinator decides when a meeting is to be held, and the Secretariat for the Cultural Rucksack now plays a greater role in the planning and organisation.

There are also other networks such as the city network, which comprises the cities of Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Drammen, Tromsø, Fredrikstad and Kristiansand.

County meeting places

Each county also has cultural gatherings or similar meeting places for schools, teachers, artists, cultural institutions and other cooperation partners. The organisation of such events varies from county to county.

Network meetings for the different forms of cultural expression

Annual meetings are held for each form of cultural expression. The Norwegian Film Institute arranges an annual seminar on the Cultural Rucksack in connection with the Amandus Festival in Lillehammer. Rikskonsertene arranges annual gatherings of producers and organisers of school concerts. In recent years Scenekunstbruket has arranged Showbox, with performances of new theatre productions and a seminar. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design arranges gatherings for those involved with visual arts productions, with excerpts from cultural productions.

In recent years the Secretariat has cooperated with the Bergen International Festival on Nystemt, a two-day cultural festival for pupils and schools. Nystemt includes performances of productions in different art forms and parallel with the festival there is a seminar for adults from all over the country on the presentation of art and culture to schoolchildren. The performances are open to pupils at schools in the Bergen area and to the seminar participants. The festival is thus an important meeting place for the various parties in the Cultural Rucksack.

Network for national institutions

A number of national cultural institutions involved in the Cultural Rucksack have formed a national network called Riksforum, in which they can exchange experiences and discuss matters related to the programme.

The members of Riksforum are Rikskonsertene, the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Scenekunstbruket, the Norwegian Writers’ Centre, the Norwegian Film Institute, Arts Council Norway and Norsk Form. A member of the Secretariat attends the meetings. At present there are no representatives from the cultural heritage field.

Riksforum is an important meeting place for developing programme content and for quality assurance of productions. It also has an important coordinating function. Representatives attend meetings of the county cultural coordinators and have regular contact with the Secretariat on matters relating to programme content.

In its consultation response the Norwegian Film Institute pointed to the importance of maintaining a national overview of each of the different forms of cultural expression in order to ensure an equal distribution of professional, high-quality productions throughout the country. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design emphasised that it was essential not to compromise on substance or the professional aspect, and Rikskonsertene proposed that all the institutions involved should engage in a continual process of evaluation and quality assurance. Scenekunstbruket was also concerned about quality, and Arts Council Norway stressed that both artistic and educational principles must be followed.

International networks and meeting places

International networks for presenters of culture and the arts for schools provide an opportunity for the exchange of experience and new perspectives, and cooperation across national borders makes it possible to arrange exchanges of productions, artists, cultural workers and others.

The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Directorate of Education and Training, and the Secretariat for the Cultural Rucksack are all members of various international networks and forums.

At present the Cultural Rucksack has few parallels in other countries, and has aroused international interest, especially in Sweden and Denmark. A Nordic network has now been established for national institutions in the field of art and culture for schools. The members are senior officials from the ministries of education and culture in the Nordic countries, and representatives from key institutions in each country. The network is primarily an arena for the exchange of information.

The Norwegian Centre for Art and Culture in Education will promote the exchange of experience with other countries and foster cultural cooperation as part of the Government’s development efforts in the High North. This will also raise awareness of cultural diversity in the Cultural Rucksack.

Further development

In order to ensure continued cooperation and the optimal use of resources, it will be necessary to maintain, strengthen and encourage greater activity in the existing networks established for the Cultural Rucksack.

Riksforum, the network of national cultural institutions, will be formalised, but it will be a requirement that all the cultural expressions included in the programme are represented.

The county network will also be formalised, and the Secretariat for the Cultural Rucksack will take greater responsibility for organising meetings. The networks for the various cultural expressions should also be stimulated to greater activity, and the national institutions should be made responsible for network activities in their own sphere. Efforts will be made to involve the cultural heritage authorities more closely in the cooperation.

6.3 Competence development

It was stressed in the evaluation report, the consultation responses and elsewhere that competence development is one of the greatest challenges in connection with the Cultural Rucksack. The field of competence required varies, and ranges from the development and presentation of productions to educational competence.

Work on the Cultural Rucksack is in itself a process in which the various parties are continually gaining competence, but competence in presenting art and culture must also be built up systematically. Artists, presenters, museum curators and cultural workers need to know more about the target groups and about how to develop productions of a high standard for such groups. Many teachers need more knowledge about art and culture at the professional level and about how to organise preparation and follow-up in connection with the various activities.

Today there are a large number of groups in the school and cultural sectors working with competence development in connection with the programme, but their efforts are not always sufficiently comprehensive or focused.

Some of the major cultural institutions, like Rikskonsertene, the Norwegian Film Institute, Scenekunstbruket, the five university museums, the science centres, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design and the Archive, Library and Museum Authority, provide competence-building programmes in their fields for both the cultural and the school sectors. Seminars and meetings for performers, teachers and others working with the programme are held regularly.

