Artistic Entrepreneurship

Artistic Entrepreneurship is an agency that involves and engages new combinations and new forms of cooperation among researchers, concepts and ideas, technologies, resources, and machines. It paves the way for a different kind of entrepreneurship in the truest sense of the word: Rather than just a business model, it is the undertaking or new beginning of acting together across sectors, across actors and across disciplines. Common responses, shared means of production, creative solutions, and joined forces allow for an agency that will inspire people to tackle the biggest challenges society faces.

This first pilot project of a course in “Artistic Entrepreneurship” is “a hardcore look at the artist economy; structures, marketplaces, marketing, money, funding and the possibility to make a living after school´s out” (Stein Bjelland 2019).

It involves a willingness and ability to act within a market-driven world that young artists are facing today. A world that is characterised by galleries and large-scale spectacle, creative industries, social media and their attention economies. This workshop aims at figuring out how to be un-afraid of pioneering new opportunities that might open up by reclaiming the term “entrepreneurship”. What could artistic entrepreneurship mean, as opposed to the entrepreneur of the self?

During the weeks programme, The Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts’ teachers, students and alumni set out to intensely debate and explore the role of the arts in times when knowledge and affect production have to respond to urgent societal challenges. This may mean going into un-roadmapped territories into which artists can explore, pioneer and ultimately live from what they do.

Key Topics are:

* What possibilities and limitations are inherent in current definitions of Artistic Research?
* What could be a new notion of artistic entrepreneurship?
* What tools from other areas of entrepreneurship could be used?
* Skills and tools needed for experts and practitioners
* Investment and alternative funding sources
* Responsible and ethical research and innovation
* Case studies into crowdfunding, start-ups, NGO’s
* Discussing current and designing future models regarding copyright, open source, creative commons, digital distribution, intellectual property
* Sustainability and Community Building
* In which ways can Artistic Research inform different forms of knowledge transfer?
* Industry collaborations and public outreach
* Expert Networks & Stakeholders
* Art schools-society-economy (Russegger, 2019)
* Develop new dissemination channels and exchange platforms

This pilot event brings together local and international experts to discuss artists’ experiences, career paths, opportunities towards a new notion of Artistic Entrepreneurship. The forum will be an exploration of cutting edge concepts, trends and opportunities to enhance artists capacity to build new models of their own, take risks, know their rights and promote their work to new audiences in socially and technologically innovative ways.

Facilitated by Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts in conjunction with Kulturell og kreativ næring, Kulturrådet, Stein7000, Moodial, WOOLOOS, University of the Underground, The University of Craft, Action & Thought & Nice.

Program

Monday 20th May

11:00 Bodil Børset,Kulturell og kreativ næring, Kulturrådet Creative Norway: Entrepreneurship vs Arts Council - the different scenarios.
Bodil Børset is a Senior Adviser for Cultural and Creative Industries at the Arts Council Norway in Trondheim, where she has been working since 2017. Børset is an experienced leader and researcher in the field between CCI, culture tourism, museums and academia. From 2009 to 2017 she was the Director of the Knut Hamsun Centre at Hamarøy, national centre for the Nobel Prize winning author and architectural chef d’oeuvre of Steven Holl. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature from NTNU with a dissertation on the French author Nathalie Sarraute and her radio plays, member of the Aesthetic Technologies research project, and also was a leader of Faros (Knowledge Park at NTNU). She has written various articles on literature, the implications of technologies on the aesthetics of modernity, sound art, literature and Hamsun’s modernism. She edited the book "Norwegian Avant-Garde" (Novus, 2011) together with Per Bäckström and was coordinator of the Nordic Network of the Avant-Garde.

Børset will give a brief introduction to the Arts Council Norway’s CCI toolbox, as part of the Norwegian Government's national commitment on cultural and creative industries from 2017 with a coordinated effort through Innovation Norway, Norwegian Arts Abroad (NAA) and Arts Council Norway. The aim of the initiative is to create growth, values, increased revenues, and employment by investment in and sales of Norwegian art and cultural productions. By aiming at the target group artists and smaller CCI businesses as well as regional structures, focusing on the distributing, disseminating, marketing or selling part of the value chains, the goal is to increase revenues from artistic activities both for the Norwegian artists and creative entrepreneurs. Arts Council Norway has a CCI tool box of two grant schemes that allocate 19,8 million NOK a year, curated workshops and a business development program Ovasjon.no, and consulting. Innovation Norway and the NAAs have other tools in their tool boxes. Arts Council Norway has a 1,4 billion NOK budget, and also manage and distribute other grants for art and culture, drive new art and culture projects, development work and advise government on policy issues.

