Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Design: Kyrre Kalseth)

The Små Spor exhibition travels abroad.

The exhibition Små Spor aims to spread the word about north norwegian arquitecture not only in northern Norway but abroad as well. We have been invited to show it at the cuban center for design, architecture and urbanism in Havana.
We are extremely happy to have been giving this possibility and we hope this is just the first step of a long international journey.

(Photo: Dirección de Patrimonio Cultural: http://www.ohch.cu)   

    

The exhibition "Små SPor" put their mark abroad, first stop was Havana.

In connection with the opening took Michele Renee Widerøe the audience on a virtual trip to northern Norway using "Små Spor". Students, architects, designers, tourists and local neighbors attended the opening. The interest shown in the northern norwegian architecture is stunning. We can´t wait to continue spreading the word in other countries.

                                        (Photo: Michele R. Widerøe)      

Travel grants from the Norwegian foreigner department.

For the second time the Norwegian foreign department has given us a travel grant to support the promulgation of Norwegian design and architecture in Cuba.
After our first lecture on contemporary Norwegian design at the Center for the Promotion of Design and Architecture in Havana, we were invited to present our Små Spor exhibition this year. The exhibition was a success and although Cuba is the first country it visits outside Norway, I hope it will not be the last.
We acknowledge the support given us by Norsk Form and hope these ties will be strengthened in the future.

Norsk Form travel grants for designers and architects

On tour. Part 4

Små Spor visits Stockmarknes in beautiful Vesterålen

Små Spor exhibition is visiting Gallery Apotheket in September and October.

You can read more about it at: Små Spor in Facebook

A week ago opened Små Spor at Gallery Apotheket in Stokmarknes. 

Gøril Lilleng opened the exhibition and Marianne Strand read her poem. Since then the gallery has had many visitors, but we are specially happy to know that so many children find Små Spor interesting and inspiring. We would like to thank Jorunn Fjellanger, for her enthusiasm on bringing the exhibition to Vesterålen.

(foto: Camilla Bjørk)

Små Spor bok on sale in Norway

We are proud to announce that the Små Spor book is now been sold at the bookstore of the National Museum  of Art, Design and Architecture of Norway (Oslo).

(foto: http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no)

We are also very happy to be selling at Visit Tromsø, the local tourist information office.

 

(foto: Michele Widerøe)

There is also possible to buy the book by contacting:

Michele R. Widerøe

phone: +47 908 908 89

e-mail: michelewi35@gmail.com

Price: NOK 200,00

Små Spor in Danish bookstore

We can now, for the first time, buy the Små Spor in a bookstore.

The Dansk Arkitektur Center bookshop is now selling Små Spor. This bookshop is the largest specializing in architecture in Scandinavia today, and we are extremely happy to be working with them.
We thank the bookshop manager David Kreutzer for the opportunity.

On tour. Part 3

Små Spor visits Bodø

Små Spor exhibition is visiting Bodø Kunstforening in April and May

The exhibition has been sponsed by the local Husbanken!

Sailing along the northern coast

Små Spor is now sailing at the coastal express (Hurtigruten) MS Nordnorge.

Små Spor has been invited to be on board this northern costal express ship during the Northern Lights Festival. My dream is to exhibit Små Spor at all coastal express ships in Norway permanently.

(foto: Michele Widerøe)

More information about the Northern Lights Festival in the costal express:
http://www.hurtigruten.no/norskekysten/korte-reiser/spesialseilinger/nordlysfestivalen/

Visiting the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø

 

I am very happy to have been invited to present The Små Spor exhibition at the Arctic Frontiers conference last night. I had the possibility to get in touch with a lot of interesting people and tell them about this project. I am very grateful to Reinhold Friele, manager of Arctic Frontiers, for his open mindedness in inviting an architecture exhibition to this conference.

(foto: Erik Widerøe)

On tour. Part 2.

The second place Små Spor will be visiting is The Museum for Northern Peoples:

(Foto: Ørjan Bertelsen)

"The Museum for Northern Peoples is a newly-established museum which opened in July 2011. The museum documents and communicates aspects of the culture of the northern people as well as regional Sami culture and history. The cultural aspects of the northern peoples are communicated by temporary exhibitions, whilst regional Sami culture and history is presented in a permanent exhibition. The temporary exhibition rooms will be dedicated to artists from the circumpolar areas or exhibitions relating to topics concerned with northern peoples." (http://www.senterfornordligefolk.no)

 ____________________

The opening:

Små Spor has just arrived at the Center for Northern People on January 2013. This center is located on the same municipality as another of the architectural "beads" shown in the exhibition. This municipality has also sponsered the exhibition and will like to show it in one of the best museums in the area. 