The Centre for Art and Culture in Education provides higher and further education programmes for employees in the school sector whose work includes the aesthetic subjects. The network Nettverk for estetiske fag and the interest groups for the various aesthetic subjects also provide and develop programmes and courses.

Since the Norsk Tipping funds for the Cultural Rucksack may not be used for competence-building, many counties, municipalities and cultural institutions have to set aside considerable funds from their own budgets for competence-building activities. Many counties arrange annual cultural gatherings and seminars for individuals working with the programme in their region; for example Møre og Romsdal County has been arranging meetings for school teachers, municipal cultural coordinators, artists, and teachers at the municipal schools for music and the arts for many years. In some counties, for example Telemark, the education department at the county governor’s office is included in the planning of such meetings. Other counties have similar arrangements, and some municipalities hold courses for the cultural coordinators in their areas.

The county governor’s office is responsible for conducting surveys of the need for competence-building in the education sector as a guide for municipalities, encouraging cooperation between school owners and other cultural and educational bodies, supervising competence development activities among school owners and distributing the available resources for these purposes.

Further development

There is a need to strengthen and coordinate competence development in the field of art education in the school and cultural sectors, and systematic, focused efforts will be made in this direction in the further development of the Cultural Rucksack. Specialised competence must also be developed in professional bodies in the various specialised fields.

6.4 Research and evaluation strategy

So far no overall plan or strategy for research and evaluation has been developed for the Cultural Rucksack. Apart from the evaluation by NIFU STEP in 2006, no research projects of any size have been commissioned at government level, although in 2007 NOK 0.5 million was set aside for evaluating the introduction of the programme in upper secondary schools. In such a large programme there will always be a need for research and development, as confirmed by the report from the Research Council of Norway, Kunnskapsbehov i kultursektoren (“Knowledge needs in the cultural sector”), and by a background document drawn up by NIFU.

The background document proposes a type of knowledge production for the Cultural Rucksack that it considers will ensure research that is comprehensive, broad-based and of high quality. It should include systematic registration of the various parties’ experience of the programme and the development of more theoretical insight. The document outlines a number of topics for research and recommends making contact with the Research Council for an overall evaluation of the research being carried out.

Research is needed on art education, for example on how the presentation of art and culture can promote the goals of the national curriculum and those of the various subjects. With more knowledge in this field, new methods for integrating art and culture with other education activities could be developed.

The work of the Centre for Art and Culture in Education is based on research and development projects that involve students and teachers. It also cooperates with centres of expertise at the national and international level.

Photo: Rune Sævig

Further development

The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research will draw up a strategy for including research and evaluation as a permanent element in the future work on the Cultural Rucksack. The programme is in itself an exciting research topic, even outside the projects commissioned by the ministries.

6.5 Better Internet-based tools

There was broad agreement among the consultation bodies that good Internet-based tools would simplify reporting, planning, information-sharing and logistics in the Cultural Rucksack. In addition, the various parties would like to see long-term investment in suitable digital tools for the programme.

Reporting system

In order to obtain a good overview of the Cultural Rucksack throughout the country, reliable, quality-assured information about the implementation of the programme in counties and municipalities is important. In cooperation with the Archive, Library and Museum Authority and the counties themselves, the Secretariat has developed an Internet-based reporting system for the counties, which includes figures from the municipalities. The reporting system is an element in the Authority’s efforts to compile statistics in the archive, library and museum sector.

The Secretariat received the first reports from the counties in autumn 2007, and the preliminary figures for the content and scope of the counties’ programmes for the school year 2006–2007 are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.2, while those for the counties’ revenues and expenditure in connection with the programme are discussed in Chapter 7.1. The reports have provided a certain overview of how the counties use their allocations from the Norsk Tipping funds, but at present the figures do not provide a good enough basis for evaluating the content and scope of the programmes offered by the municipalities.

Information to schools, planning and logistics

A large programme like the Cultural Rucksack requires an efficient system for tour planning and organisation. If the schools are to benefit from the various activities it is important that they receive information in advance so that they can prepare teachers and pupils. Since the responsibility for administering and organising the programme lies with the individual county and municipality, they must choose their own information, planning and logistics systems.

Currently a number of different systems are used for information-sharing, tour planning and logistics in connection with the Cultural Rucksack. Fourteen counties use the Internet-based tool KSYS, which has been developed by the supplier in cooperation with a number of counties. The remaining five counties have developed their own Internet-based tools. KSYS is also used by some of the national institutions, such as the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, and the Norwegian Writers’ Centre.

