"Diversity" s mentioned 246 times in the budget proposal, but it is not reflected in the figures..

The government's proposal for next year's national budget does not meet the challenges of the cultural sector. Efforts for diversity and equality are described as prioritized cultural initiatives and as key goals for cultural policy in the national budget. The government claims that it will:

• Support an open, diverse, and varied arts and cultural life that is for everyone.
• Reduce social inequalities and provide equal opportunities for participation.
• Facilitate access to art and culture throughout the country.
• Ensure jobs and secure working conditions in the arts and culture sector. We do not see this being followed up in the budget and the figures.

Samspill requests an increase in operational funding to 2 million Norwegian kroner.

Samspill works broadly and achieves many results, but has very minimal resources for its work. We believe that funds should be reallocated to an organization that truly strengthens diversity, in line with the government's goals and objectives for 2025.

"Children and youth," "participation," and "volunteering" are terms that recur in the budget proposal, as well as in current funding schemes and political action plans. The concepts that have been forgotten are "role models" and "inspirations." For how can we reach new groups of children and youth and increase participation if everything is to be based on the same actors as before, on volunteering, and done according to the same model we have always used? Samspill highlights role models, the professional artists who present and represent a wide range of cultural expressions from different parts of the world, allowing children to see themselves reflected in what is happening on stage.

To truly support an open, inclusive, and diverse cultural life, the actors working directly with this should be strengthened – structurally through organizations that work directly with the performers. We believe this should happen through long-term capacity building and guidance, so that the performers learn how the cultural sector functions in Norway, and by creating direct contact between the performers and the other music communities. There are few organizations that have contributed more to cultural diversity in practice per krone in operational funding than Samspill. We therefore request an increase in operational funding of 2 million Norwegian kroner, so that we can do more of what truly makes a difference:

• Highlight a diversity of strong voices and clear role models in the music scene and for multicultural Norway.
• Guide, train, and promote highly qualified musicians in the independent field. 
• Ensure children's concerts where performers present music from different cultures that students can relate to.
• Initiate collaboration with actors within a range of different music genres, such as traditional music, jazz, classical, contemporary, etc., to increase the diversity in programming.
• Contribute to increasing knowledge and interest in traditional music from around the world in Norway.
• Ensure better contact between organizations, institutions, organizers, and the voluntary sector for a richer cultural life for all.
• Further develop the "Søkerreisen" pilot with various funding schemes; where we examine why so few of the multicultural voices are represented in the allocations.

“– equal opportunities for participation"