History

The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT) is organized as a flexible, dynamic and experimental institution dedicated to the education of contemporary artists and artistic research on an advanced, international level.

By bringing together individual studio practice, critical reflection and cross-disciplinary investigations in a wide range of different fields of knowledge, it offers a unique environment in which students, teachers and researchers move across the borders of artistic genres, media and disciplines.

Collaboration is at the core of the current development of the department into a strong and robust environment that initiates and fosters new notions of working together: Driven by emergent aesthetic sensibilities that acknowledge—indeed, appreciates—our mutual dependencies across disciplines and beyond identities.

As a part of NTNU and embedded in a new faculty that covers architecture, art, design and planning, KiT has developed a strategic focus on revisiting, revaluating and reimagining the relationships between art and technology.

The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art offers a three year BFA and a two-years MFA study program. Taking in 20 students per year, both study programs amount to a total of 75 study places. In 2017 KiT hosts three fellows of the Norwegian Artistic Research Program, as well as two externally funded, artistic research projects with a total budget of 4 million NOK (2015-2017).

In addition The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art opened a PhD program in Artistic Research in 2020, with currently 5 enrolled phds and more to come.

Study programs

The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art currently investigates the passage from a choice to a research and studio based model of artists’ education that reflects the need for transparent structures and identifiable objectives. “Zero latency” is the goal when it comes to translating research into education, and vice versa.

An up to date portfolio of study programs is based on a coherent and integrated concept that covers the three-cycle degree structure of higher education with a sharp, consistent profile as well as innovative learning methodologies from Bachelor, Master to Doctoral studies.

Research

Today, the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art is focusing its artistic research strategy in:
• The New European Bauhaus
• “Art and Ocean”
• “Art in Smart Cities”

Ultimately, the question of quality is at the core of artistic research at KiT: How to document and evaluate the outcomes and results of advanced practices of a knowledge production that begins precisely at the points where conventional, disciplinary approaches have reached their limits and, on this basis, is capable to address complex global challenges?