UKS Union

About

UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund / Young Artists’ Society) is a political membership organization for professional artists in Norway and an exhibition space for contemporary art located in Oslo. With over 600 members, UKS is the largest organization within the national artist union Norske Billedkunstnere (NBK). Founded by artists, for artists in 1921, UKS works to advance its members’ professional, social, economic, and ideal interests.

UKS works with political influence and union work on behalf of our members. For more information and to apply for membership, click here.
A guiding principle behind our political work is that art and artists’ freedom of expression are essential parts of a democratic society.

Union Work

We do our political work as a member organisation in many ways. Underneath, you’ll find more information about this.

MAIN PROJECTS

UKS has several main projects that come out of our Strategic plan 2022-2026 and Action plan for 2025. These are:

  • Climate and sustainability
  • Palestina
  • The studio situation
  • The national artist survey and the government’s report on artist living conditions (kunstnermeldingen)

You can read more about our projects further down on this page, under Projects.

CONSULTATIONS AND HEARINGS

Through hearings, consultations and meetings with politicians and bureaucrats, we propose concrete actions that will help as many artists as possible. The result of this work has, amongst others, been new grant schemes for artists, like Artist Assistant Scheme and Arrangørstøtteordningen. We have also written handbooks that help you with using these schemes: 9 to 5 – A handbook for the Artist Assistant Scheme and Handbook for artist-run spaces (Norwegian).

Consultations and hearings are a big part of how UKS communicates with politicians, and we use a lot of time to build our knowledge on the various cases to be able to write good consultation papers. This work contributes to that politicians and government officials, those who take and prepare political decisions, understand better how artists live and work. We cannot take for granted that they know what being an artist is like, and to write consultation and hearing papers is our way of informing them about this. We find it very important to ensure equal access both to experience art and the possibility to establish oneself as a professional artist, regardless of social and economic background. To achieve this, cultural policy has to be based on the actual experiences and needs from the artists themselves.

Examples of recommendations and hearing answers we’ve written (mostly in Norwegian):

2024:

2023:

2022:

State budget:

UKS IN THE MEDIA

UKS works for the interests of artists, both in direct contact with public authorities and through a clear presence in the public debate. Society needs a solid infrastructure for the arts and ambitious support schemes that facilitate immersion, experimentation, innovation and long-term professional development. Press reports, articles, debate contributions and events help to shine a spotlight on artists’ needs and the position of art in society, and UKS is happy to take up the debate on behalf of artists.

RESSURSER

UKS has developed a collection of resources that are of use to artists, artist-run spaces and other art institutions.

Honorarium, contracts and remuneration: The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK) has collected resources (in Norwegian) on their website for standard contracts, guideline rates for honorarium and remuneration, and tips for accounting, taxes, business and sales.

MEMBER NEWSLETTER

Members of UKS can read about current matters, events and open calls and exhibition opportunities in the monthly member newsletter written by the board leader. If you’ve missed one of the last editions, you can find it underneath.

  • Member newsletter December (coming)
  • Member newsletter November (coming)
  • …

Organization

UKS’ political work is led by the Chair of the organisation, in collaboration with the board, the board’s working committee (consisting of the board leader, deputy leader and a board member) and the UKS staff. The board members are elected for two-year periods by the General Assembly, which is held annually in March. The General Assembly is UKS’ highest organ. According to its current bylaws, UKS has six board members and one Chair.

UKS’ bylaws, statement of principles, strategic plan, and action plan together form all the organisation’s activities. All members can take part in revising and changing these core documents at the General Assembly.

UKS Organisation structure

Underneath, you’ll find UKS’ organisational documents (all in Norwegian).

UKS Document hierarchy

UKS’ Board holds five regular meetings each year, and the minutes from these meetings are available for all members. The annual meeting plan of the Board suggests meetings be held in May/June, September, November/December, January and in February before the General Assembly, which is held in the first half of March. Please contact us if you want access to the minutes from a Board meeting: info@uks.no.

Next to the political work aimed at public authorities, UKS is an important voice in The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK). UKS is the biggest of NBK’s grassroot organisations, and our work has for example led to a reduction in the membership fee for new members of NBK under the age of 35 (the two first years of being a member), as well as an increased focus on climate and environmental issues.

