The Artica Writings series continues with a new essay profiling Vernon Alvez, who moved from the Philippines to Longyearbyen in search of more stable work and a better future for his family. In conversation with journalist Elida Høeg, Alvez reflects on the difficult decision to settle in Svalbard — and the resilience it takes to adapt to life in one of the world’s northernmost communities.

Artist duo VestAndPage have contributed a new entry to Artica Svalbard’s Field Notes, reflecting on their recent residency in Longyearbyen. Their text, drawn from the broader project A Desert of North, examines how performance can engage with environmental transformation, uncertainty, and embodied experience in the Arctic.

Artica Svalbard is delighted to welcome Katie Paterson, who has arrived in Svalbard for her residency this June.

Katie Paterson is widely regarded as one of the leading artists of her generation. Collaborating with scientists and researchers across the world, Paterson’s projects consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time and change. Her artworks make use of sophisticated technologies and specialist expertise to stage intimate, poetic, and philosophical engagements between people and their natural environment. Combining a Romantic sensibility with a research-based approach, conceptual rigour, and minimalist presentation, her work collapses the distance between the viewer and the most distant edges of time and the cosmos.

The application deadline for the 2026 Artica Svalbard residencies, nominated by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), is now closed. We are pleased to share that this year one again brought in a record number of applications. Thank you to everyone who applied for your interest and time.

Last week, Residency and Community Coordinator Lena von Goedeke led current residents Nastassja Simensky, Lilian Kroth, Clara Arnaud, and Endi Poskovic on a hike to Sarkofagen, a mountain located directly above Longyearbyen. The route included visits to Longyearbreen and Larsbreen, the two glaciers nearest to the town.

Sarkofagen (Norwegian for “the sarcophagus”) is a prominent ridge between Longyeardalen and Larsdalen. Its position offers a direct vantage point onto two active glacier systems and the broader glacial landscape surrounding Longyearbyen, making it a frequent site for geological observation and field-based research.

We are delighted to welcome back Nastassja Simensky to Artica Svalbard.

Simensky returns following her 2024 residency, which was supported through a nomination by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). Her work investigates the unevenly distributed impacts of global energy regimes and extractive processes on specific geographies, using fieldwork as a central method. She frequently collaborates with both artists and non-artists to produce authored and co-authored works across a range of media, including live performance, sound, text, amateur radio, moving image, and installation.

We are delighted to welcome Lilian Kroth to Artica Svalbard who has arrived for a residency this May and June 2025.

Kroth is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Her academic work sits at the intersection of the history and philosophy of science and art, with a focus on remote sensing, mediated technologies, and how knowledge is shaped by the tools we use to observe the world.

Applications are now open for the 2026 NFFO residency at Artica Svalbard — a rare opportunity for nonfiction writers to spend dedicated time in the High Arctic, immersed in both landscape and thought.

Offered in partnership with NFFO (The Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association), the residency is open to NFFO members working on projects connected to the Arctic or northern regions, translations of Nordic or Indigenous non-fiction, or any nonfiction work that would benefit from time and space in an extraordinary environment.

The second instalment of French author Clara Arnaud’s three-part essay series is now available in our Field Notes section.

Titled So This Is The North?, the piece follows Clara’s journey across the Barents Sea aboard the sailing ship Linden, describing the practical challenges and shifting conditions during the crossing — from storm preparation and seasickness to ice watches and changing weather. Written during her journey to Longyearbyen, the essay offers a detailed account of daily life on board and the transition from mainland Europe to the high Arctic.

We’re pleased to share the third essay in the Artica Writings series — this time centering the voice of Mia Ekeblad, a lifelong resident of Longyearbyen and current leader of the town’s Youth Council.

In a wide-ranging and thoughtful interview with journalist Elida Høeg, Mia reflects on identity, belonging, and the uncertainty facing young people in Svalbard today.

A new contribution is now live in our Field Notes section: Residents Recommend – Siri Helle.

Residents Recommend is an occasional series where Artica residents share reflections, advice, or small gestures that helped them connect with life in Svalbard — and that might offer something valuable to future residents as well.

Artica Svalbard is delighted to welcome Endi Poskovic as one of our artists-in-residence this spring.

Originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poskovic is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work explores the intersections of printmaking, memory, and environmental awareness. Educated in Yugoslavia, Norway, and the United States, he began his creative life as a touring musician before transitioning into the visual arts.

Over the past four weeks, Artica Svalbard has hosted Dutch artist Floortje Zonneveld and Arctic ecologist Sanne Moedt for the collaborative residency project Shadowing Without a Sunset. Blending scientific research with artistic interpretation, the project invited the local community into a hands-on, creative exploration of Arctic ecosystems.

The residency began with a research-collecting trip to the Netherlands Arctic Station in Ny-Ålesund in summer 2024, where Zonneveld and Moedt gathered scientific materials including microscopy footage, field notes, maps, and expedition documentation.

Artica Svalbard has been formally recognised as a 2024 Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC)—a global network working to reduce the environmental impact of the visual arts sector.

To achieve Active Member status, Artica was required to demonstrate tangible progress toward implementing environmentally responsible best practices, including emissions reporting, decarbonisation planning, and waste reduction—efforts that reflect the organisation’s long-term sustainability goals.

We are pleased to welcome VestAndPage—the artist duo Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes—to Artica Svalbard this May.

Since 2006, VestAndPage have worked internationally as interdisciplinary artists, writers, and curators, creating collaborative and research-based performance art and film. Their practice is deeply responsive to place, engaging philosophical, ecological, and queer feminist thought. They have performed and filmed under Antarctic glaciers, in the Himalayas, Tierra del Fuego, and inside prehistoric cave systems, exploring the thresholds between body, environment, and ritual.

Currently in Longyearbyen to work on her next novel, French author Clara Arnaud is also kindly contributing a three-part essay series based on her time here in the Arctic. This first instalment recounts her arrival aboard the sailing ship Linden, offering a poetic reflection on what it means to approach the far north slowly, by sea.

Lena will be joining us to cover for Sally as our Residency and Community Coordinator for part of the time until Sally returns towards the end of 2025.

Lena is a visual artist and essayist based between Svalbard and Berlin, whose multidisciplinary practice spans installations, literary essays, and film. Her work explores themes of geological memory, ecological intimacy, and the passage of time, with a particular focus on Arctic landscapes. Having first come to Svalbard in 2018, Lena has since developed a deep connection to the region, and alongside her own artistic practice, she is passionate about supporting fellow creatives in developing and sharing their work in the High North.

We are very pleased to welcome French writer Clara Arnaud to Artica Svalbard for a spring residency running from April to June 2025. Clara is the winner of the Ecology Novel Prize in France, and her work—both fiction and non-fiction—explores the relationship between human beings and the rest of the living world.

Artica Svalbard is pleased to welcome ecologist Sanne Moedt and artist Floortje Zonneveld as our current residents, here to develop Shadowing Without a Sunset—an immersive project that brings together scientific research and artistic storytelling to explore the Arctic in new and accessible ways.

The full recording of The Cold Rush from Svalbard Day 2025 is now available to watch online.

Held at Litteraturhuset in Oslo, the event explored the shifting geopolitical landscape of the Arctic—with a particular focus on Svalbard—and brought together leading voices in security, strategy, and international affairs.