New principal after stormy racism scandal: "Nothing is solved"

- The situation that was last year has at the moment subsided.

A lot because we have discussed at school and started committees.

But nothing is solved, there is still a lot to do, says Markus Degerman.

Debates about racism and diversity have been held at several art academies in the Nordic countries.

In Oslo, the debate became so infected that the principal resigned and moved home to Sweden.

It all started in the summer of 2020 when the Black lives matter movement spread to the art world in the US and on to other countries.

At the Oslo Academy of the Arts (Khio), students and doctoral students wrote open letters in which they wanted the school to address "structural racism" within the department.

The principal responded politely, but soon received harsh criticism from another group of students.

The principal resigned due to the debate

The five students who wrote the next debate post said that the school's teaching was being replaced by "identity politics" and that the school was engaged in "indoctrination".

Instead, they wanted to see more focus on arts and crafts.

The students were also critical of the principal Måns Wrange.

After a while, he resigned voluntarily, partly due to the heated debate.

Now Markus Degerman takes over as principal after the turbulent time.

Some wanted to see more diversity work, others less.

How do you relate to the very different wishes and groupings?

- It's incredibly difficult.

But that we should have diversity work is not a discussion.

And then you can understand the different sides, those who were against probably turned more towards

you work with diversity.

There was a lot of controversy, both sides were screwed.

Markus Degerman believes that the way forward is to meet, try to understand and talk to each other.

He also believes that the pandemic diluted the conflicts and contributed to misunderstandings.

No documentation - no surveys have been made

At the same time, the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo has not itself investigated whether discrimination occurs within the department.

As far as Markus Degerman knows, no investigations or surveys have been carried out.

Now he hopes to be able to get a survey of, and if so what, problems that may exist with discrimination at school.

- It can be good to have an overview of the terrain before you go out on it, it was a step that was missing in the debate, he says.