From the left: Annika Borg, Barbro M. Tiller and Merete Morgenstierne during a house meeting at LKV. All three have played an important part in the development of LKV.

When the new concert hall, Olavshallen, was built next door to Avant Garden, all leasing ceased and the Avant Garden artists had to look for alternative studios. When the municipality also decided to sell Bakke Gård, even more artists found themselves without a suitable place to work. There were protests and after a while attempts were made to find collective solutions.)

A dialogue between the mayor, the head of the culture division and the artists, set off a process that lead to a search for alternative premises. Alongside this search, a group of artists met informally to discuss what kind of place and what kind of organization they were after. What finally took shape was the idea of a building for artists with studios, common facilities and guest apartments.

In 1992 the building that had once housed Lademoen Primary School had been vacated. Representatives for the artists were invited by the municipality to find out whether the premises suited their needs. The artists responded positively and the process of transforming the building started. As soon as the municipality had provided infrastructure for water, electricity etc., a committee treated applications from interested artists.
During the summer of 1993 the first tenants moved into the building.

The First Years
The tenants did most of the subsequent remodelling. With great enthusiasm they started changing the building to make it suit their purposes. Along with the practical work, a continual discussion took place concerning the aims and guidelines of the new creation.
In the first half of the 90s, the house profited a great deal from the contribution of young unemployed people in temporary occupations as handymen and administrators, paid by the municipality and the city’s Employment Office.

House Management From 1993 till 1999
LKV was organized as a society of tenants with a board called Husråd, elected by the annual General Assembly. Frequent tenant meetings featuring prolonged discussions secured a democratic, albeit slow, development.
In 1999, to improve the co-operation with an often impatient municipality, the tenants created the foundation Stiftelsen LKV, which took over the responsibility for all equipment, the workshops and the guest artist program. As a result of the reorganisation, LKV received a municipal contribution to running the house, enabling LKV to employ a manager in a 50% post.

Public Contributions to Investments
Applying for funding started immediately. The tenants made lists of equipment needed in the workshops adding up to a total cost of about NOK 6 million. Even if the first requests did not fetch much money, the lists formed a useful basis for applications and investments over the next 7-8 years.

The money granted by local and central authorities has been used for costly equipment in the common workshops, enabling the tenants to work with various techniques at the same time. The workshops as well as the two large project rooms are available to all tenants. For a modest fee they may also be rented by other professional artists.

Artist-in-Residence
From the very start the idea of an artist-in-residence program has been an important part of LKV’s vision, encouraging exchange of impulses and ideas. The cost of the guest artist’s studio and apartment is covered by the municipality and the county. The guest covers her or his travelling and living expenses. In 1999 and 2000 LKV was represented in a selection of studios offered by NIFCA (Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art) and from 1999 LKV has been a member of ResArtis, an international organisation of some 130 institutions offering guest studios in many countries. To ensure that third world artists get a fair chance to profit from LKV’s offer, an agreement has been made with Unesco-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists. Artists from developing countries have all travelling expenses covered by the Bursaries and other expenses covered by the municipality.

In addition to offering new travelling possibilities to artists from developing countries, the system offers artists in Trondheim impulses from cultures with radically different attitudes towards art. In the period 1996-2003, 77 artists from 21 countries have had shorter or longer stays at LKV. (The list of guest artists is reproduced in the 10 year anniversary catalogue in the Norwegian introduction under the heading Gjestekunstnere 1996-2003).

Total Output and Spin-Offs
In connection with the anniversary, a questionnaire was distributed to make a survey of the activity at LKV during these ten years. 35 out of 88 responded, supplying the following facts:
- About 210 individual exhibitions have been produced
- 95 public art commissions have been executed
- Tenants have contributed with works to about 732 group exhibitions.
In addition, tenants have been involved in numerous other fields such as art politics, consulting, teaching and film production. One difficulty, however, is to prove the significance, economically and otherwise, of the activities at LKV, for the city and for the region. Hopefully, this task may one day become the focus of interest of a postgraduate student or a researcher.

Knowing that producing each of the 210 single separate exhibitions, for instance, costs an average of 60.000,- (a very moderate estimate), including materials and services bought, it seems fair to conclude that LKV’s artistic activity represents a substantial value for the trade and industry of the region.