Professionals involved in exhibition making from various museums and galleries share their reflections on what an exhibition can be, why we need exhibitions today and what their purpose may be.

Over the past six years the Museum of Cultural History, ROM for kunst og arkitektur and the University Museum in Bergen have collaborated to explore overarching questions concerning exhibition production. The previous seminars have focused on diverse topics addressed in exhibition making, such as history, exhibition architecture, objects, audience, venue and methodology - all topics that resonate with people involved in exhibition making in smaller or larger institutions - museums and galleries. This time, the seventh seminar in the series, we invite professionals within art, architecture, museums and research to share their reflections about why we need exhibitions, why we make them and what their purpose may be. During the event we invite the audience to participate in the conversations. Together we hope to explore our understanding of exhibition quality, and how exhibitions may contribute to a broader societal need of exploration, meaning making and change.

Program

11:00–11:35: Introduction
Moderator: Karoline Kjesrud, Curator of the Medieval Collection, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

Welcome by Aud V. Tønnessen, Museum director, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

Background and collaboration by Björn Nilsson, Gjertrud Steinsvåg, Karoline Kjesrud

11:35–11:45: Coffee and fruits

11:45–12:30: Session I: (Why) Do we need exhibitions?
Moderator: Björn Nilsson, Head of Department of Cultural History, University Museum of Bergen

Reflections by: 
Hanne Hammer Stien, Professor of Art History at Academy of Arts, The Arctic University of Norway
Birgitte Sigmundstad, Artist, Oslo
Lin Stafne-Pfisterer, Senior Curator Education, The National Museum

13:00–13:30: Lunch

13:30–15:00: Session 2: Aims of exhibitions—What do we want to give the audience?
Moderator: Gjertrud Steinsvåg, Director ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Oslo

Reflections by:
Toril Rokseth, Head of Department of Exhibitions, Education and Public Services, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo 
Nkule Mabaso, Director, Fotogalleriet, Oslo 
Eli Kristine Økland Hausken, Head of Department of Research and Science Communication, University Museum of Bergen

15:15: Thank you and good bye!

Birgitte Sigmundstad lives in Oslo and works primarily with moving images. She is educated at The Surrey Institute of Art & Design in England and has had number of exhibitions and screenings in Norway and abroad. Sigmundstads films are essayistic and are tied to art, art history or historical events. Another recurring subject matter in Sigmundstads films is how art is used ideologically. In recent years Sigmundstad has worked with several films about the mediation of second world war in Norway. ‘The new Museum’ an observational documentary about the National Museum in Oslo, was started in 2016 and finished in 2025. In 2012 Sigmundstad was granted the guaranteed income for artists by the Norwegian State.

Lin Stafne-Pfisterer is Cand.philol. in Art History from UiO (2004). She is Senior Curator Education at the National Museum where she has worked since 2013. "Gothic Modern. From darkness to light" (2025), "Else Hagen. Between people" (2024-25) and "Thorvald Hellesen. Pioneering Cubism" (2023) are the lasts exhibitions she worked on. Audience co-creation, participation and reflection have been key elements in her curatorial work. 

Eli Kristine Økland Hausken, (b. 1977) is a folklorist and head of the Department for Research and Science Communication at the University Museum, University of Bergen. Since 2006, she has worked systematically to shift the museum’s outreach towards the research process and was deeply involved in the renovation and development of a new museum concept for Norway’s oldest listed museum building from 1865, the Natural History Museum at Muséplassen 3, where she was responsible for audience engagement and exhibition curation. She served as project leader for the Arena for Research and Science Communication, through which the University of Bergen expanded the museum’s mandate to also communicate the university’s broader research environments through museological formats in the renovated museum. The museum project has won several awards due to its holistic understanding of its societal mission, and its innovative communication that welcomes the public to an experience of knowledge without breaking ties to history and traditions.

Hanne Hammer Stien is an art historian and curator. She is professor of art history at Academy of Art, UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø where she teaches at the BA and MA program in Fine Art. Hanne Hammer Stien has published widely on contemporary northern art and visual culture, museology, and the history and theory of photography. She is co-heading the research group Worlding Northern Art (WONA) and has numerous positions within academia and the art field. Among others she is a member of the artistic advisory board of the new government quarter in Oslo, the associated editor of Curator: The Museum Journal, and on the board of Mađđi - Romsa kunsthall and the research and development committee at the Arts Council Norway. Stien’s writings and curatorial work include exhibitions and texts on Kåre Kivijärvi, Ánddir Ivvár Ivvár/Iver Jåks, Julie Edel Hardenberg, Joar Nango, Inuuteq Storch, Katja Aglert and Inger Sitter.

Toril Rokseth has worked with education and communication through exhibitions for 15 years. Initially as Director of Education and then as Director of Exhibitions at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. In 2022, she began her role as Head of Department: Exhibitions and Outreach at the Cultural History Museum.

Nkule Mabaso  is an artist and curator.  Currently Mabaso is director of the Fotogalleriet (Oslo), a publicly funded institution / kunsthalle for photography in the Nordic region. Concurrently, Mabaso is Ph.D. researcher at the HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.  Mabaso is the founding director of the Natal Collective (2012), an independent production company based  in South Africa, and active internationally in the research and presentation of creative and cultural Africana contemporary art and politics.

Welcome to a day filled with curiosity, conversations and new perspectives - programme will be published shortly.

The event will be held in English.

The event is generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the research Council of Norway.