SPITSBERGEN ARTISTS CENTER( OLD GALLERY)
You are entering Ny-Byen, what means New Town in Norwegian.
Longyearbyen was evacuated during WWII, and was soon after occupied by the German army who
destroyed most of the town. Svalbard was considered valuable due to importance in weather prediction. In
fact, the last Germans to surrender were four weather scientists on a remote weather station in Rijpfjord
who surrendered to the captain of a Norwegian seal hunting boat four months after the war was officially
over.
After the war mining reopened on Spitsbergen. Nybyen was built between between 1946 and 1948
specifically for the miners at mine 2B. This location was an easy walk from their living quarters to work
at the mine.
Designed for practicality by architect Jacob Olav Hanssen, it housed barracks, a mess hall etc. In
1961, architect Grete Smedal introduced color to Longyearbyen, influencing Nybyen's appearance.
The mining boom didn't last, and mine 2B closed in 1968. Some barracks were repurposed, like
Gjestehuset 102 and Coal Miners Cabins and restaurant.
In 1972, Nybyen's shop expanded, but later, the store moved to town.
In 1995 this building reopened as Galleri Svalbard, and housed the town’s permanent collection of mining
money, historical maps of the Arctic including one of the oldest maps from the 16th century, and the Kåre
Tvetter collection of painting of Svalbard. The building also provided studio space for local artists and
craftspeople .In addition, there is an artists
residency on the second floor. In 2021 Galleri Svalbard closed permanently. The collections were moved
to Svalbard Musuem. However,
the building remains open as the Spitsbergen Artists Center. The Artists Residency attracts artists from as
far as South Korea and New Zealand. The studio spaces are still used by local artist to create art and hand
crafts for sale, and the expansive exhibitions spaces are used for art exhibitions and workshops and other
ongoing community activities.
If you are interested in locally made souvenirs, check, if the centre is open.
Nybyen remains the only place on Svalbard where you can walk in the miners’ footsteps and
see how they lived. Once, these streets were full of men covered in coal dust, walking home
or walking to work. Their spirit still remains here.
The cache is avaiable 24/24. 7/7.
People working there know about the cache.