Tromsø Kunstforening Faces Potential Sale of Historic Muségata 2 Building

Key facts

• Tromsø Kunstforening has been located at Muségata 2 since 1981 but has been temporarily housed at the old Hvilhaug sykehjem for the past three years due to renovation needs.
• Muségata 2 was designed for Tromsø Museum and completed in 1894; after the museum moved out in 1961, artists occupied it, saving it from demolition and creating a self-organized cultural house.
• The municipal executive committee is considering selling the property, but the building requires extensive rehabilitation, and the municipality faces a budget deficit of hundreds of millions and nearly 13 billion in debt.
• In August, Tromsø kommune was placed on the Robek register, meaning the state, via the County Governor, takes over responsibility for the municipality's financial decisions.
• Camilla Fagerli, artistic and daily director of Tromsø Kunstforening, wants the municipality to explore possibilities within a new national strategy for cultural venues before discussing a sale.
• Tromsø kommune is invited to provide input to the national strategy by October 1, which will examine better maintenance of existing cultural buildings, more predictable financing, and improved collaboration between state, county, and municipal actors.
• Thomas Birkeland, chair of the municipal committee for environment, sports, culture, and community development, says the case has not yet been formally processed and cannot be commented on until documents are available.
• In 2019, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway was interested in buying Muségata 2, and earlier this year, the municipality and UiT began talks about shared ownership; Fagerli notes ongoing collaborations but sees challenges in shared operation due to organizational differences.