In the years before and ahead of the millennium, several programs emphasising multiculturalism within the arts was established. Arts Council e.g. established the program Mosaikk to encourage artists of ethnical background.
The government includes terms of cultural diversity aspects when allocating grants to cultural institutions. For instance, The Ministry stresses that cultural diversity should not develop into a new sector of culture. This applies to institutions and organisations to integrate diversity perspectives into their ordinary activities. Thus, in addition to goals and measures of their activities in 2008, they should also prepare long-term strategies for the inclusion of diversity aspects in these activities.
In the museum sector, multiculturalism was also emphasized. In a 1999 Parliament report concerning libraries, archives and museums, the Norwegian government stated that: “Museums will be an arena where people can develop positive attitudes to their own and other cultural roots.” Thus, multi-culturality was emphasised as an important future issue for museums as well. During the last few years, several museums have worked extensively with multicultural projects and a separate network for such projects has been established.
In recent years, there has been few such programs. This may be due the emphasis recently put on the autonomy of the arts. An important part of this included the removal of guidelines that promoted multiculturalism in the funding agreements of national cultural organisations. Artists with immigrant background has also expressed dissatisfaction with multiculturalist programs. They feel stigmatized when receiving support based on their ethnical background, not their artistic skills.
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