Good Museums – Better Local Communities

Report from Arts and Culture Norway's Museum Conference 2024. Arts and Culture Norway's annual museum conference was held on on October 31–November 1 2024, in Bodø, Norway. The title for the conference was "Good Museums - Better Local Communities." A conference report is now available in English to ensure information exchange and encourage international cooperation.

The conference's target audience was the cultural sector, in particular museums and government management agencies. The conference aimed to explore the role of museums in creating a better future. With the 2003-convention as a framework, and with inspiration from the movement "The Happy Museum," the conference facilitated a discussion on how we, together and individually, can create more resilient and inclusive local communities, and how the cultural sector can become an even stronger participant in this work. The working language of the conference was Norwegian, with speakers from various institutions in Norway, and with two program posts in English.

The conference also highlighted how local communities in Norway with traditions inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (RL) actively work to ensure the dissemination of these traditions to younger generations. Program posts included museums that work with the Nordic clinker boat traditions (2021) and the practice of traditional music and dance in Setesdal, playing, dancing and singing (stev/stevjing) (2019). While not inscribed on the RL, other tradition bearers, like artist Nina Vestby and a representative on behalf of one of five national minorities in Norway, discussed their methods in conveying their culture to the youth.