Tou Scene's Purpose
Tou Scene shall be a centre for contemporary art.

By contemporary art we mean music, visual art, film, stage art, performance art, architecture, text, new media, hybrid forms and art which falls outside of conventional definitions.

Tou Scene shall present to its audience a continuous program of a high quality.

Tou Scene shall be a meeting place for creative industry, for example by leasing out spaces for artists and businesses within the culture sector.
Tou Scene's profile
What do we mean by a "Centre for Contemporary Art"?
We wanted to come up with some definitions that do not set up unnecessary boundaries but rather are open to flux and development, hence we arrived at the following set of key words:

Contemporary art - Focusing on the non-established, experimental, current (cutting edge) and young: art which is work in progress and not already branded or canonised by the art and media markets.

Scenarios - To cultivate presentation forms that encourage connections and contexts, meetings, creative collisions and innovative scenarios.

Arena - To lease out spaces for artists and creative business. By locating these into different wings, the aim is to develop shared resources and structures for collaboration, aiming towards the establishment of an industry park for creative business and cultural enterprise.

Ideas - Stimulating debate and exchange of ideas between artists and other social groups.

Society - To play an active role in urban regeneration and development, to serve the people in the city and the inhabitants of Stavanger´s East End: people of all ages, from all walks of life and from diverse cultural backgrounds.

International - To exchange knowledge, experience and processes between international/national players and the local milieu.

Organisation - Tou Scene is a living network (a rhizome) that shall evolve without unnecessary bureaucracy or hierarchies.

Collaboration - To collaborate with independent artists, curators, producers, promoters, public organisations and culture agencies, festivals, educational institutions, national and international production networks and networks for the regeneration/conversion of industrial sites into culture. To develop long-term partnerships between art and commerce.