Arctic Science Summit Week 2026 offers a range of cultural activities that invite participants to engage with Arctic history, creativity, performance, food traditions, and place-based perspectives. Alongside the scientific programme, these events create space for connection, reflection, and celebration across Arctic cultures.
Complimentary Admission: Den Gamle By
All conference guests will receive a free ticket to Den Gamle By (The Old Town Museum of Aarhus).
Den Gamle By is one of Denmark’s most renowned open-air museums, where visitors can explore Danish urban history through reconstructed streets, historical buildings, and immersive exhibitions. Participants are encouraged to visit during their stay in Aarhus and enjoy this cultural experience at their own pace.
Qallunology 101: White Male Polar Explorers and Danish Desires to Settle
A Playful Decolonial City Walk - Led by Naja Dyrendom Graugaard
25 March 2026 | 14:00–16:00
This city walk invites participants to experience Qallunology 101, an augmented reality project developed as part of the Aarhus University research project Playing With Ghosts – affective ambivalence in contemporary arts practices.
Taking place in Aarhus’ so-called “polar scientist neighbourhood,” the walk explores how Danish colonial imaginaries connected to Kalaallit Nunaat appear in urban space and cultural memory.
Through humorous and critical artistic interventions presented through digital formats such as memes, reels, and video logs, the project reflects on street names associated with polar explorers and colonial figures, including Hans Egede and Mylius-Erichsen. Using playfulness and humour, Qallunology 101 challenges static historical narratives and invites participants to reflect on colonial memory and representation in Aarhus.
A short presentation will precede the city walk.
Miracles of Nature
Outdoor Art Exhibition - by Ann Eileen Lennert
Opening: 26 March 2026 | 12:00
Location: Solgården Terrace (outside Aula)
On view throughout ASSW and AOS
Nature outside our window is essential for human life. Throughout history we have interacted with nature, and these interactions have shaped both human societies and the environments around us.
Nature provides water, clean air, food, medicines, and materials for homes and industry. It supports pollination, soil formation, and countless ecological processes that sustain cultures and communities. These benefits — known as ecosystem services — are among nature’s fundamental miracles, yet many of them remain invisible or difficult to grasp.
This exhibition seeks to make the intangible tangible. It explores how greenhouse gases and ecosystem services are intertwined with Arctic landscapes, snow and ice, infrastructure, fisheries, cultural heritage, and community life. It reflects on how human values, knowledge systems, and visions for the future shape the environments we depend upon.
The photographs were taken by photographer Luca Berti using analogue film during fieldwork in Greenland in 2024. The written elements draw on knowledge and perspectives shared through workshops and research conducted across the Arctic.
Icebreaker Reception
26 March 2026 | 19:00–21:00
Location: Stakladen
Join us for the ASSW 2026 Icebreaker Reception, an opportunity to meet fellow Arctic researchers and participants over light refreshments and conversation.
The evening will begin with welcoming remarks by Deputy Mayor of Aarhus, Mette Bjerre.
The cultural highlight of the reception will be a performance by Erinarsoqatigiit Aningaaq, Aarhus’ Greenlandic choir. The choir will perform Greenlandic songs and hymns, sharing an important part of Greenlandic musical and community traditions.
Qanga – Illustrated Past
Art Exhibition
27–28 March 2026
Location: Stakladen
Qanga – Illustrated Past presents a visual exploration of Arctic peoples and cultures spanning more than 4,500 years through the work of Greenlandic artist and storyteller Nuka K. Godtfredsen.
The exhibition was produced through a collaboration between Nordatlantens Brygge and the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and previously toured throughout Greenland as well as internationally.
The exhibition features 29 watercolours created for the first two volumes of Godtfredsen’s graphic narrative series Oqaluttuaq, titled The First Steps and The Ermine. Oqaluttuaq is the Greenlandic word for “stories.” In this exhibition, the narrative sequences are broken apart and the speech bubbles remain blank, allowing the images to stand as independent visual compositions.
The watercolours move between sharp, cinematic scenes and expansive Arctic landscapes where human figures appear small within vast environments. Together they offer a powerful visual interpretation of Arctic history, culture, and storytelling.
Cultural Celebration Event
27 March 2026 | 18:00–21:00
Location: Indigenous Pavilion
This special evening celebrates Arctic cultures through food, music, and dance, bringing together artists and traditions from across the circumpolar North.
Guests will have the opportunity to taste reindeer prepared by a Sámi chef from the Nomad FoodLab initiative, sharing Sámi culinary traditions and Arctic food culture. The event is made possible by the IASC Standing Committee on Indigenous Involvement (SCII).
The evening will feature cultural performances including:
- Haliehana Stepetin (Unangax̂) – Remembering Tattoos: (Re)Mapping Memories on Skin
- Mariana Marakhovsky – Sakha singing
- Stas Ksenefontov – Sakha harp and Evenki circle dance
- Niillas Holmberg – Sámi joik
- Josepha Kuiste Kunak Thomsen (Inuit) – Greenlandic masked dancing
Through food, performance, and shared celebration, the evening highlights the diversity and vitality of Arctic cultural expression.