Call for applications from libraries 2018-19: Ready, steady, debate!

June 29 2018

Fritt Ord invites applications for grants of NOK 60 000 each for communications activities and discussions based on contemporary factual prose and fiction. For example, funding can be used for debates, seminars, talks with writers or discussion fora.

In recent years, libraries have taken on a whole new role as an arena for public discussions and debates by offering venues for events. Which new topics of debate can the libraries bring into the public space? Which relevant publications and authorships have the potential to capture the interest of a wide audience? Which topics of debate are of concern to young people today? Are there new forms of arrangements that inspire audiences to engage in dialogue and conflicts of opinion?

Applications are invited from public libraries, or from individuals or organisations that have an event agreement with a library. Applications for funding may refer to individual events or for series of events. The initiatives should be carried out in autumn 2018 or in 2019. Applicants are asked to draft a project outline that explains the theme, activities and time frame. Please attach a budget and funding plan.

Through this call for applications, the Fritt Ord Foundation seeks to encourage activities that will promote literature and strengthen public libraries as communications arenas. Applications should be submitted using the form on the website, see www.frittord.no and choose ‘Applications Centre’. Mark your submission “Ready, steady, debate!” in the title field.

Deadline for applications: 29 June 2018.

Contact: Oskar Kvasnes, Fritt Ord: Tel. +47 230 14644
Email: oskar@frittord.no

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.