A summary of 2025

2025 marked our very first year of existence – and what a year it’s been! GRAC went from an idea in the shaping phase to a growing, confident, and yet humble cultural force. Slowly but surely, we’ve laid the groundwork for something that will last: we've raised funding, gained essential approvals, renovated our headquarters, hosted three residencies, expanded our network, and, most importantly, we made space for our values and ideas to develop together with others.

Residencies

This year we hosted three very different, very magical residencies:

CIR 25 / Curator in Residence: Hedda Grevle Ottesen spent the summer with us at the Odderøya lighthouse and delivered not just one, but two powerful group exhibitions, activating both our sculpture garden and Odderøya lighthouse.

Funding

An important focus has been to secure funding. It is important both for building the physical space that allows for GRACs activities, and for funding the actual residency activities. As 2025 being our very first year, we are very proud to present these numbers.

For GRAC's multipurpose space & infrastructure:

700,000 NOK from Kulturdirektoratet for renovations, infrastructure and accessability
352,000 NOK from Sør-fondet and a 50% deal with Strai Kjøkken to build our culinary art laboratory
1,000,000 NOK from Cultiva to develop a multifunctional sound system
50,000 NOK from Kulturrom for an acoustic feasibility study

For GRAC’s programming:

110,000 NOK in total from Kristiansand Kommune, Agder Fylkeskommune and Cultiva Ekspress for CIR 2025
300,000 NOK from Cultiva stiftelsen for monthly art film screenings in 2026
50,000 NOK from Agder Fylkeskommune for AIR / Artist in Residence 2026
120,000 NOK from Kulturdirektoratet for CIR / Curator in Residence 2026
20,000 NOK from Sørf for Møllesus, a concert series connected to AIR 2026

Renovations

In August, we finally received official permission to use our headquarters in the old mill. That meaning to start spending the funding from Kulturdirektoratet. Since then, it’s been all hands on deck:

Pretending to be professionals, we have:

Removed tons of metal piping and outdated electronics from ceiling and walls
Removed two actual rooms, opening up the space
Washed, washed and washed (!!)
Pressure-washed every corner, sanded and spray-painted the ceiling
Patched and sealed holes both floors and ceiling, for both isolation and security
Washed and sealed the cement and brick walls
Restored the color of the original floors (with a lot of love – and fillers)
Fixing our office / meeting room
Building up our workshop that will be accessible for artists

With actual professional help, we’ve:

Made our space fully wheelchair accessible
Replaced all lighting with energy-efficient systems and prepped future electricity needs
Replaced broken sewage pipes and connected to the city’s water network
Installed kitchen and storage plumbing
Installed the actual kitchen
Mounted a massive grease separator (so big we had to knock a hole in the floor and change the fire exit door)

We will make another renovation post diving more into the visual detail, and of course before/after images.

Utilizing our space

We have also been testing out how more people, groups and companies can benefit from our beautiful space. This is from when out HQ was tranformed to a photoshoot venue for a fashion brand.