 (Foto: Erik Widerøe)

and a film: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGjFcB1PGE

and in the news:

http://www.framtidinord.no/kultur/article6944309.ece

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

"Små Spor" the catalog

For orders please send an email to michelewi35@gmail.com
Prices: 200 kr for one
150 kr for several

Click here to see the digital edition:
http://issuu.com/michelereneewideroe/docs/sm__spor_bok

Some pictures from the book launch last friday:

Both my mentor and the North Norwegian society of architects gave a speech that evening.

Små Spor for Kids

Creating an educational plan for Små Spor

 The Små Spor exhibition was shown today at the Institute for Children Education in Tromsø. Together with Kari Doseth Opstad (Senior Lecturer in arts and crafts) and her students, we will create an educational plan for Små Spor. The goal is to use the exhibition as a tool to awaken children´s curiosity on architecture. This is part of a larger project about making architects (and designers) more known in our region.

(foto: Kari D. Opstad, Michele Widerøe)

The students are beginning to test some of their ideas:

(foto:Michele Widerøe)

 

This time they invited a group of children from Bjerkaker school to test one of their concepts.
The idea was to show to the kids the video Små Spor and talk to them about  architecture. Then the children could choose a project from Små Spor and try to make a modell out of it. I was very happy to see how interested and dedicated both the students and the children were. I can´t wait to see the other projects!

 

Exams

Las week I was invited to observe the presentation of exams the students gave on “Små Spor”. There were 3 groups in all. Each group presented a suggestion on how they think Små Spor can be used to teach children and youngster about architecture.

I was happy to see how they  use their creativity to teach architecture in a practical and fun way.

Små Spor is all about presenting local projects to local people. It is important that children learn how to look for architectural qualities in their own communities and not only in the big cities.

By learning  more about good architecture projects in their communities children will appreciate it better and hopefully they will take better care of it.

(foto: Kari Doseth)

Letters of recomendation

The exhibition Små Spor has now endend its period ( 15.june-19. August) at the Tromsø Gallery of Contemporary Art. There were 2010 persons visiting the exhibition during this period. I am very gratefull for all the positiv comments from the visitors as well as from the gallery. We are very pleased with the way we have collaborated with the gallery on this project. I hope this is just the first of many years of collaboration.

We have also received this letter of recomendation from the Art faculty at the Tromsø University. We thank you for such a warm letter about our exhibition.

This is a very nice comment left in our facebook page by the Dean of The Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tromsø.

I am very glad to share another letter commenting the exhibition. This time from Erling Steenstrup, advisor at Tromsø Municipality.

On tour. Part 1.

The Små Spor Exhibition will be touring the northern part of Norway. 

The first place will be The Hamsun Center in Hamarøy on September 1st. 2012. This center is one of the architectural "beads" shown in the exhibition and is therefore very satisfying that they want to host the exhibition.

 (Foto: Ernest Furuhatt, Nordlandsmuseet)

"The Hamsun Centre is located by the vicarage ruins on the banks of the Glimma River in Presteid in Hamarøy Municipality in Northern Norway. The centre is situated in a beautiful cultural landscape surrounded by nature that remains virtually as untouched as it was in Hamsun’s time. The centre’s tower offers an impressive view over the realm of Hamsun, the area that inspired the author to write such world renowned books as Pan, Growth of the Soil and Wayfarers." (http://hamsunsenteret.no)

The opening:

 

_______________________________

We have just received this letter from the center:

 

Photos of the exhibition:

These pictures were taken at the Tromsø Galleri of  Contemporary Art.

They show all the elements of this exhibition.

and a video...

Launching Små Spor for the first time

Installing the exhibition!

We were two days at the Kusntforening testing and preparing for the exhibition. The first Øyvind Oppshaug, who is the film producer in charge of the multimedia presentation, and I went to check that worked as it whould.  On the second day (see photos) Kyrre Kalseth, who not only was in charge of the graphics but also designed the stand for the postcards, went to prepare the rest before the media came.

