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Pyramiden was founded by Sweden in 1910 and sold to the Soviet Union in 1927. It lies at the foot of the Billefjorden on the island of Spitsbergen and is named for the pyramid-shaped mountain adjacent to the town. The nearest settlements are Svalbard's capital, Longyearbyen, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the south, Barentsburg approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) south-west and the small research community of Ny-Ålesund, 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the west.
Owned by the state-owned Russian mining company Trust Arktikugol, which also owns the settlement of Barentsburg, Pyramiden once had a population of over 1,000 inhabitants. It was abandoned on 10 January 1998. Until 2007, Pyramiden was practically a ghost town where, within the buildings, things remained largely as they were when the settlement was abandoned in a hurry.[1]
A book has been written about Pyramiden by Norwegian author Kjartan Fløgstad.[2] A recent episode of the History Channel programme "Life After People" featured Pyramiden. It predicted that due to the low rate of decay in a frigid climate, the abandoned town's major buildings would be visible 500 years from now.
The world's northernmost grand piano is located at Pyramiden; a "Red October" (Красный октябрь)[3] grand piano is located in the auditorium of the cultural centre.

Interactive map of Svalbard from the Norwegian Polar Institute

Participants included:
Claire Liberman, Karen Power, Laura Petrovich-Cheney, Tom Snelgrove, Kate Puccia, Ari Belathar, Han Sungpil, Lauren Portada,Allison Cameron, Jolene Mok, Joyce Majiski, Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz, Diane Burko, Richard Ryan, Lisa Goren, Jane Isakson,Deborah Hamon, Hanna Campbell, Gisela Gari, Kinez Riza,Marlene Nicols, Kaisu Koivisto, Marianna Williams, Tina Kohlmann, Terry Adkins, Vincent Huang