Creating space for dialogue, risk, and responsibility in TYA
Across the performing arts for young audiences, questions of care, responsibility and artistic freedom feel increasingly urgent. Children and young people are growing up in a time marked by social fragmentation, political polarisation and heightened exposure to complex and often conflicting narratives. At the same time, artists are increasingly expected to address sensitive themes, while ensuring that young audiences feel recognised, respected and able to engage.
In this context, care cannot be reduced to protection or comfort alone. It must be understood as an active and negotiated artistic practice, one that involves responsibility, risk, listening and, at times, friction. For artists working with young audiences, questions of care are inseparable from questions of power, form and artistic choice.
In August 2026, ASSITEJ Norway hosts TYAOslo26: Spaces of Care, a week-long residency inviting professional artists to explore care as an artistic, ethical and spatial practice in Theatre and Performing Arts for Young Audiences. The residency asks how care shapes artistic processes and encounters, and how responsibility and artistic provocation can coexist without neutralising one another.
TYAOslo26 is an open call for artists working with and for young audiences in the Nordic-Baltic region, developed in close collaboration with the Nordic-Baltic ASSITEJ Network. While this year’s residency is regionally rooted, we hope the theme will resonate far beyond it, opening up a wider dialogue within the ASSITEJ network about how we create courageous artistic spaces for children and young people today.
The residency is led by Vigdís Jakobsdóttir, a highly regarded performing arts practitioner and cultural leader whose work spans directing, facilitation and artistic research. Her practice is deeply engaged with how artistic encounters are shaped, with a strong focus on ethics, access and the responsibilities artists hold when working with young audiences. She is known for creating working spaces where complex questions can be explored through artistic practice and shared reflection.
We warmly invite colleagues across the ASSITEJ network to follow, share and engage in this ongoing conversation on care as a vital question for the future of performing arts for young audiences.
Applications will close Sunday 12th of March 2026.