 (photo: Michele Widerøe)

In the media:

Joar Lillerust (leder of the North Norwegian Architect association)  and I were interviewed by the local newspaper iTromsø and by the regional newspaper Nordlys. The day before I was also interviewed by Hege Iren Hanssen from the local radio station NRK P1-P2.

(photo: Nordlys & iTromsø newspapers)

The opening!

(photo: Erik Widerøe)

 The director of the Tromsø Gallery of Contemporary Art, Svein Ingvoll Pedersen opened this Summer 2012  exhibition by presenting the three exhibitions that will be at the gallery all summer. These are: Norwegian Contemporary Architecture 2005-2010 (SPOR): produced and toured by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, the artist Marius Martinussen a well know airbrush painter from Oslo, and Små Spor, North Norwegian Architectural Gems (produced by Michele Widerøe). Later I had the opportunity to present the idea behind Små Spor exhibition. 

(photo: Michele Widerøe)

Thanks! 

I would like to thank all the persons and institutions that made possible this exhibition. I couldn´t have done it without you. 

 

About the exhibition Små Spor (small tracks)

The Norwegian Architects Association had its 100th anniversary last year and the local architects association NAF has held a series of events focusing on architecture and landscape architecture in the region.

Among the events held we can mention the "Landscapes in Change” conference, the "Seaside Promenade” cultural trek, the "Open House” event, the "Film + Architecture” event, the "Spire Box”, the "Pecha Kucha Night” architecture lecture and the architecture exhibition "Where is Tromsø going".

The events have created interest and debate in the city's population. They have also helped to awaken, to some extent, Tromsø´s awareness of urban planning and the importance of participation.

It is desirable that the commitment, awareness and knowledge of architecture does not disappear after last year's many celebrations, and that a good level of debate on architecture becomes the sequel to them.

We use the opportunity of the architecture exhibition "SPOR. Norwegian Architecture 2005-2010", which presents a selection of the best that Norwegian architects have produced in the past 5 years, and that only shows two projects from northern Norway, to show more local projects. "Små Spor" (small tracks) wants to help keep alive much of what has occurred through the NAL 100-year anniversary. Through this exhibition we want to create a lasting and more competent commitment to architecture / landscape architecture in Tromsø.

The exhibition shows arquitectural qualities in the North, small " pearls " from all over northern Norway.
The exhibition consist of a multimedia presentation that shows the map and pictures of the projects. A stand with 30 postcards (15 in english and 15 in norwegian) that show the picture of the projects on the front and the description in the back. There is also  a poem writting by a north norwegian writer on one of the walls.

Featured Projects:

Passive House, Tromsø (Steinsvik arkitekter) Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2007

Sykkelskur, Austvågøy (70°N arkitektur as) Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2008

Rasteplass, Vestvågøy (70°N arkitektur as)  Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2008

Ungdomshuset Straumanstua, Kleppstad (Jarmund / Vigsnæs AS Arkitekter) Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2009

Hamsum Senter, Hamarøy (Steven Holl architects) Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2010

Lofoten Kulturhus og Thon Hotell, Svolvær (A3 arkitekter) Nordnorsk arkitekturpris 2011

Strandgata 22, Tromsø (Code: arkitekter).

Helleristinger, Kirkely (Kjersti Jenssen Arkitektkontor)

Parkeringstunt, Bodø (flere arkitekter)

Verdens minste Hotell, Kirkenes (Rintala Eggertsson architects)

Vulkana, Tromsø (Rintala Eggertsson architects)

Sabetjohk bru, Birtavarre (Ghilardi+Hellsten Arkitekter)

Sol og Vindhus, Trondenes (Arkitekt Jim Myrstad as)

Åpne Tanker, Hammerfest (arkitekter: Ingrid Neeraas Dahl og Christoffer Imislund)

Fuglekikkerskjul og vindskjul, Hornøya (arkitekter: Tormod Amundsen og Elin Taranger)

Production:

The exhibition is produced and curated by Michele R. Widerøe in cooperation with The Northern Norwegian Architects Association.

Graphic design: Kyrre Kalseth

Animation: Øyvind Oppshaug

Poem: Marianne Strand

Music: Kohib (aka Øivind A. Sjøvoll)
Duration: 17min

Sponsored by!

Troms Fylkesmommune, Nordlands Fylkeskommune, NAL, NAF, Kåfjord municipality, INTRO fond, Varanger Næringssenter, Odd Berg Gruppen, Total Renovering, 70°N arkitektur, A3 arkitektkontor.

Some words from our sponsors!