Course Objectives

The aim of the course is to provide students with the skills necessary to enable them to take on the various cultural administrative tasks and responsibilities in Norwegian cultural life.

The course is designed to ensure that students will:

- acquire insight into and develop an independent perspective on various aims, frameworks and responsibilities within the cultural sphere

- acquire knowledge of the structure of cultural life, its participants and forms of cooperation

- acquire knowledge of project work and other forms of developmental work

- develop a scientific approach to cultural studies through an introduction to its theoretical foundation, and the theoretical traditions of the subject

- develop competence in solving various cultural administrative tasks independently and/or in cooperation with others

- Gain skills in ICT as a tool for writing assignments and develop skills in written case procedures through writing assignments individually and in groups

Course Description

The main focus of the course will be on cultural administration in which the course takes as its starting point the field of music’s modern organisational development and relates this to other cultural expressions. The course is interdisciplinary in the sense that music is administered together with other cultural forms. The course will provide an introduction to the basic ethical, research-methodological and scientific-theoretical issues of the subject in order to train students to reflect on ethical issues and carry out methodological considerations. The module consists of two major course units:

1. The Overall Aims, Frameworks and Tasks of Norwegian Cultural Life

2. Culture and Music Administration

1. The Overall Aims, Frameworks and Tasks of Norwegian Cultural Life

This unit consists of:

a. Culture as an aesthetic and social phenomenon

b. Culture policy

c. Local musical and cultural life

1a. Culture as an aesthetic and social phenomenon

Considers topics within: the ethics of music and culture, the sociology of music and culture, the psychology of music and culture and music and culture didactics. Various views on music, the function of music, experiencing music, and the teaching and mediation of music will be discussed in relation to various genres and cultural forms. An overview of the field of culture policy will be given together with a focus on current cultural policies and government guidelines.

1b. Culture policy

Considers the development of overall aims, frameworks and tasks for musical and cultural life at local, county and national levels, for public and private institutions and organisations and for the contact between amateurs and professionals in musical and cultural life.

1c. Local musical and cultural life

Students will discuss and develop their own views on the aims, frameworks and tasks of musical and cultural life, and develop competence in managing cultural training and concert-related/cultural arrangements.

2. Culture and Music Administration

The starting point is local musical and cultural life.

This unit consists of:

a. Cultural training

b. Arranging concerts and cultural events

c. Economic management, budgeting and sponsoring

2a. Cultural training

Considers current players such as the cultural school, voluntary associations and organisations, the lower secondary school and Riksteater (The National Touring Theatre), Rikskonsert (Norwegian Concert Institute) and the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design’s teaching activities and organisation.

2b. Arrangement of concerts and cultural events

Discusses the concept of music and culture dissemination and explores the topic of the arrangement of concerts and cultural events and types of culture dissemination in greater depth. The players and the network involved in the dissemination of culture will be discussed, with a principal emphasis on the management of festivals.

2c. Economic management, budgeting and sponsoring

This course unit will consider economic management and budgets for various types of activities and projects that receive public grants and private funding. Further, it will also cover the funding of various types of projects through public subsidy and application procedures. Cultural sponsoring will be considered from the viewpoints of the various players, as well as how to enter into and carry out a sponsoring agreement (using specific examples). The legal aspects of agreements and the legal framework will be discussed.

Learning Methods

Lectures, seminars, internet-based supervision, group assignments and an individual assignment.

Assessment Methods

A written group assignment in the autumn semester which counts for 20%, a 5-hour individual examination on syllabus-related theory in the spring semester which counts for 20%, and a final written individual assignment which counts for 60%. Letter grades are used: A to E represent pass marks, and F a fail. All the assignments must receive passing marks in order for the student to receive a final passing mark for the course.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean