Placement Spotlight: PRAKSIS

My OOC DTP Placement focused on expanding my understanding of the livelihoods of artists living and working in Norway, and experiencing a working model of the impact research into artist livelihoods has on communities of artists and art workers. To do this I conducted 10 interviews in Bergen, Oslo, and Trondheim, and co-facilitated a residency at PRAKSIS about the craft of community-building in the arts that brought together local and international arts practitioners. PRAKSIS is an arts organization in Oslo, Norway, whose purpose is to facilitate knowledge sharing and intercultural dialogue among artists and art workers. PRAKSIS is, 'Dedicated to inclusivity, [they] seek to inspire and support artistic creation, bringing new creative networks and communities into being'. [1]

Founder and Artistic Director of PRAKSIS, Mr. Nicholas John Jones helped to facilitate this residency as well as the interviews I conducted by recommending people to interview, orienting me to the funding landscape of Norway and key artists, art workers, and organizations in Oslo, and hosting opportunities to present my research. For example, Mr. Jones put me in touch with Motaz al Habbash and Marie Skeie, two artists who created Her og Der (Here and There), ‘an artist networking project that works as a GPS to guide newly arrived artists to the art field in Norway; the project aims to find an easier way for newcomers to establish themselves financially and creatively within the art community in Norway'. [2] I interviewed Mr. al Habbash and Ms. Skeie on 20 April 2024, and in our conversation, we spoke about many things that helped me to get a better sense of the art field in Norway, of them as individual artists, and of their collaborative project Her og der.

I have been interviewing people in the arts about their livelihoods since 2018 and made excerpts of these interviews public in 2022 by launching the This Thing We Call Art online resource. You can listen to an excerpt of my interview with Mr. al Habbash and Ms. Skeie in the online resource’s archive, [3] alongside interviews I conducted prior, and interviews I conducted while in Norway in the Spring of 2024 with Erik Friis Reitan, Fergus Tibbs, Daniela Ramos Arias, Eva Rowson, Ane Hjort Guttu, Anne Szefer Karlsen, and Carl Martin Rosenkilde Faurby. 

My placement with PRAKSIS met my training needs, and I would highly recommend undertaking a placement. The opportunity to design a bespoke placement allowed me to extend the research I was conducting to new environments, places, people, and organisations, to learn from this new context, and to make connections for the future.

[1] PRAKSIS, “About,” accessed October 11, 2024, https://www.praksisoslo.org/organisation.

[2] Her og Der, “About,” accessed October 11, 2024, https://www.herogder.org.

[3] Motaz al Habbash and Marie Skeie, "Motaz al Habbash + Marie Skeie," interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, April 20, 2024, audio, 5:05, accessed October 11, 2024, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/archive/her-og-der