The Cultural Schoolbag

The Cultural Schoolbag is a national programme designed to ensure that all school pupils in Norway experience professional art and culture of all kinds.

The Cultural Schoolbag is a collaborative project between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research. In 2016 Kulturtanken (previously Concerts Norway) was given national responsibility for the scheme.

The programme aims to give pupils and schools the chance to experience, become familiar with and develop an understanding of all kinds of professional artistic and cultural output. The activities offered, which must be of a high quality, cover the whole cultural spectrum:

Performing arts
Visual art
Music
Film
Literature
Cultural heritage
 

The Cultural Schoolbag has been part of the government’s culture policy for children at primary and lower secondary school since 2001, and more recently it has been expanded to cover sixth-form students. This means that all pupils – from years 1 to 10 of compulsory education, and from years 1 to 3 of sixth-form – are covered by the programme.

Organisational structure
The Cultural Schoolbag is a collaborative project involving the culture and education sectors at a national, regional and local level, which covers all schools in Norway. County councils are responsible for regional coordination, but municipalities may also develop their own programmes. The implementation of the programme varies a great deal from region to region and place to place.

Kulturtanken is the national body responsible for managing, quality assuring and developing the programme at the national level, as well as for distributing lottery funding.