The Cultural Rucksack

A National Programme for Arts and Culture in Norwegian Schools

The Cultural Rucksack is a national programme for arts and culture for all students in Norwegian primary and secondary schools, in other words for all students 6–19 years old. The programme has existed since 2001, and is regarded as extremely successful.

This report is a brief English-language version of the book Den kulturelle skolesekken [The Cultural Rucksack] (Breivik & Christophersen, 2013), which describes the research project and its findings. This presentation of the research project and its results and findings is, of course, very compact, and many details have been left out. The authors have chosen to focus on specific main points and on some significant perspectives and issues. Arts Council Norway took the initiative to have the book translated into English.