PolArt Polar Art Residence is the Norilsk Museum MEC support program for contemporary art. It was opened in Norilsk in 2016 with the support of the Norilsk city administration and the Norilsk Nickel company.

Participation in the residence program is based on an open competition among artists and curators. Residents are selected once a year. We invite those who are looking for inspiration in unusual places and want to be a part of changes there.

"Polar" means not only a wondrous and distant place in the Far North – polar Norilsk. In Russian "polar" also means diverse perspectives, different opinions and visions up to the most opposite – polar.

The Polar Art Residence Mission
The mission of the residence is discussing, suggesting, constructing, approaching the future of Norilsk, and most importantly, its new visual component. It is about the formation of an artistic vision of the city, the creation of a dream of a new Norilsk. This dream acquires creative comprehension through image, color, style, a series of events and adherents, and finally, its embodiment.

Competition Goals
We support the most bold and brave contemporary art projects, which are focused on artistic research of the urban environment in one of the two focus areas of the residence:

Polar Views: Northern Urban Expedition
Territory research, projects of public art objects in the urban environment, author's vision of the Norilsk «art plan».

Polar Visions: Scenario Open-Air
Creative scenarios and forecasts of the city future, art predictions as a creative and projective act in search for a new Norilsk.

Russian artists and curators working in any visual genres of contemporary art are invited to participate in the program of the Norilsk Museum PolArt-residence on a competitive basis.

The PolArt residence application campaign for the 2020 is temporarily suspended.