TYAOslo26

Spaces of Care

Overview

Since 2022, ASSITEJ Norway has hosted TYAOslo, a biennial performing arts residency dedicated to those working professionally within Theatre and Performing Arts for Young Audiences (TYA). Now returning for its third edition in 2026, TYAOslo continues to provide a week-long space for reflection, creation, and exchange, connecting artists and best practices across borders.

In 2026, the residency explores the theme “Care in Artistic Spaces.” What does it take to create and hold artistic spaces that invite young audiences to dream, reflect, and truly feel seen - especially when engaging with complex or challenging themes?

Care is not understood here as protection from discomfort, but as an active, negotiated practice which involves responsibility and risk, listening, and at times friction. The residency invites artists to question not only how they care for their audiences, but how care shapes form, ethics, power, and artistic freedom.

TYAOslo26 is developed in collaboration with the Nordic-Baltic ASSITEJ Network (NBAN) and reflects the spirit of ASSITEJ International, the global network uniting artists, scholars, and producers who advocate for children’s right to arts and culture.

Objectives

The residency aims to:

  • Explore care in an artistic, ethical, and spatial practice in performing arts for young audiences, and how it is enacted through form, process, and audience engagement.

  • Create a shared space for artistic experimentation, reflection, and peer-to-peer exchange across disciplines and cultural contexts.

  • Challenge perceptions of performing arts for young audiences and highlight its artistic and social value.

  • Foster professional relationships and future collaborations among participating artists.

Key Questions

  • How can care be practised as an active and shared process in artistic work with and for young audiences?

  • What artistic choices of form, process, and interaction shape how young audiences encounter a work?

  • How can individual experiences be recognised within a shared artistic experience?

  • What responsibilities do artists carry when engaging young audiences with complex, sensitive, or challenging themes?

  • Can care and artistic provocation co-exist, and if so how?

Structure

  • Applications will close Sunday 12th of March 2026.

  • The residency will include up to 16 participants from the Nordic-Baltic region.

  • The residency will find place between 17-23rd of August 2026, in Oslo, Norway.

  • The residency will be lead by Vigdís Jacobsdóttir guiding collaborative exploration.

  • Workshops with invited artists and companies known for creating distinctive artistic spaces.

  • Cross-disciplinary exchange through shared methods and artistic experimentation.

  • A mix of seminars, physical workshops, excursions, and the development of shared presentation or performance for industry professionals.

Requirements

The TYAOslo26 residency is a collaboration with the Nordic-Baltic ASSITEJ Network (NBAN) and will be an exchange between the national centers.

Therefore, to be eligible to apply you must:

  • Be from, live in/work in a Nordic-Baltic Country

    • Eligible countries: Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Estonia, Lithuania or Latvia.

  • Be at least 21 years of age.

  • Work professionally with performing arts for young audiences.

    • Performing, writing, directing, producing, etc.

  • Be eligible to travel and available for the duration of the residency dates.

  • Be able to invoice (either privately or through a company)

As part of the residency we offer:

  • An artistic fee of 13000 NOK for the entire stay

  • Travel and accommodation

    • Flights, trains, hostel and transport to/from the airport and stations.

    • Public transport in Oslo

    Per diems of 600 NOK a day

    • Breakfast and lunch will be included in the accommodation.

    • There will be a kitchen available at the hostel.

  • Tickets to events as part of the residency

The Residency Leader

Vigdís Jakobsdóttir is an Icelandic cultural leader based in Reykjavík, currently serving as Event Manager for Culture in Kópavogur. She is the former Artistic Director and CEO of the Reykjavík Arts Festival (2016–2024).

Across her work as a theatre director, educator, and festival leader, Vigdís has focused on expanding who the arts are for and how artistic encounters are shaped. Her practice centres on meaningful exchange with audiences and on understanding access as a structural and ethical responsibility within artistic work.

Trained as a theatre director, she has directed many productions and worked for over a decade at the National Theatre of Iceland, including as Head of Education and Audience Engagement. She has been involved with ASSITEJ for nearly two decades, serving on its international executive committee from 2011 to 2017, and has led many international workshops and encounters for artists within the ASSITEJ context. Her broader workshop and facilitation practice spans festival leadership and curation, access and inclusion in the arts, and strategic planning, focusing on creating courageous working spaces where practitioners from different fields can experiment with complex and challenging questions.

Photo: Rut Sigurdardottir

Application form

Please make sure that you’ve read and understood all the requirements before applying. If you have any questions please contact us through this form.

If you have any questions regarding the TYAOslo26 residency and the application process please contact Project Manager Audun Krüger on: audun.kruger@assitej.no