Stiftelsen Fargespill

Stiftelsen Fargespill is a Norwegian arts foundation that primarily produces stage performances featuring children and young people aged 7–25 from all over the world. The foundation also works in other arenas, such as school-oriented projects. The concept has spread across Norway through licenses, and since its start in 2004, over 400,000 audience members have seen Fargespill performances nationwide. The project has received numerous awards and honors, and has been nominated for the Spellemannprisen 2011 and the Nobel Peace Prize. The foundation was established by musician Ole Hamre and Sissel Saue, who in 2003 created a performance for Bergen kulturskole during the Bergen International Festival. In the performance Mosaikk, he included children and youth who had recently arrived alone in the country as refugees. By giving them the opportunity to express themselves on stage, they were able to show that they had more dimensions than a difficult background. The segments with the young refugees were very successful, and Hamre was invited to create a full performance with the same starting point during the 2004 festival. This formed the basis for the creation of Fargespill. In 2007, Fargespill performed at King Harald and Queen Sonja's 70th birthday in Oslo City Hall. From 2008, Fargespill became a municipal 4-year project, and actor and comedian Kjersti Berge, known from Kvinner på randen, came in as daily manager. Fargespill was established as a foundation in April 2011 and released its first album the same year. The album was titled Fargespill. In 2012, Fargespill performed for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, when they visited Bergen in connection with Queen Elizabeth II's 60th jubilee. Fargespill also concluded the ceremony at Torgalmenningen when the Rafto Foundation was to present Aung San Suu Kyi with the Rafto Prize she was awarded in 1990. When Suu Kyi arrived at Torgallmenningen, five Burmese Fargespill actors presented traditional Burmese flower wreaths that they, together with their families, had woven for her. In 2014, Fargespill celebrated its 10th anniversary at the same time as Norway's Constitution celebrated 200 years. This was marked on 17 May with a performance on the main stage of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. 150 children and youth from all over the country, with backgrounds from all over the world, stood together on stage as part of the official program for the Constitution Jubilee 1814-2014. Prior to the performance at the Opera, Fargespill launched its first music video for the song «Oromiyaa», which is a declaration of love to Oromia in Ethiopia, and the Norwegian folk song «Kråkevisa». In September 2014, Fargespill moved into its own premises in Nygårdsgaten 124. The house was previously Christian Michelsen's summer house and is officially called Villa Michelsen, but has been renamed Villa Fargespill. In 2014, Fargespill received «Redd Barnas Rettighetspris». Fargespill initiated a collaboration with Høgskolen på Vestlandet, department of teacher education, and in January 2015 the first further education course for teachers started at HIB. The study «Interkulturell pedagogikk, kultur- og kommunikasjon i Fargespill». Fargespill was named «Årets Hordalending» by Hordaland county municipality for «for brubygging mellom ulike kulturar og norske tradisjonar» in 2015 and received Bergen municipality's «Pris for Likestilling, Inkludering og Mangfold» the same year. Together with the Bergen International Festival, Fargespill initiated a collaboration with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) in 2016. The concert was broadcast on NRK-TV under the program «Hovedscenen». NRK produced a documentary that followed a handful of actors in the process leading up to the performance. In 2017, Stiftelsen Fargespill expanded with a new ensemble in Oslo, and opened an office at Sentralen in Oslo.

