The cultural sector and the creative industries have a strong position in Norway’s economy. Three percent of Norway’s working population are principally employed in cultural industries. It is in such an environment that Hamar, the largest city of Inland Norway, thrives on its creative industries. The city’s cultural and creative sectors are large and frequently ranked, based on annual assessment carried out by the Government, as one of the leading cultural cities of Norway when it comes to relative size, impact on economy and range of activities. Hamar Municipality has invested strategically in infrastructure to facilitate the development of technology driven media arts and companies within creative industries. The city is considered as a national hub and an incubator for start-ups in media arts, especially related to interactive media, gamification and extended reality (XR). In Hamar, as many as 5.8 % of the workforce is engaged in creative industries and entities related to media arts. Both the number of start-ups, as well the size and type of new clusters being established addressing various technology driven media arts concepts are increasing. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an even stronger desire among many young people to view technology driven creativity and media arts as a plausible career, pushing forward further Hamar’s development in media arts.

Added Value:
As a Creative City of Media Arts, the following steps will be important:
- Developing strategies for sustainable development, including further policies on business development and a strategy for cooperation among municipalities in the Hamar region on sustainable development;
- Disseminating culture and creativity to the public through cultural institutions and festivals;
- Establishing education, lifelong learning and research amenities and spaces, such as the quarto-helix cooperation HINN based on interactive medias, gamification and XR VRInn – the national cluster on immersive learning; and
- Developing a hub for start-ups, exploration and development of technology driven products and services, especially related to interactive-media, gamification and XR.