Welcome to THE FACULTY OF PERFORMING ARTS

Dear reader,

The Faculty of Performing Arts at The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) is a large, multifarious and vibrant arena for higher education, artistic development and production and contact between artists and the public. We are located in one of Europe's best-equipped centres for performing arts education, where we benefit from a large number of stages and studios for both rehearsals and performances. We have our own workshops and stores for costumes and props and excellent lighting and sound equipment.

All faculty departments are in close contact with both the professional arts sector in Norway and with equivalent sectors abroad. Each year, students and teachers take part in international events such as competitions, festivals and conferences. The most important means of contact with the arts sector in Norway are the many public performances that we give each year.

The Faculty of Performing Arts is a proactive, educational environment where the various disciplines are continually being developed. Dance, opera, theatre and teacher-training are all fields that consist of many different subjects and disciplines. The faculty provides every teacher and student with the opportunity to study his or her area of art and discipline in depth. Furthermore, the close proximity of a whole range of performing arts represents an important source of inspiration for the individual student or teacher. From 2010, physical proximity to the other faculties belonging to the Academy – Faculty of Visual Arts and Faculty of Design - will open the door to even more interdisciplinary research into areas where arts overlap and are interdependent.

Welcome to the Faculty of Performing Arts – whether as a student, or a member of the public!

Einar Solbu
Dean

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Dear potential fellow student,

The Oslo National Academy of the Arts is an amalgamation of several separate art schools. The amalgamation process was not without its problems. Today, I am delighted to say that I am a student at Norway’s very best college of performing arts!

The fact that the campus is situated in a cultural building (a former sail factory) is an incredible resource. We are all engaged in our own field, but at the same time, we are able to find inspiration in other fields of art, which we would not normally come in contact with. In this way, we build up more respect for each other's work. It is also highly likely that fruitful discussions about art take place in the faculty's changing rooms and corridors.

However, we are not here merely in order to speculate about art; we all possessed by the crazy idea that we shall actually practise it. We therefore need the best of tutors, and we have them! The teachers and heads of study follow up every student with an enormous commitment, one which other students can only dream about! It is easy to forget that they want the best for us when the pressure is at its highest and you are worn out and torn in all directions. At the faculty, we are organised in small classes and when assignments seem impossible to achieve and feedback is difficult to bear, it is good to have the support of fellow students when friends and family are far away.

Welcome to our large, small and unusual Faculty!

Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes
Chair of the Student Union, Faculty of Performing Arts