“The Arctic Throughout History: Visual and Cultural Conceptions” is a two-day symposium at The New York Public Library.

The symposium will bring together scholars working across the humanities who are interested in questions about how the Arctic has been represented and understood historically, and its relevance in our global culture today. It asks questions such as: What sort of visual or textual sources became the authorities on the Arctic region, and how do they shape the persistence of certain stereotypes or myths about the far North? How should we consider illustrations in relation to textual narratives and scientific data? How are contemporary artists using (or are inspired by) the Arctic in relation to its environment, history, and community? What can we learn from histories of the Arctic to reframe current understandings of the landscape and its people?

This symposium is organized in conjunction with the exhibition The Awe of the Arctic: A Visual History at The New York Public Library.

To join the event | Select the day(s) you would like to attend. Check-in will start at 9 AM in front of the Celeste Auditorium (Lower Level). Please use the Library’s new accessible entrance via the Marshall Rose Plaza at 40th St. and Fifth Avenue.

DAY 1 (4/4) SCHEDULE

9:45–10:00 AM: Opening Remarks 

10–11:30 AM: Arctic Ephemera

• Reframing ‘Relics’ and Reconnecting Arctic Histories: Exhibitions in Britain, Past and Present by Claire Warrior, Royal Museums Greenwich


• It’s in the Mail!, A Deltiological Window to the Arctic by Stephen Loring, Arctic Studies Center/NMNH Smithsonian Institution 


• From Ice to Fireworks: The Return of Nordenskiold’s Vega by Henning Hansen, The Swedish National Heritage Board

11:30 AM–1 PM: Aurora Borealis

• International Polar Year Pictures: Moving Meanings by Marthe Fjellestad, Perspektivet Museum, Tromsø


• Looking Past the Aurora Borealis: Photography, Colonization and Extractivism by Synnøve Marie Vik, University of Bergen 


• Auroral Epistemology: Aesthetic Codes and Scientific Enquiry From Hand-Drawings to Photography by Fiona Amery, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

1–2 PM: Break

2–3:30 PM: Arctic Fiction

• Finding Fact in Fiction: The Influence of Arctic Exploration in Dime Novels and Popular Literature by Rebecca Oviedo, Villanova University


• "Something so peaceful, yet so wild, so romantic and so strange about the region:" Alterity and Arctic Landscapes in R.M. Ballantyne's The World of Ice (1860) and The Giant of the North (1882) by Juliette Pochelu, Bordeaux Montaigne University


• Historical Fiction or Architectural History? Analyzing the Arctic Imaginary Through an Architectural Lens by Samuel Dubois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3:30–5:30 PM: Making Images of Indigeneity

• Past the Tree Line and into the Snow: Innuit Printmaking and Conservation by Kyla Ubbink, Ubbink Book and Paper Conservation


• Israil Gormansen’s Inuit Futurism by Bart Pushaw, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga


• Curated Dispatches: Geraldine Moodie’s Arctic Family Albums by Sarah Parsons, York University


• Close-ups of the Face of Hunger: Richard Harrington and the 1950 Padlei Photographs by Jamie Cameron, York University

DAY 2 (4/5) SCHEDULE

10–11 AM: Arctic Imaginaries

• The Arctic in the Early Modern Imagination: Olaus Magnus’s and Johannes Schefferus’s Descriptions of Sapmí by Kristoffer Neville, University of California, Riverside


• Greetings from Norrbotten: A Journey Within Sweden’s Imagery, Between Fiction, Cliches and Documentation by Silvia Colombo, Region Norrbotten

11 AM–12:30 PM: Painting the Arctic

• Painting Arctic Exploration: Frederic Edwin Church and Isaac Israel Hayes by Allegra K. Davis, The Olana Partnership


• Red in Tooth and Claw: Victorian Narratives of Animal Aggression and the Polar Bear in Art by Eva Molina, Princeton University


• L’Arctique à la Parisienne: Visual Cultures of the Polar North in Nineteenth-Century Paris by Ivana Dizdar, University of Toronto

12:30–2 PM: Break

2–3:30 PM: Ice

• Sensing the Anthropocene: Permanent Ice in Contemporary Art by Chiara Juriatti, Catholic Private University, Linz


• Thawing Arctic Circuits: Icebergs in London/Snow Sculptures in Nunavut by Mark Cheetham, University of Toronto


• Art as Evidence: Arctic Aesthetics of Colonial Discomfort and Contemporary Storytelling by Katie Ione Craney, University of Alaska-Fairbanks

3:30–5:30 PM: Postcolonial Perspectives

• The Snow Baby: The Arctic Photobook and the Josephine Peary Archive by Paul Edwards, Université Paris Cité 


• Visions of Glacial Whiteness: Illustrating Ice, Race, and Religion in a Chaplain’s Diary of the 1899 Harriman Alaskan Expedition by Grace King, Penn State University


• White Landscape, Decolonial Possibilities: For a New Mythology for the Arctic by Federico Rudari, The Catholic University of Portugal

If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.

ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. 

CONNECT

For questions and inquiries, please email publicprograms@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

Please submit press inquiries at least 48 hours before the event: email press@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

The New York Public Library's free services and resources are made possible thanks to the support of the Friends of the Library. Join this group of Library lovers and take advantage of special membership benefits, like invitations to members-only virtual events, discounts at the Library Shop, and more. Join now.

The Arctic Throughout History is organized by Elizabeth Cronin, Maggie Mustard, and Chantal Lee of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs and hosted by The Vartan Gregorian Center for Research in the Humanities.

Support for this symposium is provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, an anonymous donor, the Consulate General of Sweden, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General, and the Consulate General of Finland.

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, Jonathan Altman, and Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. Additional support for The Awe of the Arctic is provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Carl Jacobs Foundation.