BYGGNADSANKNUTEN KONST I SKOLOR Brister och möjligheter i hanteringen av konst i efterkrigstidens skolor från ett kulturhistoriskt perspektiv

Abstract

Public art in the realm of Modern Cultural Heritage is a discussion which has become more prevalent in Sweden during the recent 15 years. With it a need for specific terminology arised, with the term ”Byggnadsanknuten konst”, i.e. architecturally integrated art, being the focus for this essay. The term specifically focuses on permanent or fixed pieces of art that mostly has been financed by the so called ”enprocentsregeln”, the one percent rule, which dictates that 1% of costs of publicly funded building projects should go to art. The rule came about in 1937, the same year as the Swedish Public Art Agency was founded. The question about how art should be handled in the Heritage Management field is not always clear, since owners and trustees of buildings and environments regularly change. The distinction between public, accessible environments and public non-accessible environments is also sometimes difficult to see. Not all public places (meaning environments built by public funding) are accessible to the broader public, which may lead to difficulties in prioritising the many public art pieces in Sweden. This essay has researched the prevalence of architecturally integrated art in post-war schools by reviewing four books about either public art or school architecture and built heritage surveys. The results of the review showed a general lack of mentioning schools as a place where art is, especially when it comes to post-war schools. Furthermore two works of art have been analysed with a cultural heritage valuing method published by the Swedish National Heritage Board in 2022 which is based on the built heritage valuing method but with a focus on architecturally integrated art. The works of art are Vindarnas saga (”The wind’s tale”) by Otte Sköld made between 1946-1951 in Västertorpsskolan and Zodiaken (”The Zodiac”) by Lars Wellton made in 1958 in Hässelbygårdsskolan, both in Stockholm suburbs. This was done with the intent of exploring the possibilities of school specific art acting as a clear representation and informant of cultural history.