#Debatt på Barnekunstmuseet 19.3.2026 – “Barnas kulturarv – den glemte arven”

You are cordially invited to an open debate at The International Museum of Children’s Art.

Norway is currently at risk of dismantling its primary sentinel for children’s visual freedom of expression—a mandate enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. For over 40 years, The International Museum of Children’s Art has curated children’s own depictions of the world. These are not merely drawings; they constitute a global archive of human experience, documented through a “bottom-up” perspective. From the climate crisis and armed conflict to the COVID-19 pandemic, familial displacement, public health crises like AIDS and tuberculosis, and children’s aspirations for the future.

When the Ministry of Culture and Equality abruptly, and without prior dialogue, “zeroed out” the museum’s funding in the 2026 State Budget (Chapter 328, Item 78), it raised fundamental questions:

It is a profound paradox. How can a government platform promising “Security for Children and Youth” and “Art for All”—aiming to provide every child with the opportunity to learn, participate, and flourish—commence the year 2026 by defunding the only institution dedicated exclusively to children’s own voices? Are children’s perspectives inherently less valuable than those of adults?

The contradiction is striking. While this year’s cultural budget increased by NOK 1.2 billion, the government chose to eliminate support for a unique national institution with a single keystroke. We allocate billions to preserve adult art, culture, and history. Why, then, do we accept that children’s visual expressions and contemporary history remain a “forgotten legacy” excluded from the national budget? The prevailing paradigm of cultural dissemination to children is “top-down,” where adults define the premises. The Museum of Children’s Art is the only national actor that reverses this dynamic: we facilitate a “bottom-up” approach, where the child is the subject and the primary architect of their own narrative.

The Museum of Children’s Art is more than a museum. We are an inclusive and diverse arena dedicated to the collection, dissemination, and preservation of heritage created by youth aged 2–18. It is one of the few spaces where these expressions are not filtered, appraised, or translated by adults, but respected in their original form. Here, children who often remain on the margins—the quiet, the vulnerable, the victims of bullying, and those without resource-rich advocates—find a place in the public sphere. A place in democracy.

We invite policymakers, cultural practitioners, friends of the museum, patrons, and the general public to discuss how we can ensure that children’s voices remain a permanent and integral part of our collective cultural heritage.