Tanya Park
Photo credit: Elizabeth Wilson
In residence: October - November 2026
Tanya Park is a heritage specialist, academic, and photographer whose work bridges architecture, cultural heritage, and climate change. She holds a PhD from Japan, with a thesis on “Architectural Preservation Process in Japan: Theoretical discourse and its application.” She has been Visiting Scholar at the Digital Heritage Unit in Architecture, University of South Florida; University Associate at the School of Architecture and Design, University of Tasmania; and Adjunct Lecturer at Southern Cross University, Australia.
Tanya has served in numerous leadership roles, including Secretary General and Publications Editor for the ICOMOS International Wood Committee, representative on the ICOMOS Climate Change Working Group, and Chair of Blue Shield Australia. For over two decades, she has been Owner and Director of Spinoza Property Ltd, a property development and management company specialising in heritage sites across Australasia. Her career also spans heritage consultancy and international advocacy for the safeguarding of cultural monuments and wooden architecture.
During her residency at Artica Svalbard, Tanya will combine photography and text to explore the cultural heritage of Svalbard through its buildings. She will document how shifting light conditions transform the perception and significance of architecture in the Arctic landscape. Her project aims to raise awareness of Svalbard’s built heritage, much as Norway’s stave churches have become globally recognised for their architectural and cultural value.
Through daily fieldwork, she will photograph and write about selected buildings, tracing how light, climate, and materiality shape their presence. She hopes to engage with local residents, tradespeople, and heritage practitioners, gathering stories and insights into the care, maintenance, and meaning of Svalbard’s wooden buildings. Tanya envisions her work as both a creative and scholarly contribution: a series of essays and images that highlight the Arctic’s cultural resilience at a time of ecological change.