Færder Municipality, welcome to ICORN!
On Thursday, August 18th, 2022, Færder Municipality, Norway, joined ICORN. The ICORN membership agreement was signed by Jon Sanness Andersen, the Mayor of Færder and Elisabeth Dyvik, ICORN’s Programme Director.
Færder Municipality, in the county of Vestfold and Telemark, was established in 2018, following the unification of former municipalities Tjøme and Nøtterøy. Situated on the southern end of the Oslo fjord, Færder benefits from both closeness to Norway’s capital and the country’s striking nature, encapsulated by the Færder National Park.
Several officials, including Municipal Director Laila Rognaldsen and Culture Advisor Vigdis Martin, attended the ceremony held in Tønsberg and Færder Library. Having signed the ICORN membership agreement, the Mayor of Færder Jon Sanness Andersen stressed the importance of the municipality’s responsibility as a new beacon for freedom of expression.
Uniquely the Tønsberg and Færder Library is the only such shared municipal library of its kind in Norway. This means that the ICORN residents in Tønsberg and Færder will have a shared working space in the library and will be working with the same ICORN coordinator Stine-Marie Schmedling who was also present at the signing ceremony. Celebrating this collaboration and the fact that there are now eight ICORN member municipalities in Vestfold and Telemark, Maja Foss Five, the County’s Cultural Committee Leader, expressed her pride in Færder’s decision to join ICORN, and underlined the recruitment of more local Cities of Refuge as a political priority.
Of the new addition to the network in the context of the global challenges to freedom of expression, human rights, and democracy, ICORN’s Programme Director Elisabeth Dyvik said:
‘Today we are going to celebrate Færder joining the ICORN network. I usually say that being a City of Refuge and inviting a writer, artist, or journalist every two years can seem like a drop in the ocean, but one person can change the world. After being threatened and persecuted for more than 30 years, Salman Rushdie was brutally stabbed last week. He is a champion of freedom of expression who sowed the seeds from which ICORN originated. So, when Færder starts working to invite a persecuted writer or artist, it is with the knowledge of how important this work is and that every voice counts.’
The rest of the network and the ICORN Secretariat look forward to working with Færder municipality in advancing free expression, democracy, and human rights locally and beyond.
