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Inuit art gains prestige at Boston showcase

Nunavut delegation pitches territory's riches in high-profile visit

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Inuit artists can look forward to more profitable days ahead, after a famous Boston museum put Nunavut's public artifacts on display, such as Head by Pie Kukshout of Rankin Inlet. (PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN GAIR/BLIND DOG PHOTO)

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Nunavut carvers, printmakers and other artists should look forward to much bigger profits after Inuit politicians promoted the territory's artistic offerings during an unprecedented trade mission to the United States.

The trip - which participants considered a strong step for economic development in Nunavut - gathered wealthy art collectors and influential art critics together with Nunavut's leaders, artists and musicians in Boston last week.

The buzz focused on the high profile exhibition of Nunavut art launched Nov. 26, at Boston's famous Peabody Essex Museum.

The multi-media show, entitled "Our Land: Contemporary Art from the Arctic," spans several generations of Nunavut artists, from the late Cape Dorset printmaker Pitseolak Ashoona, to rocker Lucie Idlout, to budding photographer Billy Akavak of Kimmirut.

Museum organizers put special focus on Zach Kunuk's latest video production, Nunavut, which features four fictional Igloolik families coping with the major disruptions that came from increased government and police involvement in the eastern Arctic after the Second World War.

The exhibition runs until next month, and also showcases classic sculptures and artifacts from Nunavut's official collection, which usually sits out of public view in storage in Yellowknife.

Ronald Irwin, the Canadian consul general to New England, said he hopes the trade mission and exhibition event will spark some political momentum to open up a long-overdue heritage centre in Nunavut.

Irwin said Nunavut's artists are missing out on major profits because the territory doesn't have a heritage centre, even though it's guaranteed under the Nunavut land claims agreement.

"This will speed up the process," Irwin said from his office in Boston. "If Ottawa is seeing what we're doing around here, the pressure will come, and [the heritage centre] will come faster."

Irwin said he had several other reasons for organizing the trade mission.

He became familiar with the eastern Arctic while serving as minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1993 to 1997. The contact with the future leaders of Nunavut showed him that the territory's challenges would be much more complicated than many people think.

"Americans are fascinated with the story of the creation of Nunavut," Irwin said. "[But] people from around the globe don't understand how difficult it was to put Nunavut together.

"What I want them to see is the reality of Nunavut, like the need for economic development."

And Irwin brought the territory's top politicians down to Boston to make their case.

Those attending the trade meetings included Premier Paul Okalik, Finance Minister Leona Aglukkak, and Louis Tapardjuk, minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

Guests were treated to performances by throatsingers Miriam Aglukkaq, Madeleine Allakariallak, Celina Kalluk and drumdancer Jeff Tavbahtah. Commissioner Peter Irniq built an inuksuk that will remain at the museum as part of its permanent collection.

Thomasie Alikatuktuk, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Assocation, and Paul Kaludjak, president of Nunavut Tunngavik, topped up the long list of invitees.

Kaludjak said he considered the trip to be "a window of opportunity" for Inuit to take advantage of the world-wide interest in their culture.

Kaludjak estimates that Americans are generally more interested in Inuit culture than most Canadians.

"There's great, great potential there," Kaludjak said, referring to the United States market for Inuit art and natural resources.

"We have to find ways of exploiting [it]."

Nunavummiut can benefit from more than the art market. Kaludjak and the premier made a special point of pushing the potential to open up more sales in seafood from Nunavut to the Boston area.

They also discussed setting up an apprenticeship program through the consul general that would bring Nunavummiut down to the city to study under skilled trades workers.

However, the biggest short-term winners will be artists, according to museum staff.

In theory, the Nunavut art showcase will make Inuit art up to seven times more valuable than current selling prices. Canadian consul staff say this happens after a prestigious museum like the Peabody puts artwork on display.

But John Grimes, who co-curated the museum show, said the exhibition will do more than add dollar value.

He said the show will put Inuit art on par with all internationally famous art - which he says it has always deserved.

"It indeed has equal footing with art from anywhere else in the world," Grimes said. "And the creativity of Inuit culture will express itself in any new medium that comes along."

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