Prof. Melissa Pokorny selected for exclusive Arctic Circle Residency

The Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency Program

The Arctic Circle Art and Science Residency Program is a highly selective two-week residency that invites a cohort of thirty artists, educators, and scientists to participate in a two-week expedition aboard a traditionally rigged schooner, with opportunities to conduct research throughout the Svalbard archipelago. The program is intended to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and project completion, while offering participants continued professional development support post-expedition.

Professor Pokorny will be joining the expedition occurring July 7-23, 2025.

“The project that I will install in Svalbard is called Ghost Lily (Home Circle),” said Pokorny. “This is a site responsive project comprised of twenty large pink lilies, hand made from aluminum and vinyl. Originally made for a site in the Hudson Valley, this project has had various iterations that change slightly based on the context of the selected location. These flowers are a common site in cultivated gardens, and as feral escapees in woods, around old homesteads, and in cemeteries. Lilies have an association with the Spiritualist movement, as they were reported to ‘apport’ into seances, mimicking their real-life habit of erupting out of bare earth in just a few short days into a mass of pink flowers. In the context of the high arctic, their presence will suggest mourning, commemoration, and care. I hope to install these in a variety of situations, with photo documentation of each site.”

Participation in the Arctic Circle extends beyond the expedition itself, with participants often included in curated exhibitions and international programming, such as the Venice Biennale.