Past events

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2007
The Friendly Arctic –  A Travelling Exhibition
The exhibition will open in Bryggen, The North Atlantic House in Copenhagen on 1 March 2007. It will be open to the public from 2 March to 15 May.The exhibition is a part of a programme where Denmark, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland will jointly launch the International Polar Year (see www.arcticportal.is).
The Friendly Arctic focuses on Vilhjálmur Stefansson’s life, legacy and vision for the Arctic, featuring a selection of his photographs, recordings, publications, diaries, maps and other items.
The exhibit opened in Akureyri Art Museum in November 2000 and has after that visited Reykjavík, Gimli, Winnipeg, Iqaluit in Nunavut, Norwich in Vermont and New York. The plan is to take it to Cambridge, England, Rovaniemi, Finland, and Ottawa and Yellowknife in Canada.

Memorial Lecture
The 2007 Stefansson Memorial Lecture was delivered at the University of Akureyri on November 7th 2007 by climate historian Astrid Ogilvie. Dr Ogilvie is Research Fellow, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) University of Colorado (further information here). The title of the lecture was “Interdisciplinary Explorations in the Climate, History and Human Ecology of Northern Iceland.” Co-sponsors with the Stefansson Arctic Institute of this year’s lecture were the University of Akureyri and Rannís – The Icelandic Centre for Research. The event is a joint contribution to the International Polar Year.  Lecture abstract here.

2006
The 2006 Stefansson Memorial Lecture
The Stefansson Memorial Lecture was held at Dartmouth College on 1st November 2006. Andrew C. Revkin from the New York Times called his lecture The North Pole Was Here: On The Front Lines Of Climate Change, From The Arctic To The Beltway, .

Andrew Revkin is one of America's most honored science writers and has spent nearly a quarter century covering subjects ranging from Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami to the assault on the Amazon, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change in the North Pole. He has been reporting on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, a job that has taken him to the Arctic three times in three years. In 2003, he became the first Times reporter to file stories and photos from the sea ice around the pole. He spearheaded a three-part Times series and one-hour documentary in 2005 on the transforming Arctic. In 2003, his climate coverage won the first National Academies Communication Award for print journalism, presented by the nation's eminent scientific body

2005
Memorial Lecture
The sixth Stefansson Memorial Lecture will be organized by the Stefansson Arctic Institute in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute on Tuesday, 1 November 2005, at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Road, Cambridge at 6:00 pm.
Dr Gísli Pálsson, Professor of Anthropology at University of Iceland gives a lecture called Travelling Passions: The Life and Legacy of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic Explorer.

2004
The Friendly Arctic   
The travelling exhibit on Vilhjalmur Stefansson's legacy and vision will be in Scandinavia House, New York from January 30th to March 31st 2004.

Memorial Lecture
The fifth Memorial Lecture was on Thursday, September 9th 2004 in Oddfellow House in Akureyri. This time there were two Swedish lecturers: Laila Freivalds, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs: "Swedish Arctic Policy" and professor Sverker Sörlin: "The Human Arctic: Stefansson, Ahlmann, and the Quest for an Arctic within History".

2003
Stefansson Memorial Lecture
On Monday, October 13th 2003, the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, gave the fourth Stefansson Memorial Lecture. The lecture's title was: A Threshold of the Mind: The Modern North. The Stefansson Memorial Lecture was delivered in the University of Akureyri Auditorium in the Oddfellow House at Sjafnarstigur. 

2002
The Friendly Arctic   
A travelling exhibit on Vilhjalmur Stefansson's legacy and vision will this year be visiting:
-Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, 16 February - 31 March
-McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The Icelandic National League Convention, 19 - 21 April
-Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, Vermont, USA, 1 November - 8 December 

NARP Symposium in Akureyri,  23 - 24  May
The second symposium of the Nordic Arctic Research Programme will be held in Akureyri. 

NRF in Veliky Novgorod,  19 - 22 September
The second open meeting  of the Northern Research Forum will be held  in Veliky Novgorod, Russia.

Stefansson Memorial Lecture, 1 November
The president of Iceland, Dr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson gave a lecture in memory of Vilhjálmur Stefansson at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA on  November 1.

2001
The Friendly Arctic - A Travelling Exhibit: Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Legacy and Vision
Scheduled openings in 2001:
10 March - 4 June: Reykjavik Art Museum
1 July - August: New Iceland Heritage Center, gimli, Manitoba
20 September - October: Icelandic Library, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.

West Nordic Hunting Culture 11-14 June, Akureyri
A conference on traditional hunting hosted by the West Nordic Council, the joint parliamentary organization of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Legacy and Vision in Northern Agriculture
27-29 August, Akureyri
The fourth conference of Circumpolar Agricultural Association attended by farmers, extension worker, scientists, industrialists and policy makers. 

21st Nordic Archaeology Conference
6-9 September, Akureyri
The conference is organized by the Association of Icelandic Archaeologists, the Institute of Archaeology in Reykjavik, the National Museum of Iceland and the Icelandic Archaeological Society, with support from the University of Akureyri and the Stefansson Arctic Institute.

2000
Arctic Day, February 19, Reykjavík
A day devoted to Icelandic-Arctic co-operation in the international arena with a special focus on human-environment relations.

Forestry Beyond the Timberline, June 27 - 30, Akureyri
A workshop addressing ecological and socio-economic factors affecting forestry in the context of rural development in the northern North-Atlantic region. The workshop was held in co-operation with the Iceland Forest Service and a number of Nordic institutes.

Social Science and Sustainable Development in the Arctic, August 29 –  September 1, Inari
This workshop in Inari Finland was the second in a series of informal meetings organized at irregular intervals and designed to provide opportunities for off-the-record exchanges among members of the research and policy communities about matters of common interest and especially about issues suitable for consideration by the Arctic Council. The aim of the Inari workshop was to focus on the role, relevance and input of social science for sustainable development, arctic science and policy in the Arctic regions. See more

Stefansson Memorial Lecture, November 3, Akureyri
An annual public lecture by a prominent arctic scientist.  The first Memorial Lecture was given by Dr. Oran Young, professor at Dartmouth College and was  titled  Creating an Arctic Sustainable Development Strategy. This year's lecture was given by Dr. Mark Nuttall professor at the University of Aberdeen.

North meets North, November 4 – 6, Akureyri
The first Congress of the Northern Research Forum, where people of various professions in the North met to share ideas, perspectives and findings of arctic research. See more

The Friendly Arctic – An Exhibition, November 5, Akureyri
The exhibition was opened at the Akureyri Art Museum. It focuses on Stefansson’s life and legacy, with further links to contemporary issues of sustainable use and social viability in the circumpolar north. See more