Turid Birkeland (5 November 1962 – 24 December 2015) was a Norwegian cultural executive and former politician for the Labour Party. She was Minister of Culture in 1996–97. She was an author and also worked in television, including being chief of cultural programming at NRK and a member of the board at Telenor. She also headed the Risør Chamber Music Festival, and was the director of Concerts Norway.
She led her party's youth organization, the Workers' Youth League, in Oslo from 1985 to 1986 and nationwide from 1989 to 1992.[1] Birkeland has said that she was unaware of inflated membership numbers in the Workers' Youth League that came to light after her tenure.[6]
In 1995–1996 she worked brief tenures as a television and radio presenter in TV+, Reiseradioen and TVNorge. From October 1996 to October 1997 she served as Minister of Culture,[1] in the Cabinet of Thorbjørn Jagland, at which time her profession was given as journalist.[8] In April 1997, during her term, she made the first official visit to Cuba by a Norwegian government minister, setting up a cultural exchange agreement.[9][10][11]
After her spell as Minister of Culture, which ended following the 1997 election, Birkeland returned to Reiseradioen in 1998, and was a presenter in the channel NRK 2 from 1998 to 1999. She was then a producer and manager at Rubicon TV from 1999 to 2001, and director of cultural programming in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 2001 to 2004. She was also a member of the board at Telenor from 2007 to 2012 and the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2009. After three years as board member of the Risør Chamber Music Festival from 1997 to 2001,[1][7] she was its managing director from 2004 to 2010. From June 2006 to April 2007 she also ran Café Solsiden in the same town.[1][12][13] She also had a brief tenure in the publishing house Piratforlaget between 2005 and 2006.[1]
In 2011 Birkeland was diagnosed as suffering from myelofibrosis. On 24 December 2015, she died from complications of the illness.[16]
Selected publications
(ed., with Gunvor Risa). Litteratur for barn: artiklar om barns bøker og lesing. Skriftserie, Landslaget for norskundervisning, 54; Cappelen fakta. Oslo: Cappelen, 1990. ISBN9788202126636(in Norwegian and Danish)
(with Sigurd Sandvin). Alle fakta på bordet. Oslo: Cappelen, 1992. ISBN9788202138288(in Norwegian)
KK: Kvinner kann. Oslo: Det norske arbeiderparti Arbeidernes opplysningsforbund, 1996. OCLC790758935(in Norwegian)
Stockholm. Damms reisebøker; Din guide til storbyen. Oslo: Damm, 2001 ISBN9788251787925(in Norwegian)
London. Damms reisebøker; Din guide til storbyen. Oslo: Damm, 2005. ISBN9788249607013(in Norwegian)
^"Sprek 25-åring med nytt navn"[permanent dead link], Utdanningsetaten, Oslo kommune (in Norwegian): "I 1977 ble det startet en videregående skole på Linderud. ... En tidligere elev som begynte på skolen da den var ganske ny, var Turid Birkeland." - "In 1977 a secondary school was opened in Linderud. ... A former student who started at the school when it was completely new was Turid Birkeland."