2024 Projects - Safemuse

OTHER PROJECTS

Gato og Sara Marielle i Mexico Safe Havens Conference 2022 / Photo: SHIFT

Safe Havens Conference

Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of artists at risk and artistic freedom. From 2021-2024 Safemuse has been the fiscal sponsor and been supporting SH|FT in their effort to create a platform for human rights defenders in the arts globally. Safemuse has collaborated with SH|FT on a number of projects to support and create safe spaces for artistic expression and facilitate capacity building in the sector, namely through the Safe Havens Conference and production of Freedom Talks.

Womens network / Photo: Kate Ngan Wa Ao

Women’s network

Since 2022, Safemuse’s women’s network has brought together artists, and some cultural workers, with an international background and/or experience and who work in various artistic genres. The women have in common that they are engaged in human rights, international solidarity, artistic freedom and female artists’ opportunities for artistic expression.

The network’s aim is to reach out to vulnerable female artists internationally, and also understand what obstacles and barriers cause women to a lesser extent than men to apply for residencies. Together with the network we seek knowledge about the needs of female artists and make sure that we facilitate residencies for female artists, and thus increase the proportion of female applicants.

The project has been carried out with funding from Balansekunst, Kulturrådet and Municipality of Oslo.

MoFA installation / Art and Photo: Nurperi Orunbaeva

MoFA+ collaboration – promoting feminist and queer art

Safemuse and the Museum of Feminist and Queer Art in Central Asia (MoFA+) have established an interdisciplinary collaboration to shine a spotlight on- and strengthen the feminist and queer art movement in Central Asia. Through network building, collaboration around the development and production of artistic content, as well as capacity building, we will promote an increased understanding of the situation in Central Asia and show the artistic diversity from the region in Norway.

Out Partner:

The Museum of Feminist and Queer Contemporary Art in Central Asia (MOFA+)

MOFA+ ( was established by artists and activists in Kyrgyzstan after the Femminale held in Bishkek 2019 was censored and shut down by the authorities and the organisers received threats. The museum collects works that promote women’s and LGBTQIA+ community’s freedom, and gender equality. MoFA+ uses art for social change and the museum was created as a tool to fight for the rights and freedoms of women and queer people.

Salong på salongen / Photo: Cronje Strøm - Hvitsten Salong)

Salong på Salongen

In recent years, Safemuse has collaborated with Hvitsten Salon and organised conversations around the topics of artistic freedom of expression, identity and the cultural expression of minorities. Safemuse’s artists in residence, as well as other panelists from Norway and abroad, partake in the annual outdoor-seminar “Salong på Salongen” – sharing their experiences, highlighting new perspectives and discussing the role of art and artists as catalysts of social change.

Fri kunst fri bevegelse / Photo: Safemuse

Artist mobility

Safemuse is working to ensure that the Norwegian practice of granting artists temporary residence in Norway must be brought into line with the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity (Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions – 2005), which obliges Norway to facilitate cultural exchange and that preferential treatment should be granted to artists and other cultural professionals and practitioners, as well as cultural goods and services from developing countries as states in article 16 of the convention. The current practice results in lengthy processes or denial of visa, and prevents Safemse and others from carrying out the work the Norwegian authorities fund us to do. Safemuse has taken the initiative to gather a working group to coordinate the effort to simplify the process that secures temporary residence permits for artists and other human rights defenders in Norway. The working group includes the Students’ International Aid Fund (SAIH), the Norwegian Human Rights Fund (NHRF), the Human Rights House Foundation, Amnesty in Norway and the Association of Norwegian Artists (NBK).

Fri kunst 2024 / Photo: Jannik Abel

Artistic Freedom Week / Fri Kunst

Since 2020 Safemuse has organised Artistic Freedom Week every year in the beginning of March. The initiative originated from the Music Freedom Day, which Safemuse, and others dedicated to artistic freedom across the world, had been celebrating annually since 2016. The project seeks to shine a spotlight on the role of free art and artists’ power to be a catalyst of change in society. The Artistic Freedom Week includes a full-day conference at Riksscenen in Oslo. The Artistic Freedom Week Conference celebrates and promotes freedom of expression, solidarity and collective action. Contributors and participants include a broad spectrum of artists, cultural workers and human rights activists based in Norway or internationally, as well as representatives from the Norwegian art- and cultural scene.