Østfold University College - Norwegian Theatre Academy offers a research and study environment in performance, scenography and theatre in the expanded field. The Academy’s artistic research unfolds across diverse fields, from the performing arts through visual arts into architecture: where spatial narratives, distinct materiality and decisive actions meet and lead to experiential projects which critically engage art and society.

The Academy situated in the small town of Fredrikstad in Southern Norway has a very distinct identity consisting of its trans-disciplinary curriculum with students on BA, MA and PhD levels coming from all over the world. It is socially and culturally locally anchored and internationally well connected. By rigorously exploring and substantiating the inextricable relationship and symbiosis between architecture and theatre, especially beyond commodity driven contexts, UNLOCK THE CITY! strengthens our investigation of scenography as societal agency uniting those two fields and thereby questioning and dismantling established structures and paradigms. Interweaving the sector of higher arts education, cultural institutions and urban regeneration is key in this joint endeavor navigating current social, political, and environmental urgencies.

The academy will organize the intermediate management meeting in Norway in February 2024 and will be the co-leader of the Structure and Research activities, also organizing extracurricular classes for cross sector education and learning activities and making their students actively take part in Creative LABS and FIELDWORK LABS in the other countries.