Pride Art, earlier Skeive Kunstnere, is an independent, national member organization that promotes queer art and culture in a broad sense. Pride Art represents one of the world's longest, coherent traditions for disseminating queer art with annual group exhibitions mainly during the Oslo Pride festival with roots back to the Night & Day exhibition in 1985. Pride Art was registered as its own, national organization in November 11th 7 after being organized as a subgroup in the association Fri Oslo Viken since 2020. Prior to 2007, the group was organized as a community of queer artists with roots back to 2007. Pride art collaborates with a wide range of queer rights organizations, cultural groups and other supporters.
The organization's ultimate purpose is to contribute to an increased understanding of the lives and reality of queer people and stimulate a change of attitude through openness and the strong tool art constitutes in the fight against discrimination and prejudice. Through its work, Pride Art expands the space of expression by highlighting underrepresented voices and bringing together a wide network of queer artists from across the country who embrace across generations, group affiliations and artistic disciplines. Pride Art recognizes and includes amateurs, beginners and professionals on an equal basis. In this way, Pride Art positions itself as a counterweight to traditional weighting of the value and reputation of works of art and artists based on academic background and social status.
The organization is non-commercial, based on volunteering and works in the layer between the field of cultural communication and the rights movement. Every year, the organization creates an important alternative arena during the Oslo Pride festival. Pride Art also contributes to art promotion in other pride events throughout Norway and internationally. The organization's exhibitions create a safe meeting place for queer people where art opens the door to the queer environment for many. Pride Arts' arena and community promotes free art on the premises of the queer as a bridge between generations and group affiliation, between the majority society and queer minorities, and between the marginalized artists and the established art field.
Pride Art brings together a community of over 600 queer artists, artists and curators and is led by an interdisciplinary board of up to 11 people, from Kristiansand in the south to Bodø in the north. Each year, Pride Art puts in 5000 volunteer hours to create one of Norway's most visited art exhibitions. in 2019, 25 people visited our exhibition "I fought - Therefore I am" during 000 days in Oslo, where Pride Art supplied content to Oslo Pride's arena at Youngstorget. The exhibition also includes a wide-ranging program for the performing arts, a separate queer literature day, art and culture debate, workshops that engage gender-creative children, children from queer families and queer youth as well as an important meeting place for those seeking to get away from political debate, parties and crowds. Pride Art believes that visibility is the antidote to shame and silence, and knowledge is the antidote to prejudice and hatred.
Pride Arts' work is important both for the queer population and for the majority society, considering that queer art is largely ignored in Norway. Pride Arts network consists of 450 queer artists in addition to a large number of queer artists people with different artistic skills.
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION-FOR-PRIDE