Vision
Arctic Fest is a biennial festival that engages local and global communities with a series of inspiring and informative events focused on climate change in the circumpolar North and featuring the arts, sciences, and Indigenous cultural and knowledge system.
Organizing partners
Northern Alaska Environmental Center – The Northern Center promotes conservation of the environment and sustainable resource stewardship in Interior and Arctic Alaska through education and advocacy.
University of Alaska Fairbanks – UAF is a Land, Sea, and Space Grant university and an international center for research, education, and the arts, emphasizing the circumpolar North and its diverse peoples. UAF integrates teaching, research, and public service as it educates students for active citizenship and prepares them for lifelong learning and careers.
Goal
Our goal is to host an annual festival that inspires, informs, and mobilizes diverse participants to catalyze change at the personal and organizational levels to address the grand challenges posed by a rapidly changing global climate. We aim to enhance cultural, intellectual, economic, and social development in Alaska, and to spotlight the excellence of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ research and creative activities. We hope to attract local, national, and international audiences that increase each year.
Rationale
The circumpolar North is at the epicenter of rapid environmental change that directly affects local communities as well as societies and ecosystems on a global scale. Addressing the challenge requires an understanding of climate change that integrates science and Indigenous knowledge systems with values, emotions, and aesthetics offered by the arts and humanities. Transdisciplinary integration can help us address climate change through public engagement, education, and exchange of ideas and knowledge from many cultural perspectives. Developing collaborative networks of individuals and organizations can lead to creative problem-solving to help us meet unprecedented social and ecological challenges.
