Kunstfagenes kilder (The Sources for Art Research)

This conference was held 10-11 November 2011 at the Regional State Archives in Trondheim. The conference language was Norwegian. For the English-reading audience, we offer a short account of the ideas behind the conference, and the program. Other material relating to the conference under this menu item is in Norwegian only.

The conference was arranged as a joint venture between the research project Performing arts between dilettantism and professionalism. Music, theatre and dance in the Norwegain public sphere 1770-1850 - situated at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) - and the Association of Theatre History in Trondheim.

The conference aimed at dealing with the present status and challenges for archives and collections within dance, theatre, and music in the Nordic countries (but particularly in Norway).

At the time of the conference, the institutions in question were undergoing administrative reforms, confronting them with new challenges in terms of coordination, visibility, and institutional identity. Archives and museums were merging and were integrated in other institutions (i.e. municipal archives), confronting some minor milieus with the risk of losing competences and special skills acquired through decades.

The hosts of the conference wished to heighten the awareness of the ongoing processes and their consequences. Regardless of the structural and financial conditions facing the sector in the future, the new situation will demand more cooperation, more networking, and more division of duties to make the most out of scant resources and frequent calls for productivity. Academics and professionals in the field of the performing arts might stand before a future where crucial resources are less available than for "richer" disciplines in the humanities.

The hosts wanted to gather professionals (researchers, librarians, archivists, collection owners) to discuss the aforementioned challenges. The conference was held at the Dora Archive Center, accommodating the Regional Archive in Trondheim, the Municipal Archives of Trondheim, and the Special Collections of NTNU University Library. Among the invited guests were senior advicer Bjørn Bering from the Arts Council Norway, professor in musicology Ståle Wikshåland, and head of music collections Anne Ørbæk Jensen at the Royal Danish Library.

Please follow the following links or the menus top/left to see the program and the report from the conference.