13:00 Lars Iversen - What is the new language of Artistic Entrepreneurship and what can artists learn from Entrepreneurship, what are the pros and cons?
Lars Iversen is a Senior Business Strategist, he combines his extensive knowledge of emerging technologies with expertise in sales and business development. This mix works magically in bringing about novel solutions, products and concepts. Lars adopts an out-side-in perspective to companies, and he has the ability to adapt and grow in rapidly changing markets and technologies.

Tuesday 21st May
9:30 Stein Bjelland lecture / workshop: How to really survive as a professional artist // A hardcore look at the artist economy; structures, marketplaces, marketing, money, funding and the possibility to make a living after school´s out. As a professional artist you are by nature part of the global art economy and the more you understand the better you will be prepared. We will take a closer look trying to break down mechanisms and possibilities in this crazy world without compromising the product itself: art.

Stein Bjelland (1970) is a cultural entrepreneur and music business consultant. Stein now runs Stein70000, his own consultant company within the music and the arts. There he has been dealing with counter-culture and entrepreneurship within the music- and arts business for over 20 years, working closely with different organisations, companies, artists and institutions on innovation and entrepreneurship within the cultural sector. Between 2008-2013 he was the co-founder and president of the Norwegian production- and management company Great Moments, working with artists like Kvelertak and Purified In Blood. He has also his own experience from the international music industry, trying hard to become a true rock star with the band the Getaway People in the late 90s. The band signed a major deal with Columbia Records in New York and toured the US and Europe extensively between 1997-2001. For over 13 years Stein Bjelland was the owner of Nuproductions As who owned and produced the boutique Numusic and Nuart festivals in Stavanger. He was also the manager for Norway's first and only music investment-fund, Buzz As in Bergen, investing in music companies, music technologies and other relevant projects. At present time he is thinking really hard about the concepts and in-and-outs of entrepreneurship in the arts- and cultural-business´ doing work for a lot of different clients from the Norwegian Government and Symphony Orchestras to smaller music companies. In 2018 Stein was re-elected chair of the Audio and Visual fund by the Ministry of Culture, he also serves as the head of the board of Kunsthall Stavanger and as a member of the board of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He teaches regularly at the New York University and other Norwegian Universities and is often invited as a speaker to conferences and workshops. Stein divides his time between his homes in Stavanger, Norway and Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

13:00-16:00 Tobias Liljedahl & Enrique Eduardo Roura Perez cover a mix of practical information concerning studio spaces in Trondheim, grant and work possibilities, Visa requirements for non-EU citizens and other useful information to know for those planning on working in Trondheim.

During the presentation Tobias and Enrique aim to give an overview of the artistic infrastructure present locally in Trondheim, and to an extent nationally in Norway as well. They will cover some practical knowledge that they have seen is often lacking when one graduates from an art academy, like: How do you start your own company? How do you apply for a Visa as a non-EU citizen? Where can you apply for grants and other funding? They will also give a short introduction to the existing artists workshop and studios available in Trondheim, and talk a bit about the job market available for fresh graduates from the Art Academy. Tobias and Enrique are also happy to discuss any questions that participating students might have, based on their experience with working as artists in Trondheim.

Enrique Roura is from Mexico City, and studied a bachelor in Architecture in the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master in Fine Art in the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art. Since his graduation of the MFA in 2016 he has been living and working in Trondheim. His combined background represent the basis for his creative and professional practice, navigating across the borders of art and architecture.
He has been working freelance in the conceptualization, planning and realization of diverse projects. He has been a design tutor of architect students of NTNU and he has worked with the planning and mounting of exhibitions in several cultural institutions of Trøndelag.
He was an Aspirant in TKF until last week developing diverse tasks of art dissemination, coordinating of mounting exhibitions and architectural research. During the rest of the year he will be working in The National Museum in Oslo, assisting in the “moving project”, of the art collection.
For more info, please visit: http://enriqueroura.com

Tobias Liljedahl is an artist from Sweden, living and working in Trondheim. He graduated with a BFA from KiT in 2014, and has since been involved in a number of organizations and initiatives in the artistic community in Trondheim. He is since 2015 part of the board at RAKE Arbeidsfellesskap, and worked as a the manager of Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder from 2016 to 2018. He is also one the organizers behind the screening project Kantinekino (together with Lena Katrine Sokki), and curator for Mørkerommet at Rosendal Teater (formerly Teaterhuset Avant Garden). He is currently working as an assistant to artist Mattias Härenstam through Kunstnerassistentordningen (from Arts Council Norway).
His artistic production is focused mainly on photography and video-based practice, working with video installations, short films and digital photography. In his work, he investigate and deconstruct narrative and compositional structures of video and photography, often questioning the significance of images through an inquiry into their technological origin.
For more info, please visit www.tobiasliljedahl.com

Wednesday 22nd May
10:30-12:00
Ida Brobakke (Nice) presentation and moderated conversation with Mari Sanden.
Ida will share some of her experiences from starting and running a design consultancy, balancing client work, profits and preserving the integrity and professional development as a designer.

