“Imagine creating a campus area in Heleneholm where the Malmö Academy of Music is already located. It would be something completely new in Scandinavia, and the University would be known for more than just Nobel Prize winners,” says Faculty Dean Santino S Resic.
Discussions with the City of Malmö about Heleneholm as a campus area for the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts have gained momentum following the announcement that the establishment in Varvsstaden has been scrapped. The cost of future rents would have been too high and would have jeopardised the quality of courses and study programmes.
Directors with a glint in their eye
A co-location in Heleneholm has every chance of being better than in Varvsstaden, according to Santino S Resic. There is no mistaking his enthusiasm for the plans when he talks about the discussions under way with the City of Malmö and how the directors there have had a glint in their eye when he has met them and described what they could do together with Heleneholm. If all three departments of the Faculty – Malmö Theatre Academy, Malmö Art Academy and Malmö Academy of Music – were to be located there, it would change the conditions for what he believes is a neglected part of Malmö.
“It would create hope for the future. Not everyone plays football, the next Ibrahimović from Malmö might be a musician, an actor or an artist. Heleneholm is a deprived area. One example of this is that 75 per cent of all break-ins at Lund University take place at the Malmö Academy of Music,” he says and continues:
Been taken for granted
“The Faculty should not become a social institution, not at all. But imagine being there, in the midst of young people who may never have dreamed of, or even know what Lund University is. Together with the City of Malmö, there are plenty of opportunities to turn things around – a lasting contribution to integration, the sustainable city, you name it.”
It is not self-evident that Lund University’s Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts should be located in Malmö. In the past, the City of Malmö has shown little interest and, according to Santino S Resic, seems to have taken the Faculty a little too much for granted. But now it has changed its tune.
“The City of Malmö was on board straightaway when I raised the possibility of undertaking a joint project. We’re ready to take it to the political level and I hope that the Vice-Chancellor will be able to meet with Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, who is the chair of the City of Malmö’s executive committee, before the summer holidays and sign a letter of intent.”
The Malmö Academy of Music is the only one of the three departments that, according to Santino S Resic, currently operates in purpose-built premises. According to him, the three heads of department are in favour of co-locating in Heleneholm.
And there are others who like the idea, according to the dean of the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts. Courses and study programmes in other faculties would benefit from proximity to the arts, for example.
“There are fantastic courses and study programmes that would benefit from being close to the arts. It could be as good as it gets if we remove the barriers between courses and study programmes and between faculties and think in new ways. You should see the City of Malmö directors beaming when I tell them I've been talking to colleagues in Lund about moving courses and study programmes to Malmö.”
A ceiling for the rent
The rent ceiling for the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts is SEK 53 million. That money was not enough for a co-location in Varvsstaden. Regardless of where the co-location takes place in the future, the rent must be significantly lower.
“It’s not certain that it will be Heleneholm, it may be somewhere else because the City of Malmö has plenty of premises and land everywhere. But in that case it will be even better than Heleneholm and the rent will obviously be considerably lower than in Varvsstaden,” says Santino S Resic.
What is it about Heleneholm that spurs you on?
“I’m an immigrant and I grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in Malmö. I saw how far it was to Lund, but now I’m part of the University and can close the circle. It’s not a vanity project on my part, not at all. In Heleneholm, we’re creating the conditions for an academic, educational and artistic centre in a dying part of Malmö. Doing this is self-help for both Lund University and the City of Malmö.”
