Nine Artists Awarded Artist-Initiated Project Grants in 2026

Since the 1990s, the North Norwegian Art Centre has maintained a dedicated program for funding art projects in the region. The Artist-Initiated Project Grants are part of the centre’s regional initiatives, aiming to bring art to a wider audience – including artists, the public, and local communities across Northern Norway.

Previously, the grant was financed both through the centre’s own resources and delegated funds from the Relief Fund for Visual Artists (BKH), which we applied for annually. From 2025 onwards, these grants have been separated, and BKH funds are now announced separately under the name Miscellaneous Grant for Artists in Northern Norway (application deadline3 May).

This year, Northern Norwegian Art Centre has received 50 applications, and we are awarding NOK 300 000 of our own funds through Artist-Initiated Projects 2026. The jury consisted of Vegard Johannesen (Norske Kunsthåndverkere Nord-Norge), Audar Kantun (Nordnorske Billedkunstnere), and Adriana Alves (North Norwegian Art Centre). The funds have been distributed across nine projects:

Anne Lindgaard Møller is awarded NOK 40,000 for Å beite på lys (working title).
Å beite på lys is an exhibition centered around the photosynthesizing sea slug Elysia viridis, which feeds on algae and absorbs their chloroplasts. Through 16 mm film, analogue photographs developed in algae, a series of silk capes dyed with photochromic pigments, and a sculptural light table, the project explores connections between humans, nature, technology, and more-than-human beings. The exhibition will be presented at Kurant Visningsrom in Tromsø.

Elisabeth Brun is awarded NOK 25,000 for Hvordan fjell blir til
Hvordan fjell blir til is a multi-channel video essay and installation developed as an open, process-based exploration in dialogue with geologists, local communities, and art researchers. The project begins as an attempt to grasp geological deep time through the study of a specific mountain in Vesterålen. At the same time, it investigates geologists’ trained ability to read geological events from traces in stone, and how understandings of time are shaped through technology and storytelling. The project will be presented during Fortellerdagan in Nyksund, followed by a public conversation.

Elisabeth Thorsen is awarded NOK 25,000 for Kunst på heving.
Kunst på heving is a site-specific project rooted in Vardø’s baking traditions, Pomor culture, and collective memory. Sculptural baked goods and art objects will form a cohesive installation, alongside the collection of recipes and local stories, with particular focus on the town’s former bakeries. Workshops and a fanzine are also part of the project. The work explores the relationship between craft, food, history, and identity, and examines how traditional knowledge can be translated into contemporary artistic expression.

Gunvor Tangrand is awarded NOK 35,000 for the first firing in Arctic Anagama.
The project marks the first full-scale firing of Northern Norway’s first Japanese anagama kiln on Steine in Lofoten. Together with Japanese and Northern Norwegian ceramic artists, a collective working community is developed around wood-fired ceramics, knowledge sharing, and traditional craftsmanship. The firing is combined with open workshops, artist talks, and the dissemination of Japanese and Northern Norwegian ceramic heritage.

Lin Pei-Han is awarded NOK 40,000 for Dialogues Across Generations.
The project is a duo exhibition with Hans Ragnar Mathisen and Lin Pei-Han at Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš in Karasjok. Through new works and a retrospective presentation of Mathisen’s artistic practice, the project explores connections between Sámi and Taiwanese Indigenous resistance, identity, and colonial experiences. A large architectural installation will form the framework for a visual dialogue across generations and cultures.

Marita Isobel Solberg is awarded NOK 48,000 for Der alt har lyd/Gos buot lea jiena.
Der alt har lyd / Gos buot lea jiena is an interdisciplinary project exploring sound, material, body, and landscape as carriers of knowledge. Through storytelling, ritual actions, instrument-making, performance, text, and film, new artistic expressions emerge through the meeting between Indigenous northern practices (Marita Isobel Solberg and Lene Westerås) and Indigenous traditions from the Andes region (Koyo). Koyo’s work with pre-colonial flutes and sound objects is activated in dialogue with landscape and space, where breath, vibration, and resonance function as connections between body, earth, and cosmos. The project seeks to strengthen interdisciplinary artistic practices in Northern Norway and create points of exchange between Sámi, Northern Norwegian, and international Indigenous art.

Scott Thoe is awarded NOK 30,000 for Tanks for Peace.
Tanks for Peace is based on the artist’s peace bridge project from the 1990s, in which decommissioned tanks were to be transformed into a bridge between Poland and Germany as a symbol of disarmament and peace. In connection with the art festival at Kvalnes, the original four-metre-long model, consisting of 4,000 miniature tanks (in plaster), will be restored for a new presentation. The project reactivates questions of peacebuilding and cultural exchange within a new geopolitical context.

Sissel Aurland is awarded NOK 30,000 for Point of Contact.
Point of Contact is a project grounded in an understanding of objects and places as carriers of temporality, where traces of past use, touch, and events continue to shape the present and influence a site’s potential. Aurland works site-specifically with the receptive qualities of paper to reveal and materialise traces connected to a summer barn tied to the artist’s family history. The project will form the basis of a solo exhibition at Senja kunstforening.

Thora Dolven Balke is awarded NOK 27,000 for Bunnløs.
Bunnløs is a solo exhibition at Noua in Bodø and the artist’s first solo presentation in Northern Norway. The exhibition explores the experience of confronting something too vast to fully comprehend, and the sense of vertigo this can evoke. The project consists entirely of new works and includes, among other things, large photographic glass collages (400 × 500 cm)and a sound installation.

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