The other day, as I was walking home at the end of the workday with my head full of thoughts about the financial situation of the Royal Institute of Art (also known as Mejan), I was greeted by this sign [above picture] – temporarily installed on Strömgatan with the Riksdag building and the castle looming in the background.
Who had placed it there? I wondered. Was it a Trump-like strategy by the government or a frustrated Vice-Chancellor or Professor who had seen budgets devalued over the years and now realized that rising rents, inflation and energy prices are reducing the budgets for education and research even more? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter, but whoever put it there has a point.
It made me wonder why funding for education has devalued so rapidly in recent years and why a larger portion of budgets are now being eaten up by rising rents in often state-owned buildings. Why move state finances from one fund to another and thereby create poorer conditions for education and research when the government’s goal is to create excellence, innovation and internationalization in education and research?
I know that we are in the midst of a global crisis and even a recession in Sweden, and that everyone in society is affected by this in one way or another. But undermining education financially does not seem to me to be a wise response if your goal is to strengthen education and research in Swedish society as a whole. Perhaps artistic education would not be at the top of everyone’s priority list if further means were to be directed to the educational area. If any area of education would be prioritized, it would probably be the so-called STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Yet in recent times, an A for Art has found its way into the acronym, resulting in STEAM – adding art as a fifth element to science, adding the force of creativity as an innovative driver and inspirer.
Art education has otherwise been part of the innovation in Swedish society since 1735, when Carl Gustav Tessin established the first (fine) art education in connection with the construction of Stockholm Castle. The purpose of the program was to teach drawing in order to create architectural, sculptural and painterly elements and ornaments for the Royal Palace. The inspiration was initially the French Royal Academy and was an expression of the Swedish monarch’s desire to have a national production of art and architecture in Sweden and therefore needed to train and educate artists and architects. By cultivating Swedish art and architecture, the monarchy strengthened its self-esteem in this far northern country and increased its importance in Europe as a cultural and political center in the Nordic region. In modern terms, it was part of a branding project, but also a development project that created a quite literal aesthetic and cultural framework that can be experienced to this day when walking along Strömgatan, where the sign is installed. This 300-year-old branding project also defined the beginning of modern Swedish art and architecture history.
The Royal Institute of Art (RIA) is the direct successor of the first royal art school, which later became the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. RIA has been a state institution since 1978 and still aims to educate art in today’s open democratic society. RIA is located on Skeppsholmen, next to other state governmental institutions working with contemporary art and culture and is thus also part of a cultural environment in the city center. Since moving to Skeppsholmen in the mid-1990s, however, the space for education has become much smaller. Lease after lease has been terminated to save money, and this will continue in the coming years. Space is crucial for art education. Like all other types of art education, it requires specific educational infrastructures from sculpture and painting halls and studios, to specialized workshops from printmaking and editing rooms to 3D and more. The limitation of space is also the limitation of education, as art education is mostly material and practice-based, and the one thing it requires the most is space to execute artworks. Giving up not only space but also teaching capacity to pay the ever-increasing rent will slowly but surely undermine the quality of art education and artistic research.
As politicians continue to discuss education and research politics, don’t forget that art and architecture have always helped to create and renew society, in addition to having a great symbolic value in society just by being there.
– Sanne Kofod Olsen, November 6, 2023