Art Residency Program in Rural Norway

This art residency is a 6-day immersive and intensive journey designed for youth workers, mentors, and creatives who are ready to dive into the intersection of mental health and artistic expression. In the raw nature of rural Norway, we will explore art as a tool for youth work, and a personal language for your own emotions. This is a space for those who understand that to lead others through the complexities of mental health, we must first be willing to navigate our own. 

This experience will be located in a rural village in Norway and you will be hosted in a traditional former-farm house, which is a farm and home for about 100 Angus cows in Koppang. This program is an open and creative space where we will use art, theater, movement and music as a bridge to the parts of ourselves that are often hard to express. This residency offers a "double shot" of impact: it is a dedicated time for your own personal and emotional exploration, while simultaneously providing you with inspiration and methods to transfer these practices back to your work with youth and community initiatives.

Please note, this is an intensive personal learning journey, and not a ‘relaxing’ retreat. And we will be using methods such as theatre of the oppressed and various art mediums for an intensive personal learning journey and social change.

It is important to note that this is NOT a facilitation training. We assume you already have the basic skills of a facilitator, youth worker, mentor, or coach. This program is about living the questions themselves rather than receiving ready-made answers or a training on why this activity works the way it works, so you should be already ‘ready’ with this basic facilitation knowledge. You will personally navigate the artistic process to understand its depths, using your notebooks to capture the activities that resonate with you and to dive into the theatre of the oppressed more. While the experience is deeply personal, it is professionally relevant for those who want to see how these methods can eventually be implemented in their own communities and work, but mostly in your personal life. You absolutely don't have to be a part of an organization or group to attend this Art Residency, you could focus on the personal part of it for you and transfer it back to your community, as this is the main goal! :) 

Why in Koppang?

Koppang is a nature paradise in rural Norway, set in Stor-Elvdal in Innlandet, its traditional farming land at heart, wide valleys, red barns, grazing fields, and forests that seem to stretch forever. :) Oh, we forgot to tell you that the local people in Koppang are among the kindest, friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Art Residency objectives:
 

emotional exploration: dive into a concentrated journey of self-discovery, using diverse art forms to map out and understand your innerself.

methodological transfer: walk away with a toolkit of non-formal education methods rooted in art therapy and theatre of the oppressed methods to support mental health and social change in personal life and/or your own organization.

artistic synergy: discover how theater, movement, music, and fine arts work together as holistic tools for both personal healing and community advocacy.

cross-cultural connection: build a community with peers from different backgrounds, sharing stories that culminate in a collective, final theatrical showcase.

Residency outcomes: 
 

1. Participants will leave with a practical toolkit consisting of a summary log of the names and themes of the activities run during the week.
2. The residency will conclude in a final artistic or theatrical production, a graduation of the journey presented by the participants to mark your learning.
3. Beyond the artistic output, you will join a network of practitioners and a global community of youth workers and artists committed to using art for promoting mental health, social and emotional change.
4. Throughout the week, there will also be a dedicated space for a peer laboratory where you can experiment with your own creative ideas and facilitate micro-sessions within the group to promote mental health through art and theatre.


If you have any questions, reach out to us at yellowvsblues@gmail.com