NGOs holds an important role in Norwegian cultural policy. It is somewhat difficult to define what organisations that might be characterized as NGOs since most cultural organisations are independent organisations receiving public funding from one or several governmental levels.
The voluntary cultural sector in Norway consists of a wide range of organisations where the activities include performing activities (choirs, bands, amateur theatres, folk dance etc.), promoting activities (jazz clubs, live organisations, art societies, film clubs etc.), and heritage activities (historic societies, folk art and craft associations, antique vehicle associations etc.). Some of these organisations are most occupied with serving the activity for their members, others are working close with an audience or a local community, while some work mostly political. Nevertheless, all of them to some extent influence the cultural policy decisions.
There is further a strong tradition for artists unions in Norway and most Norwegian artists holds a membership in one or several such organisations. These organisations have also influenced cultural policy decisions quite heavily, a practice often referred to as corporatism1.
1https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286632.2015.1084297 / https://www.idunn.no/doi/pdf/10.18261/ISSN2000-8325-2015-01-04
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