We are pleased to announce the artists selected for the 2026 Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) nominated residencies at Artica Svalbard.

Following an open call that received over 1,200 expressions of interest, two collaborative duos have been selected to spend time in Longyearbyen in 2026 to develop projects grounded in artistic research, experimentation, and engagement with Svalbard’s social, ecological, and political context.

Artists Malin Arnell and Mar Fjell were in residence at Artica Svalbard from June to August 2025. They were nominated for the residency by Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum as part of Artica’s ongoing programme of invited artists and researchers.

During their stay, they spent time walking, recording, and observing in and around Longyearbyen, with a particular focus on the Longyearelva river and its surrounding landscape. Their engagement with Svalbard also included several extended hikes and a kayak-and-camping trip, offering opportunities to interact with the terrain over time and from different perspectives.

We are pleased to announce that the Norwegian Association of Nonfiction Writers and Translators (NFFO) has nominated Audun Aagre and Marit Beate Kasin for residencies at Artica Svalbard in 2026. Their nonfiction projects will explore pressing questions around nature, sovereignty, and our evolving relationship with the Arctic—each bringing a distinct voice and perspective to these themes.

We’re delighted to welcome Ashley Middleton to Artica Svalbard for a nine-month residency, supported by the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

Ashley is an artist and researcher whose work examines the evolving relationship between the body, technology, and the environment. Working across installation, sound, video, and photography, she creates immersive experiences that bring scientific inquiry into conversation with sensory perception.

We’re very pleased to welcome Samantha Dwinnell to the Artica Svalbard team! Samantha will be stepping in to support our residency programme and community activities over the next few months.

We are proud to welcome interdisciplinary artists Malin Arnell and Mar Fjell to Artica Svalbard for their residency in Longyearbyen, nominated by Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum.

Since 2017, Malin and Mar have cultivated a shared, transdisciplinary practice that weaves together performance, research, queer ecology, and embodied experience. Their collaborations move across forests, waterbodies, cities, and now the Arctic—exploring what it means to listen deeply, live relationally, and co-create with both human and more-than-human worlds.

Artica Svalbard is delighted to welcome printmakers and poets Nicole Cecilia Delgado and Amanda Hernández as artists in residence for June and July 2025. Nominated by The Queen Sonja Print Award, the two artists will spend the summer developing new work that draws connections between island ecologies in the Caribbean and the Arctic.

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.