The Estonian Polar Club joins people with a common interest in the Arctic and the Antarctic who have participated in polar research or related activities.
The Club operates by the Estonian Maritime Museum and is an association that operates under societal grounds.
The objectives are
- bringing together people who have participated in polar research
- Introducing and popularising polar issues
- Assisting the Maritime Museum in storing the history of maritime and land research, economic and cultural activities in the Arctic and Antarctic related to Estonia.
History
The Polar Club was founded on 1 December 1984 at the Estonian Maritime Museum. The date was chosen according to the date of signing the Antarctic Treaty (1 December 1959). The treaty stopped arguments over the ownership of the Antarctic and declared it to be a continent of peace and science open to all humans.
The incentive to found the club was a series of exhibitions introducing oceans that was organised at the museum in the 1980s. All persons from Estonia who had participated in expeditions to this cold and distant continent were mapped during the preparations for the Antarctic exhibition.
Members
The club has over thirty members in Estonia and three foreign members in other countries. Most of the members of the club have a background in research, have taken part in many expeditions and research trips. The members are from different fields: climatology, physics, geography, geology, history, lake studies, meteorology, cinematography, architecture, ethnology, medicine, journalism, philology, law, etc. New members are accepted if they have the recommendation of two existing members.
The Presidents of the Polar Club have been academician Jüri Martin (1984–1991), Dr Enn Kaup (1991–2003), and Vello Park (2003–2014). As of 2015, the President of the Club is Dr Andres Tarand.
Activities
The club organises different events and some of them are open to the public. Everyone interested can take part in the polar forums that take place at the museum. One important milestone was publishing a collection of polar-related memories titled Nabakirjad in 1992.
The members of the club have supplemented the museum’s collections and taken part in preparing exhibitions. One of the more important undertakings was the preparation and exhibiting of the 4th International Polar Year Exhibit in Tallinn and Tartu in 2008 and 2009. In 2015, for the international grand exhibition Race to the End of the World, the club supported preparing a separate part on Estonian connections to the Antarctic – Freezing Science Lab and Estonia. In cooperation with other organisations, bigger international seminars have also been organised.
A separate series of seminars was organised for celebrating the 200th anniversary of discovering the Antarctic with a popular science expedition in cooperation between the Maritime Museum and MTÜ Thetis Ekspeditsioonid. Members of the club have published research and popular science articles and books.
In 1997, the members of the Polar Club founded the SA Eesti Polaarfond foundation, which, in compliance with its objectives, has raised and distributed funds (including scholarships) to support researching the polar regions.
Contact:
Secretary and Chief Executive of the Polar Club, Katrin Savomägi (ktrn1307@gmail.com, phone 506 9893)