Ida Eriksdatter Brobakke is a Senior Designer and Co-founder at Nice. She holds a masters degree in Industrial Design Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). During the 7 years in Nice, of which five as CEO, Ida has worked on a wide array of projects and most recently designing mission critical management system for monitoring and operating offshore windfarms as well as facilitating Design Sprints to evaluate early phase concepts. In parallel Ida has been lecturing classes at the Department of Design at NTNU and Høyskolen Kristiania.

Nice is an innovation and design consultancy based in Trondheim, Norway. Founded in 2012 by three dedicated designers with a firm belief that design can make a positive impact on peoples lives and on businesses. Nice works with user experience for digital products and services. Our goal is to bridge the gap between people and technology. Nice challenges the conventions for how design expertise is applied, resulting in a broad variety of clients and projects. Ranging from some of Norway's largest companies to small start-ups, from defining future bank services, designing advanced navigation systems, to mapping the spectator experience at big events.

13:00-17:00
Erik Shrijver (skype lecture/workshop)
Lecture/Workshop: The nature of creativity isn't simply an artistic question, it's a legal question as well. The framework of laws that make up the Western intellectual property system come with an embedded idea of what authorship is and who gets to be an author. As an artist, you ignore .these conditions of the field at your own peril. On the one hand, these laws provide you with leverage when publishing your work, on the other hand they impact your freedom to base yourself on the work of others. Plenty of stories can be told of how legal considerations can influence artistic processes and artworks themselves. Like how David Bowie altered his music to work around George Orwell's estate, why Sherrie Levine chose Ansel Adams as a photographer to copy, and why the Wu-Tang Clan released an album in an edition of one. With copyright enforcement on-line becoming generalised and algorithm-based, its impact is bound to grow bigger still.
Eric Schrijver's first book, Copy This Book, provides answers to questions like: How do you obtain copyright? For what work? And for how long? How does copyright traverse mediums? And how do you go about integrating the work of others within your own? From there, it details the concepts of authorship and original creation that underlie the legal system. This way, it equips you with the conceptual keys to chart your own course when it comes to debating and applying intellectual property today.
For the Entrepreneurial week at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Eric will set up a live stream from his Brussels living room and invite you for a massive online multi-player artistic experiment. Together we will discover artistic creation as it happens in from the perspective of the law, charting exactly the threshold of originality, where ideas become expressions; and, on the other hand, where incidental reproduction and abstract inspiration become infringements of the rights of others.

Thursday 23rd May
9:30-16:00
Yanir Shani presents Tools for making a professional portfolio workshop.

Friday 24th May
9:30-16:00
Yanir Shani Tools for making a professional portfolio Workshop:

In this two days intensive workshop students will develop new skills and practice elements that will assist them in order to create a well structured Artist's portfolio. The workshop goal is give the students the tools and knowledge in using the equipment at KIT on their own, and compose a high quality, professional portfolio before finishing the Masters program and leaving the Academy (BFA students also welcome). The workshop will mostly focus on practical work and will include different subjects such as : Reviewing and understanding the basic content and structure expected in a portfolio at a professional level. Composing well written, precise and short biographies and C.V’s. Photographing good quality documentation images of their works in the KIT photo studio. working accurately with colour and flashlight systems, controlling light accurately. The second day will be devoted to gain experience in the post-production of digital photography and imaging (Photoshop, Indesign). High standards of colour management, colour control and colour calibration. Experience in quality control for digital and analogue images, identifying problems in digital files and resolving issues in postproduction and photoshop. Lastly students will create a high quality PDF file created from the materials produced during the workshop, using the schools camera’s and large studio flashes.

(Each student should bring one or two works he/she would like to photograph for their portfolio and students are encouraged to work on these during their time in the photo studio. It is highly recommended that for the second day the students bring their own PC ’s/mac's with PHOTOSHOP and Indesign.)

Yanir Shani (b. 1980) is an artist living and working at Lademoen Kunstnerversteder in Trondheim, Norway. He received his BFA from Bezalel Academy of art and design in Jerusalem (2011) and a MFA from Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (2017). In the past decade he has been working as a visual artist, a freelance studio photographer. Fine-art photography printer, digital retoucher, photography instructor and guest lecture. In 2011 he have founded a photography studio and analog laboratory services. During that time the studio was responsible for both large scale commercial work as well as interesting non-profit art initiatives, while developing my own practice.

Artistic Entrepreneurship logo by Melissa Logan (Chicks on Speed/UNICAT The University of Craft Action and Thought)