The state as a vehicle for, or alleviator of, cultural reproduction? An example comparing state funded Schools of Music and Performing Arts in Norway with ideal organizations for cultural training

Unequal access to cultural goods remains a social problem that public policy tries to mitigate. But is the state efficient in heightening cultural equality compared to what non-governmental organizations are doing? This study compares the importance of social and cultural preconditions for receiving cultural training for children in Norway and investigates the propensity to participate in Kulturskole (The Norwegian publicly funded School of Music and Performing Arts) or in third sector cultural organizations using survey data of 15 182 children aged 6-15 years old. The findings display a paradoxical situation, where a state cultural policy program is warped to benefit the highly educated and culturally privileged, whereas cultural training in organizations that are not subject to public policy and not directly funded is less characterized by social and cultural inequalities. This paradox is heightened by the fact that the large-scale program (Kulturskole) is in no small part justified because it is “for all”, with a stated aim to contribute to democratization of cultural goods. The result is a cultural policy program that serves as a vehicle for cultural reproduction, rather than a mitigator of this problem, despite being devised and funded in an egalitarian-oriented cultural welfare state.