Internet-based tools like this can also be used by other bodies involved in the programme. Schools can use them to keep up to date on the activities available, and counties can use them to publish information about forthcoming tours, obtain information about the school schedule, and generate reports on the finances and content of the programme. The national institutions can also use them to publish information about activities and tours. Such systems make it easier for all those involved to plan and document activities and share information.

The website for the Cultural Rucksack

The programme’s website, http://www.denkulturelleskolesekken.no/, is an important source of information and provides links to the most important bodies involved: counties and municipalities, and to other relevant websites. It also publishes press cuttings and details of forthcoming conferences and meetings relating to the programme. The Secretariat is responsible for the content of the website and the Archive, Library and Museum Authority for the technical operation.

Further development

The efforts to obtain sound, reliable, quality-assured information about the implementation of the Cultural Rucksack in counties and municipalities, and to improve report forms and procedures will be continued. Special attention will be paid to developing a system that will provide clearer information about the activities of the municipalities. The county will be responsible for obtaining data from the individual municipalities on the basis of a standard report form sent to all municipalities. The intention is that the annual reports from the counties and municipalities should provide a reliable basis for published statistics on the programme.

Information about the work being done by the schools in connection with the programme should also be compiled, and the existing information system for primary and lower secondary schools, GSI, will be a useful tool in this effort.

In order to ensure the optimal use of resources, a national institution should be made responsible for coordinating the different Internet-based information, planning and logistics systems used by the counties and national cultural institutions. A long-term strategy is also needed for developing and maintaining the various systems.

The possibility of linking the various information, planning and logistics systems with the official gateway to culture in Norway, www.kulturnett.no (in English: www.culturenet.no), should also be considered. Culturenet contains information on events, institutions and individuals in the fields of art and culture, and shares many features with the information, planning and logistics systems used in the Cultural Rucksack. Culturenet was initiated by the Ministry of Culture, and is operated by the Archive, Library and Museum Authority.

The Ministry will therefore request the Authority to coordinate the information, planning and logistics systems for the Cultural Rucksack. The systems should be coordinated with the reporting system for the programme, Culturenet, the Cultural Rucksack website and the website being planned by the Centre for Art and Culture in Education. The Archive, Library and Museum Authority will also consider methods for operational maintenance and development of these tools.

6.6 Work contracts and transport arrangements

Both the evaluation report and the consultation responses pointed out that many bodies involved in the programme were in favour of establishing a national standard regulating for example remuneration and contracts in order to ensure that artists and performers in the different art forms worked under comparable conditions.

Remuneration agreements are negotiated with the individual artists’ organisations. Although it is not always easy to compare agreements, the counties and some of the national cultural institutions have been cooperating for a long time on harmonising practices. These bodies are responsible for engaging artists and cultural workers, and thus for the content of the programme.

Transport for the pupils was another issue raised in the report and the responses. Transport has to be arranged whenever the pupils are to engage in activities outside the school. In some counties the schools themselves have to pay the cost of transport, while in others this is considered part of the programme and covered by the county or municipality.

The details of work contracts or transport arrangements under the Cultural Rucksack cannot be fine-tuned at government level, but the Ministry wishes to point to the need for harmonisation and standardisation, and encourages the counties and municipalities to take further steps in this direction. The Ministry also wishes to point out that the allocation key for Norsk Tipping funds to the counties takes account of geographical distances in the county.

Photo: Geir-Ove Andersen/Nordland Visual Theatre

6.7 The Golden Rucksack – best school and best production

The Cultural Rucksack has its own prize, the Golden Rucksack, which was awarded for the first time at the Bergen International Festival in May 2007. The prize is awarded for the best school and the best production, and the winners received NOK 100 000 each.

The prize for best production goes to a production that as far as possible complies with the principles and objectives of the Cultural Rucksack. The production must show evidence of high quality at every stage, including the artistic idea and/or the cultural project idea, content, technical and practical implementation, and adaptation to the age group.

The prize for the best school goes to a school or group of schools whose programme complies best with the principles and objectives of the Cultural Rucksack.

Candidates for the prize are nominated by counties, municipalities and various cultural institutions, and the jury contains representatives from both school and cultural sectors.

The prize for 2007 went to Svolvær primary and lower secondary school and the project Jam!, produced by the group Adbusters in cooperation with the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. The jury emphasised that the school had made systematic efforts to integrate art and culture with the school day, and that Jam! pushed back boundaries, challenged preconceived ideas and used artistic media to make an impact on the participants.

Photo: Pupil at Bjølsen lower secondary school/Jam

Further development

The Government’s intention is that the Golden Rucksack should be an annual event. The award will pay tribute to the schools and artists/cultural workers who have made a special effort under the programme, promote the presentation of art and culture to schoolchildren and present good examples of the programme.

It will be important to find an arena for the award of the Golden Rucksack that will attract a large public, and the Secretariat is charged with the task of making the award an important event.