Public art in practice – From vision to reality
Location: Färgfabriken, takvåningen
Day 1: 11.30 – 20.00
Day 2: 09.00 – 14.00
Ticket price: 1500 kr
Language: Swedish
Book your place and pay directly by card via the following link: Book your ticket here
If you prefer to receive an invoice, you can register using the following form: Registration form
Welcome to the first in a series of skills-building conferences on working with public art! The conference series is a new forum for practical knowledge in art and the built environment, to develop the field and deepen and nuance the practice of the professions involved. The conference will also be a platform for collegial exchange, where experiences from north to south, from cities and rural areas, can be shared and inspired.
The first session of the conference series is on the theme of financing and will be held at the Färgfabriken art gallery in Stockholm. During two half-days, panel discussions, lectures and reference projects will be presented that explore the possibilities and difficulties of financing and budgeting for public art, from the initiation of new projects to funds for operation and maintenance, as well as the financing of temporary art.
The conference is primarily aimed at officials in the municipal and regional sectors. The program’s cross-administrative perspective opens up for several different parts of the organization working with public art to participate, to enable a broad anchoring of the development work.
The invited speakers and panelists come from across the broader field of public art, including practitioners, officials and researchers from different parts of Sweden. The full program can be found below.
The conference series is organized on the initiative of Färgfabriken and ArtPlatform, based on the book Handbook for municipal commissioners, published by the Swedish Arts Council and Jönköping Municipality in 2024. Future occasions are planned for twice a year, with the second conference in the spring of 2025. Future conferences will also follow the structure of the handbook, with organization, collaboration and steering documents as future themes.
Day 1
12:30 Registration opens
13:00 – 13:10 Welcome greetings from Anna-Karin Wulgué, Director of Färgfabriken, and Åsa-Viktoria Wihlborg, CEO ArtPlatform
13:15 – 13:45 Down in the toolbox – From vision to reality! Discussion between Lena From, Head of Art, Halmstad Municipality, Filip Zezovski Lind, Head of Culture and Library, Jönköping Municipality, Lotta Mossum, Project Manager, Swedish Arts Council and Åsa-Viktoria Wihlborg, CEO ArtPlatform, based on the Handbook for Government Clients and the Handbook for Municipal Clients.
13:50 – 14:30 Reference project: Nurmengaard, Magnus Ladulåsplats. Conversation between Linda Wallenberg, curator of public art in Västerås municipality, Tor Olsson, lighting planner in Jönköping municipality, Linnea Rygaard, artist, Niklas Bosrup, landscape architect Sydväst Arkitektur och landskap and Filip Zezovski-Lind, Jönköping municipality.
14:35 – 15:15 Financing of art in planning processes: Anna-Maria Hellner, Park Engineer, Örebrobostäder.
15:15 – 15:45 Fika
15:45 – 16:45 Economy, investment/operating funds – see the big picture. Introductory reflection by Åsa-Viktoria Wihlborg, CEO, ArtPlatform. Panel discussion with Catarina Fritz, former economist at Akademiska hus, Linn Eriksson, controller, Liljevalchs konsthall formerly Haninge municipality and Anna Ehn, Head of Public Art, Uppsala municipality.
16:45 – 17:15 Question time
17:15 – 17:35 Rounding off Anna-Karin Wulgué, Head of Färgfabriken, and Åsa-Viktoria Wihlborg, CEO ArtPlatform.
17:35 – 18:00 Viewing of the exhibition Architectures – Eight Contemporary Investigations
18:00 – 19:30 Evening mingle at Färgfabriken.
Day 2
9:00 – 09:45 Maintaining and securing funding for public art. Panel discussion between Filip Zezovski Lind, Head of Culture and Library, Jönköping Municipality, Joel Albinsson, Art Curator, Jönköping Municipality, Lena From, Head of Art, Halmstad Municipality and Lotta Mossum, Project Manager, Swedish Arts Council.
09:45 – 10:30 Municipalities in Värmland – what happened after the Swedish Arts Council’s investment in knowledge hubs for public art 2018 – 2020. Challenges in getting the work started with the 1% rule? Eriqa Lindsten, Head of Culture and Leisure, Arvika Municipality and Tina Bergenbrink, Head of Culture, Hagfors Municipality.
10:30 – 11:00 Fika
11:00 – 11:40 Obtaining funds and a routine for the operation and maintenance of public art projects. Anna Ehn, Head of Public Art, Uppsala Municipality and Ella Tuononen, Curator of Public Art, Uppsala Municipality
11:40 – 11:55 Question time
12:00 – 12:30 Financing of temporary art, co-production between administrations. Eleonora Fors Szuba, Director, Stockholm Art.
