The Arts of the Arctic
	On the Road with Oberlin’s Watson Fellows		Consider the Arctic. Theodore Kittelsen said, 'What appeals to me are the mysterious, romantic, and magnificent aspects of our scenery, but if I cannot henceforth combine this with a wholesome study of Nature I'm bound to stagnate. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me what I have to do,and I have had more ideas — but I must get home, otherwise it won't work.' – From Adam Smith's proposal to the Watson Foundation Adam Smith, an art-history major from Almont, Ontario, will travel to Siberia, northern Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Svalbard, Iceland, and Greenland for his independent-study project, The Arts of the Arctic. He wants to begin to develop, as an artist, an appreciation for a landscape he calls "aesthetically profound." The exact nature of the work he does there will depend in large part, he says, "on the circumstances in which I find myself." But he will "strive to determine how communities and individuals of the polar regions perceive the reality of their landscape." Smith will be a creative and active witness, sketching pictures and maintaining a written and photographic journal of his discussions with people--including artists and artisans--and his impressions and details of the journey. He will also be a sensitive witness, studying the Arctic's art and landscape on its own terms, in an "ethnographic context rather than solely in a personal or Western context." "I want to explore art as it exists organically within the lives of artists and people," he says. "Going to the Arctic provides a context within which to explore a fascinating range of art forms which have not yet been institutionally defined." He also reports that he will "try very hard to stay warm and well fed," and acknowledges, "I will have to maintain my own sense of purpose and motivation in the depressing darkness of winter, far away from dusty, crowded streets and the comforts of home." What does he hope to accomplish on his Arctic adventure? "On the one hand, I want to learn from those who live in the landscape . . . and how they express themselves visually in relation to it. At the same time, I want to come to terms with the landscape myself, almost as an explorer. I want to understand what makes it fascinating and terrifying. Then I want to reconcile these two perspectives."
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