The Culture Co-Creator: From Culture Consumer to Culture Creator. A Study of Youth Participation in Cultural Institutions

Project period: 2025 - 2027
Funding: Arts Council Norway
Contact person at Østfoldmuseene: Fredrik Wilhelmsen, fredrik.wilhelmsen@ostfoldmuseene.no
Marianne Løken, marianne.loken@ostfoldmuseene.no

Participatory design and involvement have become increasingly important in the dissemination programs of cultural institutions such as museums, public libraries, and literature houses over the past decades. Traditionally, these institutions have operated within a radition where a central part of the self-understanding and societal mission of the institutions was to transfer knowledgeto the population. In recent years, however, these cultural and knowledge institutions have shifted from seeing themselves as authoritative disseminators of established knowledge to becoming important meeting places where the public is increasingly invited to co-create content. 

Østfoldmuseene is responsible for implementing the project, in collaboration with Galleri F15 and the Literature House in Fredrikstad (Litteraturhuset i Fredrikstad). 

The aim of this project is to increase knowledge about young people's participation in cultural activities by studying three youth-focused initiatives at cultural institutions: the "Stempel" activities at the Literature House in Fredrikstad, Galleri F15’s "Blikkåpnere", and Østfoldmuseene’s "KOBLE" project. These three projects share a common approach of involving youth in the programming and dissemination of the institution’s cultural activities. 

What can we learn from the institutions’ focus on involvement and participatory design in dissemination? And how is participation experienced by those involved in these programs? Through a combination of qualitative interviews, dialogue meetings, participatory observation, and document analysis, the research project will explore young people's experiences with dissemination programs that use involvement and participatory design. 

The project will be highly relevant for the entire museum sector because it will: 

• provide insight into how young people themselves experience participating in cultural dissemenation programs that use participatory design 
• increase knowledge about the experiences of participatory design from both the cultural institutions’ and the youths’ perspectives 
• evaluate the use of participatory design across different cultural institutions 
• contribute with knowledge about how cultural institutions negotiate between the desire to transfer knowledge  and the autonomy of youth in dissemination and programming 

Østfoldmuseene will deliver a research article that may be included in an anthology published in the Arts Council Norway’s peer-reviewed book series.