Report from the project "A living sports legacy at Stiklestad towards 2030"

A living playing legacy at Stiklestad towards 2030

The board at Museene Arven has processed the report for the project "A living sports heritage at Stiklestad towards 2030". The report contains recommendations from both the project group and an artistic committee.

The project "A living player legacy at Stiklestad towards 2030" was launched on 1 April 2022. The project's goal was to thematize the future of the player legacy at Stiklestad and the development of the Game of Saint Olav in particular. The project had two focus areas: artistic development and sustainability. The project is an important part of the work leading up to the National Jubilee 2030.

Chairman Gunnar Bovim says that the board recognizes the extensive work that has been put into the project "A living sports legacy at Stiklestad towards 2030" and that the board will take the project report into consideration. "When it comes to the report's recommendations, the board asks the administration to return to follow-up on these. However, we are already asking the administration to look into the possibility of following up on the recommendation to engage an artistic director for the Play about Saint Olav", says Bovim.

The project manager has been Hanne Vilja Sagmo, who has extensive experience with similar processes, including from Elden in Røros. "A strategic choice at the start of the project was to engage an external project manager to ensure a valuable outside perspective. The project report is thus the result of externally led development work. The internal game production perspective is taken care of through various forms of involvement. Both Museene Arven and Verdal municipality have, for example, been represented in the project group and both the volunteers and the Okkenhaug family have been important contributors to the process," says director of Museene Arven, Heidi Anett Øvergård Beistad.

The presented report consists of two main parts: the project group's report and a report from the artistic committee (led by Erik Ulfsby, theater manager at Det Norske Teater). Museene Arven's management group, which has been the project's steering group, considers this to be a great strength: the report provides two independent analyzes of the situation from two different perspectives.

"It is also a great strength that the report is based on an extensive knowledge base built up through individual meetings, various workshops and surveys," says Øvergård Beistad. In addition, she highlights the following as a special value of the work that has now been carried out: "The project has created an enhanced dialogue between the various actors involved in the production of The Game about Saint Olav. As an extension of that, we have all also gained a clearer common knowledge base. This knowledge and the enhanced dialogue are great resources in the years leading up to 2030."

Even with their different approaches, the two interim reports agree in their main recommendations. Museum manager at Stiklestad National Cultural Centre, Ingegerd Eggen, will particularly highlight the following:

• The report's clearest recommendation relates to artistic management: in order to ensure the necessary further development of the playing heritage at Stiklestad, both in terms of artistic development and sustainability, an artistic director should be employed.
• The input gives a clear recognition of the artistic qualities and potential of the Play about Heilag Olav (script and music) and social value as a meeting place and arena for coping (volunteering, recruitment etc.)
• The investigative work has revealed a broad agreement that development is important, but at the same time different understandings of what necessary development is. In this connection, it is interesting that both reports emphasize that a sustainable development of the Play about Heilag Olav in the future requires enhanced artistic freedom linked to all aspects of the production.
• Both the artistic committee and the project group say that the momentum in 2030 should be used to develop a new artistic product related to the olive heritage at Stiklestad. Both say at the same time that the Game of Saint Olav must have a strong presence in 2030, even if a new product is created.
• Both the artistic committee and the project group see the potential in and encourage further development of the play amphitheater. The artistic selection mainly addresses this based on a desire for a visual, artistic boost, while the project group emphasizes audience comfort and economic sustainability. In further work, it will be important to see this together in order to ensure a comprehensive development of the sports amphitheater as an arena, as well as to see the work with the sports arena as part of the project "Media Arena Stiklestad".

The full report can be found here