About the project

"10 years at Heidal school" is a groundbreaking project where artists are invited into the school and given time and space to work as artists together with a group of children. Over a period of 10 years, these children will experience and participate in creating art.

 

In this unique art project, a class will work with 10 different artists throughout their years at Heidal school. In August 2018, 9 students started 1st grade here. These are the pupils who will meet and work with various artists in this project, until they leave the school in june 2028.

 

Over a period of one or two years, each artist will work with the class for 3 weeks per semester. The artists are free to define their own projects, the only criteria is that they must include the pupils and their teachers in the art project.

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​Art and artists

Due to the length of the project, the participating artists will be selected successively based on their personal projects, according to the age of the children and how the project develops in general. 

 

All invited artists are active on the Norwegian contemporary art scene. The end product for each artist will be a fixed installation and documentation of the process.

This web site will become an archive for the various projects.

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2018 - 2020 

Our first visiting artist is Gisle Harr. He is a painter, sculptor and musician.

Gisle Harr follows the class through 1st and 2nd grade, and in his project he has given the children technical skills to draw and make their own sculptures, while developing preferences and a language related to art.
The children have worked in the studio with the artist, and sometimes the classroom has been transformed into a workspace for art.
The pupils in 1st grade have been models for Gisle and these plaster busts have been bought as a permanent installation at Heidal school.

The students' and Gisle Harr's works were shown in a joint exhibition at the school in october 2020.

For pictures, see: Bildegalleri 1.-2. klasse.

 

2020 - 2022

The second artist, who accompanies the students through 3rd and 4th grade, is Anna Daniell.  She works with sculpture, film, performance and text.

With the project title "A sculpture to and from Heidal", she has introduced the concepts abstractly and figuratively, and had open conversations about what is art? where does art live? and how big is it?

Anna and the students have made a number of shapes and castings in different materials, and during September 2022 they will erect their joint concrete sculpture Kunsthall Heidal along the road by the football field.

For pictures, see: Bildegalleri 3.-4. klasse.

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2022 - 2023

Anna Sigmond Gudmundsdottir is a painter living at Harpefoss, near Heidal. She is a prominent artist in Norwegian contemporary art life, with her large abstract paintings. Anna follows the students through the 5th grade, and this year they have worked on a joint large scale  painting with the working title: "A man accidentally swallowed a whole mountain, and everyone could see it on him when they met him at the local grocery store". 

Annas' statement: The focus will be to work with painting and drawing linked to movement and expression and thinking, where art is about attention over time. The process of "painting and drawing" itself has an inner rhythm that affects how the imagination unfolds, where the figurative is included as fragments in an abstract/surrealist landscape.

For pictures, see: Bildegalleri 5.klasse.

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2023 - 2024

Søssa Jørgensen and Geir Tore Holm. More info to come.

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2024 - 2028

The list of participating artists will be published along the way.

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School and art

When the artists are present at the school, the schedule is adapted to suit the art project.

The school leaders emphasize the art project's potential for broader learning, collaboration, thriving and mastery. These are important factors in current education in Norway.

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Gallery

The students' artworks and pictures from the process, organized by year. ​​​

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Support and partners 

The topic of art and children is currently prioritized in Norway, and many cultural institutions are focused on this. "10 years at Heidal school" is financially supported by KORO public art Norway, Sparebankstiftelsen, Kulturrådet and Oppland Fylkeskommune.

Since "10 years at Heidal school" is a project where art is introduced to children on the artists' terms for a long period of time, this becomes an interesting project to support.

The project is not fully financed, so this is an issue we work on continuously.

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Research

Kulturtanken (Art for young audiences Norway) is responsible for doing research on the project for its whole duration.

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Reviews​

Critiques and public interest in the project.​

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Side projects

A platform for others to interact with the art project:​

• Students and others are invited to make online presentations, interviews and artist talks to reflect on the project

• From 2023, KORO granted funds to make a documentary about the project. Film director Merethe Offerdal Tveit started filming in spring 2022, and will continue to follow the students and the artist until 2028, when we hopefully will have funding to make a final production.​

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The school and contact 

Heidal school is an elementary school in Heidal, a small community in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. This is a rural area known for its beautiful nature, old buildings and farms and ample opportunities for outdoor activities. In 2019 there are 124 pupils from 1st. to 10.th grad and a staff of 25. The school is a cornerstone in the community.

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Social media

Follow the project on instagram and facebook.

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This website will be updated continously.