Sune Nordgren

SUNE NORDGREN
THE NEW MUSEUM ASTRUP FEARNLEY IN OSLO

2012 has been a great year for the arts in Oslo – and in Norway. The new museum at Tjuvholmen (Thieves’ Islet) with its expected “Astrup Fearnley effect” should change the art scene in Oslo. Some of the city’s best galleries have already moved out to be under its wings and more will follow. With its density and its attractiveness to also other creative industries, not to mention all side-effects such as cafés, restaurants and shops, it will establish this new part of the city in years to come as Oslo’s first “gallery district”. Similar developments have previously happened in several cities around Europe, where the arrival of a major art institution has become a new hub of the creative wheel: London’s Tate Modern is such an example, where previously derelict neighbourhoods around the old power station were revitalized, and today are jointly presented as “Better Bankside”.