The Svalbard Museum is a museum in Longyearbyen, the largest town in the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

archipelago. The museum displays artifacts from the history of Svalbard since its settlement, and exhibits of local plants and animals. Its exhibitions describe the factors that support human activity in Svalbard, showing the close relationship between nature and human cultural history on the islands. "Life in Light and Ice" is the museum's core exhibit. It describes the history of the archipelago, from the first whalers to the present society based on mining, research, and tourism. The museum is housed in the

University Centre in Svalbard The University Centre in Svalbard ( no, Universitetssenteret på Svalbard AS; UNIS) is a Norwegian state-owned limited company that is involved in research and provides some higher education in Arctic studies. The company is wholly owned by the ...

building. The Svalbard Museum was awarded the 2008 Council of Europe Museum Prize, awarded annually by the Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...

(under the

European Museum of the Year Award The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) is presented each year by the European Museum Forum (European Museum Forum, EMF) under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The EMYA is considered the most important annual award in the European mu ...

scheme of the

European Museum Forum The European Museum Forum is a museum organization under the Council of Europe. It is an independent, non-profit-making charity, registered in the United Kingdom and founded in 1977. The European Museum Forum organizes the annual European Museum ...

). The award is given annually to a European museum which (among other criteria) is judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding of European cultural heritage.

References

External links

Svalbard Museum website
Museums in Svalbard History museums in Norway Local museums in Norway University Centre in Svalbard {{Norway-museum-stub