Stiftelsen Fargespill was founded by musician Ole Hamre and Sissel Saue, who in 2003 created a performance for Bergen kulturskole during the Bergen International Festival. In the performance Mosaikk, he included children and youth who had recently arrived alone in the country as refugees. By giving them the opportunity to express themselves on stage, they were able to show that they had more dimensions than a difficult background. The segments with the young refugees were very successful, and Hamre was invited to create a full performance with the same starting point during the 2004 festival. This formed the basis for the creation of Fargespill. In 2007, Fargespill performed at King Harald and Queen Sonja's 70th birthday in Oslo City Hall. From 2008, Fargespill became a municipal 4-year project, and actor and comedian Kjersti Berge, known from Kvinner på randen, came in as daily manager. Fargespill was established as a foundation in April 2011 and released its first album the same year. The album was titled Fargespill. In 2012, Fargespill performed for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, when they visited Bergen in connection with Queen Elizabeth II's 60th jubilee. Fargespill also concluded the ceremony at Torgalmenningen when the Rafto Foundation was to present Aung San Suu Kyi with the Rafto Prize she was awarded in 1990. When Suu Kyi arrived at Torgallmenningen, five Burmese Fargespill actors presented traditional Burmese flower wreaths that they, together with their families, had woven for her. In 2014, Fargespill celebrated its 10th anniversary at the same time as Norway's Constitution celebrated 200 years. This was marked on 17 May with a performance on the main stage of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. 150 children and youth from all over the country, with backgrounds from all over the world, stood together on stage as part of the official program for the Constitution Jubilee 1814-2014. Prior to the performance at the Opera, Fargespill launched its first music video for the song «Oromiyaa», which is a declaration of love to Oromia in Ethiopia, and the Norwegian folk song «Kråkevisa». In September 2014, Fargespill moved into its own premises in Nygårdsgaten 124. The house was previously Christian Michelsen's summer house and is officially called Villa Michelsen, but has been renamed Villa Fargespill. In 2014, Fargespill received «Redd Barnas Rettighetspris». Fargespill initiated a collaboration with Høgskolen på Vestlandet, department of teacher education, and in January 2015 the first further education course for teachers started at HIB. The study «Interkulturell pedagogikk, kultur- og kommunikasjon i Fargespill». Fargespill was named «Årets Hordalending» by Hordaland county municipality for «for brubygging mellom ulike kulturar og norske tradisjonar» in 2015 and received Bergen municipality's «Pris for Likestilling, Inkludering og Mangfold» the same year. Together with the Bergen International Festival, Fargespill initiated a collaboration with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) in 2016. The concert was broadcast on NRK-TV under the program «Hovedscenen». NRK produced a documentary that followed a handful of actors in the process leading up to the performance. In 2017, Stiftelsen Fargespill expanded with a new ensemble in Oslo, and opened an office at Sentralen in Oslo. The same year, Fargespill released its second album "Fargespill-KORK", a live recording from the performance of the same name. The following year, Fargespill in Oslo had its first performance "Vi" at Det Norske Teatret. In 2018, Fargespill was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by former member of the Nobel Committee Ågot Valle and Monica Mæland. Fargespill also performed at the Nobel Peace Festival for peace prize winners Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, at Oslo City Hall Square with live broadcast from NRK. The same year, Fargespill was invited to mark the first time TV 2 broadcast UEFA Champions League matches with a new twist on the iconic hymn. In 2019, the ensemble in Bergen marked 15 years with the performance Fargespill – 15 år.

• 2019

  Bergen ensemble marked 15 years with the performance Fargespill – 15 år.

• 2018

  Oslo ensemble's first performance Vi at Det Norske Teatret; nominated for Nobel Peace Prize; performed at Nobel Peace Festival.

• 2017

  Expanded with a new ensemble in Oslo; released second album Fargespill-KORK.

• 2016

  Collaboration with KORK; concert broadcast on NRK-TV.

• 2015

  First further education course for teachers started at HIB; named Årets Hordalending and received Bergen municipality's diversity award.

• 2014

  Fargespill celebrated its 10th anniversary with a performance at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet; received Redd Barnas Rettighetspris; moved into Villa Fargespill.

• 2012

  Fargespill performed for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall during their visit to Bergen.

• 2011

  Fargespill was established as a foundation in April and released its first album, Fargespill.

• 2008

  Fargespill became a municipal 4-year project; Kjersti Berge joined as daily manager.

• 2007

  Fargespill performed at King Harald and Queen Sonja's 70th birthday in Oslo City Hall.

• 2004

  Fargespill was created as a full performance during the Bergen International Festival.

• 2003

  Ole Hamre created the performance Mosaikk for Bergen kulturskole during the Bergen International Festival, including children and youth who had recently arrived as refugees.

A method for how we meet each other as humans, seeing diversity as a resource.

• 2011

  Fargespill (album)

• 2011

  Fargespill-boken (book)

• 2014

  Oromiyaa / Kråkevisa (music video)

• 2017

  Fargespill–KORK (album)

• 2017

  Lykkelig (single)

• 2020

  Vår Verden (album with Det Norske Blåseensemble)

• 2020

  Ja, vi elsker dette landet (music video)

• 2021

  Batwa… (single)

1. 1Fargespill official websitefargespill.no
2. 2Stiftelsen Fargespill - Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Stiftelsen Fargespill - Wikipedia (Norwegian)no.wikipedia.org