Participants make Youth Arts Week in Iqaluit “a success,” coordinator says

Olivia Chislett mulls over what colours she’ll use to decorate her National Youth Arts Week t-shirt during a workshop session held at the Iqaluit Centennial Library last week. (PHOTO BY SAMANTHA DAWSON)

Youth Arts Week Iqaluit was a success and a signal that more youth art programming is needed in Iqaluit, coordinator Pascale Aprin says.

Events, which ran from May 1 to 7, included a variety of workshops including breakdancing, t-shirt design, graffiti, life drawing, DJ-ing, comic book illustrating, grant writing and self-publishing, with youth over and under 13 years old at the packed workshops.

“Every workshop people attended, it was so clear they were like sponges, eager to learn,” Arpin said. “It just confirms that there is a need for art-based programming here.”

Highlights included spray painting a giant mural outside of the Iqaluit Centennial Library. Even the Monday workshops on grant-writing and self-publishing had great turnouts, Arpin said of the “less flashy workshops.”

At the wrap-up party, some of the kids who learned how to DJ were given a chance to try it in a real life setting. “You could see they were happy and proud to stand behind a DJ booth,” she said. “They were so proud to have learned something contemporary and cool.”

The organizers also brought in participants from the young offender’s facility in Iqaluit to help create some of the graffiti. “They were really thriving and really passionate,” Arpin said. “They got to express themselves creatively.”

Organizers, a part of youthartsweek.ca, were hoping to reach the broadest population possible and were pleased with the outcome, Arpin said, after about four weeks of planning.

“People from different places and different walks of life got to try their hand at art,” she said.

The project was like a pilot to raise community interest so that there can be similar workshops in the future, Arpin said.

People have shown interest in a movie club and a zine (short for fanzine or magazine) -making club.

“It gives kids something to do that’s positive,” Arpin said. “It’s a pretty fail-proof formula.”

A short video will be released and available for viewing on the group’s Facebook page, which now numbers more than 600 members.

“I feel like there are lots of good things ahead,” Arpin said. “These types of programming are completely welcome here.”