Election Platform

Students and staff
– are the driving force of KMD, and together, we have the opportunity to create a new and unique institution at UiB.

Involvement, wide participation and ownership of democratic processes are all vital to KMD’s success.

We will emphasize well-functioning councils and committees and the interaction between the disciplinary environments and administrative groups. Leadership at all levels should be based on dialogue, openness, trust and accountability.

Early in the four-year period, we will, in dialogue with students and staff, develop an ambitious strategy for KMD and present it to the faculty board. A good foundation is the already-begun strategy work, which will be dealt with by the interim Faculty board in June. The KMD strategy will build on the identity which the various artistic, academic and design-based milieus have developed at the former Bergen Academy of Art and Design and at the Grieg Academy.

The establishment of the new faculty and the process of moving to the new facility in Møllendal, while being a stimulating challenge, have also been burdensome to many students and staff members. We must now create a well-functioning 
situation for work, study and concentration at the new location. 

To ensure a good environment for work and learning in the long term, we will emphasize evaluation of KMD’s organizational model. 

Our primary goal will be to secure funding for KMD’s research and study programme in UiB´s budget-distribution model – on par with comparable educational institutions in Norway.

We will learn
through research-based study programmes that validates and give opportunities for experimentation and critical reflection. The goal is to educate candidates with a clear disciplinary profile and future-oriented competencies.

Good study programmes are important stimuli and preconditions for strong research environments.

We will work systematically to recruit both Norwegian and international students.

Motivated and engaged students are important resources for KMD. We will therefore facilitate high-quality education through democratically inclusive processes and by developing arenas for sharing opinions and constructive criticism. 

A good flow of information and a well-functioning student democracy are preconditions for ensuring good study programmes. 

We will facilitate learning through organizing projects that cut across disciplines and specialized fields and by developing courses that can be included in several study programmes. 

Possibilities for setting up an inter-artistic master’s programme and a teacher-training programme (PPU) should be investigated.

KMD must develop attractive and relevant continuing and further educational programmes, in close collaboration with the faculty’s diverse fields of practice.

We will research
by acknowledging that strong disciplines are a premise for cross-disciplinary practises.

Art, music and design at KMD have unique preconditions and possibilities for developing new and experimental artistic practises and expressions, in collaboration with relevant art, music and design environments. 

Similarly, KMD has an outstanding opportunity to develop innovative research through participative and inclusive artistic practices and projects, in collaboration with several of the academic environments at UiB. We want to facilitate a close connection between artistic and  academic research in KMD’s projects and focal areas.

KMD should, in harmony with UiB’s strategy, consider cluster collaboration in several relevant areas.

One of KMD’s most important tasks will be to develop good PhD-programmes for all the candidates within all the faculty’s subject areas.

We will communicate
by making KMD a vital institution for culture and research in Bergen, one which will be noticed internationally. Møllendal will become part of the city’s cultural axis and contribute to urban development in Bergen. We will set premises for the internationally-oriented cultural city of Bergen.

The activities at KMD should be visible to the world. We should nurture systematic contact with relevant environments and enter into long-term cooperative agreements. 

We will develop a robust communication strategy, such that KMD’s disciplinary profile and distinctive character can be known locally, nationally and internationally.

…and we will gather together as one faculty – in one place – as soon as possible
Now, finally, the environments for art and design have their own new building. This gives the subject areas an outstanding opportunity to make the most of co-location. As leaders, we must nevertheless also focus on the challenges arising for students and staff during the start-up phase in the new building. 

Building-phase II in Møllendal is an important precondition for realizing the full potential of the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design. We aim to be a driving force for completing the new building, through maintaining close contact with UiB’s leaders, building strategic 
alliances and shedding light on both the international potential and the local urban-development perspective. 

Until the new building for the Grieg Academy is realized, we must cope as best as we can with there being much physical distance between the departments for art and design in Møllendal, and the Grieg Academy, which will continue to function in poor premises on the street Lars Hillesgate (Nygård skole). In advance of the co-location of all the departments, we must create good shared arenas for the staff and students.

Frode Thorsen
Frode Thorsen is a professor of early music (historically informed performance). He has also worked as a composer (primarily music for dance and theatre) and as a musician in experimental and multi-artistic projects. With the ensemble Bergen Barokk, he has held national and international concerts and produced numerous CDs. Thorsen was the elected department head for the Grieg Academy during 1999–2005 and then again for four three fixed terms starting from 2007. He participated in the committee that did background research for the establishment of KMD/UiB and has been in the steering committee for the faculty’s establishment.

Anne-Helen Mydland
Anne-Helen Mydland is a professor of art with specialization in ceramics and clay. After her studies at UiB (archaeology and art history) and at KHiB, she established her career as an artist, curator and educator. Mydland has exhibited widely in Norway and internationally, and her works have been purchased for leading collections and institutions, not least for the Museum of Contemporary Art (Oslo). She is a project leader and artistic leader for the project ‘Topographies of the Obsolete (financed by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme). Mydland was artistic research leader for KHiB’s Department of Fine Art from 2012 to 2015 and the acting dean for the same department during the spring of 2015. She was in the project group for developing the new department structure when KHiB merged the Department of Specialised Art and the Department of Fine Art. Mydland has otherwise been active in supervisory boards and committees for many years.

Linda Herfindal Lien
Linda Herfindal Lien is an associate professor of graphic design. She completed a second-degree level (hovedfag) in visual communication at KHiB and was a research fellow in the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, completing her project in 2011. Lien is currently the artistic research leader for the specialized field of visual communication at KMD’s Department of Design. She was previously the coordinator for the bachelor programme in design, for the specialization in visual communication. Lien has also helped develop – and teach – the cross-disciplinary courses which KMD offers in design thinking (produced through collaboration between the University of Bergen, the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Design Arena).