TESTING GROUNDS podcast series reflects on the importance of residencies in the climate crisis

As the climate crisis accelerates, how can artists’ residencies be testing grounds for new – and better – ways of living and working? This is the question explored in a new podcast series that brings together artists, researchers and activists from across the Nordic region and Scotland.

TESTING GROUNDS is a podcast series produced by the Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA). Each of its episodes explores the crisis from the perspective of a different artist residency.

The first episode in the series was released in late January and delved into what NAARCA does. In the next episode at the end of February, we will travel to Longyearbyen in the Arctic Circle – the home of the Artica Svalbard residency for artists – to listen to a discussion between an architect and an anthropologist about how climate change affects people’s relationship with their built environment.

Subscribe and listen to the podcast at naarca.art/testing-grounds-podcast/ or search for it using the words ‘Testing Grounds’ in the podcast app of your choice.  Each new episode will be released on the last Friday of the next seven months.

The podcasts are in English.

TESTING GROUNDS is produced and edited by Katie Revell and its original music is composed by Loris S. Sarid, and the illustrations were created by Jagoda Sadowska.

INFORMATION ABOUT NAARCA

The Saari Residence for artists co-leads, with the Scottish Cove Park artists’ residency centre, the Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA), which was launched in 2021. NAARCA is a collaboration between seven artists’ residencies: Cove Park (Scotland), Saari Residence (Finland), Artica Svalbard (Svalbard Norway), Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), BAC – Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (NIRS) (Greenland). Together, we develop and test new ecologically, socially, mentally and economically sustainable lifestyles and communicate about them. We believe that artists’ residencies are exceptional institutions in the field of arts – they are safe experimental environments where artists’ private, professional and public lives become intertwined. Read more at https://naarca.art