We are stronger together. Membership in UKS grants automatic membership in NBK. For more information on how to become a member, visit our membership page here.

EXHIBITION SPACE

A well-functioning society recognises the worth of art as an expression, and thus accommodates a diversity of artistic expressions. UKS has had its own exhibition venue in Oslo since 1937, with the goal of creating experimental activity at a high international level, and a focus on contributing to the development of contemporary art and increasing its visibility. UKS is an important and professional link between young art and the large established art institutions in Norway, and UKS’ dissemination work helps to make contemporary art and the artistic profession accessible to more people.

UKS is an artist-run exhibition venue run by and for artists. This means that working, professional artists from the board jury the program with the solo exhibitions together with the director. UKS’ exhibition program is juried from our annual Open Call.

UKS Jury also juries the membership applications to UKS at each board meeting.

Projects

Here you can find more information about UKS’ main projects.

Climate and sustainability

In recent years, UKS has had climate and sustainability on its action plan. Climate has also been included in our ideal principles and has become an important part of UKS’ strategic plan for 2022-2026. In 2023, we held a series of workshops for elected officials in NBK’s grassroots organisations, which were also open to members. This resulted in the resource document Climate Agency of Artist Unions. UKS is planning and will hold a new series of workshops in 2025 that builds on this work.

UKS has also adopted a resolution to halt oil exploration, and was involved in proposing this for NBK’s national meeting in 2023. The artist organizations thus stand together with large unions such as Fagforbundet, NTL and Handel og kontor in demanding a new direction in oil politics. In the words of former Chair Steffen Håndlykken: “We simply see that we, and Norway, cannot afford to believe that the oil age will grow into eternity” (article in Norwegian).

Palestine

In 2024, the UKS annual meeting adopted a resolution in solidarity with Palestine. The resolution is based on the demands formulated by the Gjør Mer campaign and focuses on artistic freedom of expression and international solidarity. In addition, by the annual meeting in 2025, UKS will assess the effect and consequences for members of a cultural boycott of Israel until the illegal occupation of Palestine is over. UKS encourages the art field to show solidarity and cooperate with artists and institutions that work against war and occupation.

The studio situation

Artists, like everyone else, need a place to live and a place to work. Most artists have a studio as their workplace and their largest fixed expense. It is a public responsibility to facilitate good framework conditions for art and art production. UKS works to ensure that there are accessible studios with good, long-term leases for artists throughout the country.

UKS initiated the Studio Survey (Telemarksforsking, 2014) which documented precarious conditions for artists in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Tromsø. As an extension of the studio survey, UKS arranged “Boms eller protagonist?” in collaboration with Ida Madsen Følling and Ingrid Lønningdal, with a program on the 15th of August and a seminar on the 26th of August 2016. Visual artists in Oslo have an urgent need for the infrastructure for artistic production to be strengthened and developed in a long-term way. This is evident in the Norwegian Arts Council’s own mapping of Oslo’s cultural infrastructure from 2018. Improving the infrastructure for the city’s artists is also one of the main goals in the Oslo municipality’s art plan. UKS has collaborated with the Visual Artists of Oslo (BO) on petitions and input on the studio situation in the city, and also hosted a seminar on the studio situation with Oslo Open, VISP, BO and UKS in Oslo, in April 2023.

National survey on artists and the report on artists’ living conditions (kunstnermeldingen)

The report on artists’ living conditions was submitted to the Norwegian Parliament in June 2023, and with the title “Kunstnarkår” it points back to UKS in the 1970s. UKS commented on the report in Klassekampen and on kunstkritikk.no.

The artist report states that artists are falling through the cracks of many of the welfare state’s schemes, which became particularly evident during the pandemic. Ever since the Artists’ Action -74, UKS has demanded a social safety net that is adapted to a profession with long production cycles, low incomes and a patchwork economy. “Kunstnarkår” paints a picture of a Ministry of Culture that stands by its commitments, takes responsibility and makes amends. UKS expects the government to follow up on the report by prioritizing binding agreements on fees for public exhibitions, and that artists are allowed to take part in the social safety net.

This website uses cookies to give you the best experience of the site. By clicking “Accept” or by continuing to use the site, you agree to this use of cookies.