About
ABOUT US
Coast Contemporary is a platform for discourse and art that assemblies artists, curators, institutions and the public. Each edition is different arranged in changing locations in Norway, with new participants and focus every year. The program can consist of presentations, panels, a conference, exhibitions, walks, film screenings, food, travel, writing, conversations and performances.
We work to generate future collaborations between the participating art workers and are rooted in alternative and solidarity economics. Trying to be an unemployment office for art workers, before you get unemployed, perhaps?
Coast can take place on islands, ships and in different cities – or in one place. We wish to be a platform and a link of support for artists and art workers. People meet over time, allowing questions to grow in calm surroundings. Founded and run by artist Tanja Sæter in 2015. Coast Contemporary is based in Oslo, Norway.
Coast aims to present a piece of the contemporary art scene in Norway mixed up with international artists, curators, writers, activists, artist unions, organizations, galleries, museums, institutions and the support system around the arts. We wish to share and open up the arts to an international audience and contribute to a stronger artist and art worker economy by making it easier to find your next collaboration. All are included in the same way, all are equally important at the table.
Hopefully stronger together – as we are all, or at least should be, in the same boat.
Since the first edition in 2017 we have contributed to 390 wonderful reported collaborations in 12 countries.
At the core of Coast Contemporary is the realization that people often need more time to establish a connection and a work relationship and that artists are often not included in the arenas where the decisions are made for the next exhibition program. Sharing ideas and artistic visions is more important than ever. An island or a ship is the perfect and isolated arena for Coast Contemporary to allow people to discover new artists, curators and institutions, the support system, the artist unions, meet, slow down, talk and listen.
AWK
In 2020 we launched a program for Artists With Kids and we welcome artists to travel with their child, and tailor their participation the way it suits the artist the best. The program has been in use every year since 2020. It is a problem within the arts that women drop out of art after the age of 35-40, usually connected to childbirth and we therefore have NO problem if you have to bring your kid, need to breastfeed and if its a teenager we can write you a dismissal note for the school.
Head of digital presentations all editions is artist Kenneth Varpe.
Graphic design by NODE Berlin and Anyone.
MORE ABOUT THE ABOUT
Coast Contemporary was established by Sæter to generate more jobs for artists and art workers, and to create a positive meeting place for dialogue and art. Sæter is idealistically passionate about strengthening the artist economy, generating transnational collaborations and making the art scene visible to each other and to an international audience.
She has held several positions within artist organizations and artist unions in Norway and was former vice chair in the artist union Norske Billedkunstnere (NBK) and board member of Lorck Shive Art Prize. Sæter was the director of Oslo Open between 2011-2015 and founded the studio festivals international visitors program and the children’s festival BOO! Barnas Oslo Open trying to generate opportunities, work and visibility for artists. In 2024 she founded the Kunstbok Oslo Art Book Fair.
Solidarity economics, strengthening the artist economy and the right to art for all, as well as faith in the strong force of a personal or a collective meeting and an assembly over time is a large part of Sæters artistic practice, and Coast Contemporary is a part of that practice.
Intertwined between lands and islands Coast Contemporarys format is inspired by Sæters great grandfather Henry Sylvester Williams who arranged the first Pan-African Conference in Westminister, London in 1900. Williams also coined the term Pan-African and was the first black lawyer in South Africa and one of the first black lawyers in Great Britain.
You are Cordially and Earnestly Invited to Attend are words written by Williams in the invitation for the first Pan-African conference in 1900, and it is used in our material to commemorate Williams and his colleagues work.
Advisory Board Members
Timotheus Vermeulen. Vermeulen is professor in media, culture and society and coordinator of the PHD program in Media and Communication at the University of Oslo. He is also an author and philosopher and is co-founder of the now defunct webzine Notes on Metamodernism that ran from 2009-2016. His research interests include cultural theory, aesthetics, and the close textual analysis of film, television and contemporary art. He is also an author and art critic.
Kenneth Varpe. Varpe is an artist and an active representative of the artist community, working to uphold what artists have built together over hundreds of years. He is a former board member of UKS / The Young Artists´Society, Vederlangsfondet / The Artists Relieve Fund and Stavanger Kunsthall and has an active practice as a painter.
- and both of them are also some of the kindest people out there!
Coast would like to thank the amazing institutions who has supported us over the years:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Arts and Culture Norway – Kulturrådet / Kulturdirektoratet
The Norwegian embassies in Paris, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Hague, Rome, Vilnius and Berlin.
The Consulate General in New York
Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond BKH – The Artists Relief Fund
OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Bergen Municipality
Fritt Ord
KORO – Public Art Norway
Music Norway
Tromsø Municipality
Trondheim Municipality
Oslo Municipality Kulturetaten
Vestland County
NORLA – Norwegian Literature Abroad
Stavanger Municipality
Rogaland County
Web programming and development by our amazing friends at Anyone
Web design by NODE and internetfriendsforever
Coast Contemporary strongly recommends travel insurance for all participating guests and takes no responsibility for lost luggage, injuries, sickness, cancelled flights or other matters during travel.