History is the dream of what can be

Hip hip hooray! All of Tromsø is welcome to celebrate our 100th birthday with us. With a packed programme of activities across the next few months, and the launch of a publication, Dovenskap, Fantasi & Felleskap, at the heart of our celebration is our Jubilee exhibition History is the Dream of What Can Be.

Opening October 11th at 2pm
with speeches, singing, birthday cakes, book launch, and exhibition opening 🎉
Stay tuned for the final program for the opening weekend—there will be something for all ages.

Do you have something you would like to contribute to the opening party?
In the same “dugnadsånd” that has kept Tromsø Kunstforening running for a whole century, we invite everyone who wants to contribute with cake baking, a song, a speech, or something else entirely. Send an email to james@tromsokunstforening.no to contribute.

The exhibition presents new works by Liv Bangsund, Maija Liisa Björklund & Inger Emilie Solheim, Kåre Aleksander Grundvåg & Alexander Rishaug, Hilde Hauan Johnsen, Joar Nango, Marit Bockelie, Arne-Terje Sæther & Eystein Talleraas

In 1924, a second attempt at forming a kunstforening in Tromsø took place. A full century later, Romssa Daiddasiida - Tromsø Kunstforening celebrates its 100th birthday. As an institution, we have witnessed a vast period of contemporary human history; we have gone from a fish and potato culture to Grandiosa, from having boats as our main means of transport to being connected through roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and finally the internet. Landscapes have been interrupted and dammed, villages have depopulated and Tromsø has become the ‘capital of the North’. Over the century, we have experienced the climax of the Norwegianisation process, and the subsequent founding of the Sámi parliament and the cultural and linguistic revival of both the Sámi and Kveni communities. Through all this, TKF has both found home in many buildings and been homeless, before eventually settling into the old, neoclassical Tromsø Museum building, Muségata 2. As this aged building, even older than us, is undergoing renovation, we find ourselves again in a new home, that of Hvilhaug Sykehjem.

This 100 years is just a split second for the place we find ourselves, an island nestled amongst mountains; land occupied by plants and animals for not just millenia but millions of years. Stories are woven through the landscape, the dirt, the stones, the buildings and people. When Tromsø Kunstforening is long gone, the mountains and stones will still be here, carriers for our brief history and who’ll bear witness to what this history will become. Our Jubilee exhibition invites 9 artists with a connection to Tromsø to respond to this history we are party to and part of.

Join us for our opening weekend; an all-ages vernissage with cake, snacks and bar, the launch of our publication Dovenskap, Fantasi og Felleskap, a party, children's workshop and a guided tour with birthday cake.