Profile and values

The Northern Lights are beautiful and magical, and today a driving force for bringing the world to Tromsø through visitors from all over the globe. At the same time, the northern lights are an invariable manifestation of the north. In this way, the northern lights also reflect the festival's core and justification: A northern identity and reality - in the face of artistic expressions from around the world.

Purpose

The Northern Lights Festival is a winter festival for art music and performing arts that takes place annually in Tromsø. We shall:

• Develop the northern art and music field through talent development, proactive commissioned projects and innovative artistic collaboration.
• Challenge both the audience's expectations and the formats and frameworks of art music through the presentation of large stage productions, from home and abroad.
• Exploring interaction and involvement of children and young people, local amateures and new arenas, inside and outside the urban space.
• Investigate the intersection between culture, research and social life through a broad dialogue, debate and subject programme

Values

MOTION

Movement defines our role as a developer. Through taking on an extended responsibility in the arts sector, we shall seek to facilitate and stimulate long-term artistic collaborations and innovation. By actively developing new concepts for commissioned works, thematic concert series, curated collaborative concerts and ways of developing and sharing expertice in the field, we want to contribute to strengthening momentum and development in the northern Norwegian music field. We will also move towards greater visibility and diverse inclusion, both of amateurs, new audiences and youth.

COOPERATION

Collaboration is the key to unlocking our potential and defines our role at the intersection of art, society and science. We shall always seek collaberations with those involved in the arts sector regionally, listen to advice and input from the field and work closely with business and tourism in the north. Through collaboration, we will create new spaces for interdisciplinary dialogue. Collaboration will also strengthen our relationships with relevant music environments in the east, and gauge the way towards long-term international connections in the Arctic

GLOCAL

Being glocal is about defining the global into a local context. As part of the global community, we too are dependent on rethinking sustainability, ecologically, aesthetically and socially, and defining what globalization's tendencies and consequences mean for us locally. Being glocal describes a quest to see oneself in a larger context, build international relationships and link these to local forces.