Artist paid to tow Arctic 'isle'

The Arts Council has awarded Devon artist Alex Hartley £500,000 to tow part of an Arctic island to the UK.

Rocks from the island in the Svalbard archipelago north of Norway will be dug by excavator and placed on a barge.

They will then be brought to the UK where they will be put on a floating football pitch-sized platform to create the work, to be called Nowhere Island.



It will be in Weymouth for the Olympic sailing in 2012, before a tug tows it around the South West coast to Bristol.

Mr Hartley found the unnamed island on a climate change expedition in 2004.

People will be invited to become citizens of Nowhere Island, although no-one will be allowed on it except Mr Hartley. After the project finishes the island will be towed back to Norway.

Nowhere Island website.