ANGELS NORWAY'S ANVILS : ALARMING SADNESS ESSAY

OSLO : ALARMING : Trove of global '' youth art '' may lose its home. Norwegian government pulls support for a museum that's ' a world of wonder.'

On the walls of International Museum of Children's Art in Oslo are drawings made by Afghan girls at a clandestine school, by Ukrainian children at an art center, that was destroyed by war, and by kids around the world during the Covid pandemic.

Some of the many sketches, paintings and sculptures on display are by teenagers, others by toddlers.  Some wouldn't be out of place on a parent refrigerator.

For 40 years, the museum has used them, and others like them, to make time capsules of recent world history, as seen through the eyes of the young.

'' It is a place of exploration and discovery for children,'' said Ashild Breie Nylus, a classical musician who performed at a recent benefit concert there. ''Perhaps the most honest works of art to be found in Oslo and in the country more broadly.''

All of it may soon disappear from view. Norways' government has cut off the funding that the museum relied on for decades. Its director, Angela Goldin, has been looking for ways to preserve the museum and the collection of more than 100,000 pieces of children's art.

'' It's so surreal that it has no value,'' Ms. Goldin said during a break from clearing out a rental space where some of the collection was stored.

'' That's what we are being told.''

The Independent Norwegian Museum Association criticised the ministry's decision, saying it would mean '' total liquidation '' for the museum.

Ms. Goldin has been seeking other means of support and trying to keep the museum in the public eye.

For a while, she kept the museum open by appointment, and a private foundation sponsored visits by kindergarten students.

NOW it is closed entirely. The small staff has been laid off, and Ms. Goldin has been drawing on the museum's limited savings to cover basic costs, like storing its art collection.

She still has a glimmer of hope that it can be saved. But '' things are looking very gloomy right now, '' she said.

And if it all comes to an end, she will have to decide what to do with the works of art. Except for pieces damaged beyond repair, she said, none have been thrown away.

!WOW! thanks Henrik Pryser Libell and Lynsey Chutel.