Into the Dark: Students Experience the Arctic Through Art and Science
Dickinson students take in the Northern Lights near Tromsø, Norway, during the Arctic Art and Science Mosaic trip. "Neither words nor photographs, no matter how striking, can fully convey the intensity of the aurora that night," says Professor of Art Anthony Cervino.
An 11-day journey to Norway's High Arctic brings lessons no classroom could replicate
by Tony Moore
It's hard to imagine what three days of continuous darkness feels like. Harder still to picture yourself gliding through that darkness on a dog sled, the only sounds the swish of runners on snow and the panting of huskies pulling you toward the edge of the known world.
But for a group of Dickinson students, that's not imagination. That's January 2026.
Northern Exposure
The Arctic Art and Science Mosaic, an interdisciplinary program led by Professor of Art Anthony Cervino and Professor of Geosciences Ben Edwards, took students to Oslo, Longyearbyen (on the Svalbard archipelago at 78 degrees north latitude), and Tromsø, Norway. Over 11 days, they explored museums, met working artists, studied climate science in real time—and experienced the polar night firsthand.
"Ben and I both agreed that a core outcome of the trip was simply for the students to gain cultural and geographic exposure to the Arctic," Cervino says. "In this way, everything that happens back in our classrooms is framed by firsthand knowledge of extreme temperatures, challenging topography, impenetrable darkness, stunning silence, spectacular art, design and landscape and so many other uniquely Arctic qualities."
Dickinson's Arctic studies footprint is substantial, as more than 200 students have engaged with Arctic-focused content over the past seven years and 19 have traveled to 78 degrees north or higher in the past eight months alone. But even as part of a unique program, this one was special.
"I think an Arctic experience that includes both art and science is pretty unique," Cervino says. "I Googled around and found perhaps one or two other U.S. academic programs that offer an art/science/Arctic combination, but none include a High Arctic destination like Svalbard."
You Have to See It to Know It
The trip paired two courses: Cervino's ARTH 160: Polar Impressions and Edwards' GEOS 311: Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere. Students enrolled in both, exploring everything from satellite imagery of melting glaciers to site-responsive sculpture informed by Indigenous Sámi traditions.
"It would be possible to teach this class without the trip, but it would be much harder to generate and maintain student interest in these faraway places without a lived experience, since none of the students are from the Arctic!" says Edwards. "In Longyearbyen, we had continuous darkness for three days. You can ask students to imagine what that is like, but their understanding is increased exponentially by actually experiencing that darkness for three days."
Sam Schmidt ’27 (history), one of the students on the trip, put it simply: "A book we’re currently reading, set in our destination of Svalbard, argues that 'you have to see the Arctic to know it.' It's easy to study such remote locations at a distance, but being there personally gives you far more appreciation for the extreme weather, the isolation, the warm rooms and cold tundra."
Swishing Through the Night
Among the "high-impact learning events" Cervino and Edwards designed into the itinerary, one stood out: dogsledding through the Arctic darkness.
“The most impactful part of the trip was dogsledding," Schmidt says. "Until very recently, dogsleds were the primary means of transportation in that part of the world. Being with the dogs in the dark mountains was a very pure moment and gives you a lot of appreciation for what the original Arctic explorers did. The guides and dogs both demonstrated such enthusiasm for confronting the edge of the world that I was very impressed."
Edwards remembers the moment the driver turned off his headlamp: "We were swishing relatively silently through the night, with limited abilities to distinguish specific things in the dark landscape. You can't really capture that by watching movies in the classroom ..."
Where Art Meets Ice
The trip also exposed students to Arctic artists—some working in unexpected mediums. In Svalbard, the group met musicians and visual artists at two residency programs, including saxophonist Malwina Kołodziejczyk, whose project "Deep Listening to the Arctic" explores sound as a way of perceiving the polar night. In Tromsø, they toured an exhibition on Greenlandic life by photographer Innuteq Storch.
For Cara Kamoie ’26 (environmental science), the art focus was revelatory.
"Prior to this trip, I hadn't actually taken an art or art history class in college," she says. "One of our focuses was on the intersection of the unique environment and your senses/perception, which provided me with the exciting opportunity to think about how environmental science can interact with art."
Lights in the Sky
Near the trip's end, the group witnessed a spectacular display of the Northern Lights above Tromsø. Most of them hiked to Prestvannet, a frozen lake with minimal light pollution, to watch.
"Neither words nor photographs, no matter how striking, can fully convey the intensity of the aurora that night or the way it moved across the sky," Cervino says. "There, standing in the middle of the frozen lake and watching the Borealis while talking about both the aesthetics and the science behind the lights, I think we all came to understand the magnitude of both that specific sublime moment and also the sense of precious experience afforded by the entire trip."
Schmidt saw it all as a testament to something larger.
"By all reason, it seems nearly impossible to live in Svalbard, and to some extent Tromsø, and yet people do, and they make it their own," he says. "When it's dark, they hang stars in their windows; when it's cold, they drape things in fur; when it's quiet, they pay musicians to fill the air; and when the land is hostile and unexplored, somebody decides to explore it. It's really a testament to the human spirit."
Supported by an endowed fund established by Dan and Betty Churchill ’58, Dickinson's Churchill Global Mosaics Program links classroom learning with fieldwork and immersive experiences across the country and around the world.
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Published March 4, 2026