The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) is no ordinary institution. It is a creative meeting place of varied disciplines in the arts – from the stage to the studios and workshops. It is an academy where the personal as well as the collective expression is explored and tested. It functions as a laboratory for skills and competence crossing ordinary professional borders. We wish it to be demanding, exciting and rewarding to study and work at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

The Academy was established in 1996 through the amalgamation of five independent colleges – the colleges of art and crafts, theatre, ballet, opera and the academy of fine arts. These former colleges are now organised in three faculties: Faculty of Design, Faculty of Performing Arts and Faculty of Visual Arts.

The Oslo National Academy of the Arts has so far been housed in several buildings in Oslo. As of the summer of 2003, the Faculty of Performing Arts was moved to the new campus at the old textile plant Seilduken at Grünerløkka in central Oslo. In the summer of 2008, the remaining faculties will join. This will be an extraordinary campus situated by the dramatic waterfall of the Akerselva, an industrial river that gave power to the industrial development of the city in the 19th century.

On the new campus, we will have 40.000 sq.m to our disposal, certainly one of the most advanced and well equipped art schools in Europe. It will be a place well suited for us to invite students and teachers in from other countries. We wish to be hospitable, and are eager to develop dynamic relationships with other educational institutions all over the world.

Peter Butenschøn
Former Rector