Is London now out of reach for the most creative among us?

Let's be more like Oslo, where they actually make the city liveable for artists.

- Tristram Hunt

Not many countries put a portrait of extreme mental anguish at the forefront of their tourism campaigns. But, then again, there are few more acclaimed modern pictures than Edvard Munch's The Scream - with its setting sun, blood-red sky, blue-black fjord and the image of a man blocking his ears from, as Munch put it, "an infinite scream passing through nature".

This gripping depiction of anxiety and angst - in fact, three versions of them - is the star turn of the recently opened Munch Museum, housed alongside hundreds of other paintings, murals, woodcuts and prints from the great painter's canon. The museum's position at the heart of Oslo's waterfront points to a fascinating new strategic direction for Norway - with important lessons for London.

Thirty years after establishing its hugely successful Sovereign Wealth Fund - which smartly invests the nation's vast profits from North Sea oil - Norway is working out its post-hydrocarbon future. And, like Saudi Arabia with its fast-developing museums, heritage sites and upcoming Islamic Arts Biennale, Oslo has decided culture is key - if not necessarily all the boxing, golf and Formula 1 which Riyadh seems equally keen on.

After many years as something of a cultural underperformer, Oslo is coming alive with improved venues for performing arts, historic collections and contemporary art. Close by the Munch Museum alongside the Oslo fjord is the Opera House, which has become a popular city landmark thanks to its iceberg-like angular roof that cleverly doubles as a public piazza.

Inside, the auditorium and backstage facilities are world-class, with a costume studio which V&A textile conservators can only dream of.

How the Norwegians did it