The Stiklestad prize 2024 is awarded
Turid Hofstad.

THE APPOINTMENT COMMITTEE'S STARTING POINT

The statutes state that

"The Stiklestad Prize should be recognized for an effort that contributes to lifting, developing and/or updating Stiklestad. This can be done through enlivening the place in the form of various artistic contributions, through contributions to increased knowledge of the place's more than thousand-year history or by contributing to the development of Stiklestad as a dynamic democratic arena."   

The statutes also state that the prize must be awarded to someone who has contributed to shaping or creating special attention for Stiklestad within one of three categories:

1. Artistic, either creative or performing
2. Knowledge-building, through research and/or communication
3. Developing democracy, through a focus on dialogue and social sustainability

The selection committee has taken a broad perspective as the basis for choosing a candidate for this year's award. This means that the candidate has most contributed visually creatively at Stiklestad, but has also contributed in the democracy-developing perspective.

JUSTIFICATION

The Stiklestad prize for 2024 goes to Turid Hofstad. She has been employed at Stiklestad for over 20 years, most of that time as director. But that is not a good enough qualification for the Stiklestad Prize in itself. It is her commitment and drive for the development that has taken place at Stiklestad during her time as director that is the reason for this award.

Turid's association with Stiklestad started long before she was employed at Stiklestad National Cultural Center (SNK). In her youth she danced in the play ring in the game for 14 years, she was the choir director for the Olsok Choir after completing her music education. She was brought onto the board of the cultural center but was laid off from there in order to be engaged to finalize an application that secured the cultural center's status as a national hub with special responsibility for disseminating knowledge about Olav Haraldsson and the battle at Stiklestad. With that, an important economic foundation was secured. It happened in 1996. After that, the path to the director's chair was short. In her role as director, all work has been rooted in her focus on THE PLACE and the power of the place. She never wavered from her understanding of Stiklestad as a completely unique place in Norway in the past and present - and that it should also be so for the future. She always had a strong awareness of the responsibilities and opportunities that come with managing such a place - and her ambitions on behalf of the place were sky-high. She also transferred that understanding to the rest of the organisation.

Her "main legacy" is the ambitious development of the Stiklestad National Cultural Center over 20 years into a professionally strong museum, with a focus both on the many stories connected to Olav and Stiklestad over a thousand years, and Stiklestad's importance as an important meeting place and symbolic place in ourPress information own time. This work was, among other things, recognized through the nomination by SNK for museum of the year in 2018.

To ensure that the many visitors to Stiklestad would get even closer to the stories of Olav and the time around 1030, under Turid's leadership, the major work on the medieval farm Stiklastadir was started. Today, this has become a unique museum arena that offers comprehensive historical experiences both about the time before the battle and the society that developed afterwards. This was part of work in the early 2000s with an overarching communication concept "Stiklestad 230-2030" which included a comprehensive plan for the development of communication services and area development. The communication concept and thematic headings that were developed at the time have, with further development, stood up to the present day. Changing the road structure enabled area development. Orchestra pit in the playing amphitheater and hotel also came into place to name a few. Turid will not take credit for everything that happened. In newspaper interviews, she repeatedly emphasizes the importance of cooperation, the commitment and competence of both employees, volunteering and other cooperation actors. It was still she who stood at the helm and guided the direction of the work.

Turid also took his high level of ambition on Stiklestad's behalf into the start of the work on the National Jubilee 2030. A milestone was that the state budget for 2017 established that 2030 was a national jubilee and that SNK had a special responsibility. As a director, she was also the theater director of the Play about Heilag Olav for 20 years. In this role, she combined her close relationship with and experience with the game, with her strong commitment to the development of Stiklestad. Through the recruitment of several artistic teams and a combination of respect and fearlessness, including with night performances, she was an important contributor to keeping the unique 70-year playing heritage at Stiklestad alive. With this rationale, Turid Hofstad is awarded the Stiklestad prize for 2024.

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ABOUT THE STIKLESTAD PRIZE

The Stiklestad prize is awarded by Verdal municipality.

It was first awarded in 1971. It is awarded every two years and this year is the 27th time.