12:30 – 12:45 Question time
12:45 – 13:00 Closing and introduction to the next conference, Molly Sjögren, moderator, Anna-Karin Wulgué, Head of Färgfabriken, and Åsa-Viktoria Wihlborg, CEO ArtPlatform
14:00 Viewing of the exhibition Architectures – eight contemporary investigations
Filip Zezovski Lind, Head of Culture and Library in Jönköping Municipality
Filip Zezovski Lind is Head of Culture and Library in Jönköping Municipality, where he previously served as Art Curator. Filip has a background in art history and philosophy and a Master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. He was co-founder of the Clearview Art Gallery in Tottenham, London and one of the editors of the publication Public Art – A Handbook for Municipal Commissioners.
Lena From, Head of Art in Halmstad Municipality
Lena From has previously been an art project manager at Stockholm Art and at the Swedish Arts Council, where she was responsible for several government commissions. In recent years, she has focused on how public art, together with architecture and the cultural environment, can contribute to creating sustainable living environments. She has a broad background as a cultural journalist and writing manager in daily and specialized press.
Linnea Rygaard, artist
Linnea Rygaard’s work is based on and focuses on how painting and architecture can be united, an attempt to merge reality and fantasy. Can the two together create a grand unity between seriousness and play. A peculiar place emerges that takes the viewer into the dissolution of spatial dimensions. The connection to space and architecture is always present, both as a direct reference in the subject matter but also as an object placed in the space where the painting is located. That is, the painting influences its surroundings and vice versa.
Linda Wallenberg, curator of public art in Västerås municipality
Linda Wallenberg is a curator and art consultant who lives outside Västerås. The assignment in Jönköping municipality took place during her time as director of Linda Wallenberg konst, which focused on public art and art exhibitions outside the traditional spaces of contemporary art. Wallenberg now works as process manager for public art at Västerås Art Museum and has previously worked at Wanås konst, Farawaysoclose, Västmanland County Museum and Uppsala Municipality.
Niklas Bosrup, landscape architect
Niklas Bosrup is a landscape architect and one of Sydväst arkitektur och landskaps’s founders and partners. The office just celebrated its 20th anniversary and has over the years done several high-profile projects in Stockholm, Visby, Simrishamn, Jönköping, Eslöv, Norrtälje and Falköping.
Lotta Mossum, Project Manager at the Swedish Arts Council
Lotta Mossum works as Head of Art at the Swedish Arts Council. Mossum has previously worked as a curator for art projects in public spaces. With a master’s degree in fine arts, she also has practical experience in art production. During the last decade as a curator at the Swedish Arts Council, Mossum has mainly worked with complex and large-scale projects such as Future Island, Campus Albano, Stockholm, and the art in Västlänken, Gothenburg.
Tor Olsson, light designer
Tor Olsson is a light designer with a background in cultural studies. For almost ten years, he has worked as a lighting planner at Jönköping Municipality’s urban planning office. An inability to keep his mouth shut and to stay at his desk has led to him constantly managing to fall into all sorts of roles in urban planning and urban development in addition to his role as a lighting designer.
Catarina Fritz, former economist at Akademiska hus
Catarina had the opportunity when she worked as CFO at Akademiska hus (2017-2022) to deepen the collaboration with the Swedish Arts Council on behalf of the company, which led to a new form of cooperation agreement. The agreement was the first to be signed with a state-owned real estate company and became the model for future agreements with other state-owned real estate companies.
The Swedish Arts Council was given a special assignment by the Ministry of Culture in connection with the development of Gestaltad livsmiljö to increase interest in the government sphere to invest more in art.
“For me, it was a great privilege to work on this, given my great interest in art, especially contemporary art.” – Catarina Fritz
Molly Sjögren
Molly Sjögren is an independent curator and architect based in Stockholm. Her practice encompasses practice-based research, process management and strategic business development, with a focus on designed living environment and collaboration across disciplines.
Linn Eriksson, controller at Liljevalchs konsthall formerly Haninge municipality
Linn Eriksson, former controller in Haninge municipality, now at Liljevalchs konsthall. Haninge municipality changed the budget process for applying the 1% rule a few years ago.
Eleonora Fors Szuba, Head of Stockholm Art
Eleonora Fors Szuba has been Head of Stockholm Art since October 1, 2024, with the task of strengthening and developing public art in the city of Stockholm. She comes from a position as head of the art unit in the Västra Götaland region and has several years of experience working with public art as a project manager and curator.
The conference is part of a collaboration within the Architecture Triennial, a new platform for exploratory and long-term collaboration between architects, artists and social actors. The Architecture Triennial is initiated by Färgfabriken as a recurring forum and a gathering point for questions about the built environment and the future.
Top image
Nurmengaard
Photo: Werner Nystrand
Artist: Linnea Rygaard
Year of creation: 2021
Location: Magnus Ladulås place, Jönköping
Technique and material: Sculpture – oak wood and steel
Nurmengaard is created by artist Linnea Rygaard in collaboration with Sydväst Landskap och Arkitektur. The sculpture creates a spatiality that intertwines with the landscape and invites you to stay. The title combines the artist’s name with the name of a fictional castle built by the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter books.