As the climate crisis accelerates, how can artists’ residencies be testing grounds for new – and better – ways of living and working? A new, 8-part podcast series brings together artists, researchers and activists from across the Nordic region and Scotland to explore this question.

Presented by the Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA), each episode in the series looks at the crisis through the lens of one artists’ residency. In the first episode, we travel deep into the Arctic Circle, to Longyearbyen – home of Artica Svalbard – to hear a conversation between an architect and an anthropologist about how climate change is affecting people’s relationship with their built environment.

The introductory episode of TESTING GROUNDS [was] released on Friday 27th of January 2023, with new episodes available on the last Friday of each month. To subscribe and listen, visit naarca.art/testing-grounds-podcast/ or search for “Testing Grounds” in your favourite podcast app.

TESTING GROUNDS is produced and edited by Katie Revell and includes original music by Loris S. Sarid and artwork by Jagoda Sadowska.

NAARCA is a collaboration between seven artists’ residencies: Cove Park (Scotland), Saari Residence (Finland), Artica Svalbard (Norway), Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (Greenland). We are working together to develop, test and communicate new ways of living that are ecologically, socially, mentally and financially sustainable. We believe that artists’ residencies are exceptional institutions within the arts sector: safe environments for experimentation, where private, professional and public life intertwine. Learn more at naarca.art