Opening Doors
Opening Doors is PRAKSIS’ new youth programme, running from March 2026 to February 2029 in collaboration with Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm and PUBLICS in Helsinki.
In Oslo, the project continues through PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board, which gives young people paid opportunities to work critically and practically with contemporary art, institutions and public communication. The programme also includes Young Curators Mentorship, developed by PRAKSIS in collaboration with Nitja, which supports young people in gaining practical experience with curating, exhibition-making and institutional work.
The programme builds on the methods and relationships developed through Future Futures: Reaching Out, a three-year Erasmus+ project in which youth boards in Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki explored how art institutions communicate with publics. Opening Doors continues this collaboration with a renewed focus on access, language, institutional spaces and youth-led change.
Each year, youth advisory boards in Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki will work with a shared theme:
2026–2027: Language & Communication
2027–2028: Spaces & Access
2028–2029: Engagement Strategies
Through workshops, institutional visits, conversations with artists and cultural workers, transnational meetings and public activities, participants will examine how art institutions can become more accessible, responsive and relevant to young people.
The programme brings together 10 youth participants in each city per year. In Oslo, the project continues through PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board, which gives young people paid opportunities to work critically and practically with contemporary art, institutions and public communication.
This year’s board members are: Karmen Diep, Dominic Dolor, Malou Garnes, Patrick Habiyambere, Kaadinh-Khadija Lalla Jobarteh, Tobias Kalvik, Hassan Naqvi, Magdalena Tezak, Saga Unosen Dinh and Dua Yougil.
Planned results
Across the three years, Opening Doors will produce:
Annual Youth Access Index reports, presenting accessibility evaluations from Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki
Youth-led interventions in art institutions
Youth-to-youth outputs in formats chosen by the participants
Annual transnational youth meetings in Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki
Public events and institutional activities in each partner city
A final European synthesis report
An open-source toolkit for arts organisations working with youth access and participation
The outputs will be shared publicly and used by PRAKSIS, Index and PUBLICS as tools for developing youth-led approaches to access, communication and institutional change.
Timeline
In 2026–2027, the programme focuses on Language & Communication. Participants will look at how art institutions speak to and with young people, and how language can either open or close access to contemporary art. The year will include workshops, meetings with artists and institutions, local research and youth-led responses developed in each city.
In 2027–2028, the focus will be Spaces & Access. The boards will examine how institutional spaces are experienced by young people, including questions of welcome, visibility, navigation, social codes and practical barriers.
In 2028–2029, the focus will be Engagement Strategies. The final year will bring together the learning from the programme and develop practical tools, recommendations and public outputs that can support more meaningful youth engagement across the arts sector.
Opening Doors is coordinated by PRAKSIS in partnership with Index and PUBLICS. The project is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Youth programme.
