Art in a matchbox

JOHN THOMPSON

Carving is overrated, said Rankin Inlet’s Jim Shirley, when there are so many other creative outlets at the disposal of Inuit artists.
That’s why Shirley’s Matchbox Gallery has encouraged its resident artists to experiment with all sorts of media, from pencil-sketching to making prints with stencils to creating all sorts of dreamy shapes out of ceramics.

Take a recent piece, named “Mystic polar bear,” which was collaboratively made by Jack Nuviak and Leo Napayok. Igloos and human heads melt together as decorations around a circular band, which rises up to become the head of what looks like one blissed-out polar bear.

That kind of ceramics work is unique in Nunavut, said Shirley, and has become a specialty of resident artists.

Shirley started the Matchbox Gallery as a private business in 1987. In 2001 he helped establish a non-profit offshoot, the Kangirqliniq Centre for Arts and Learning. That organization receives funding from a number of government grants, mostly from the department of economic development and transportation.

This year Shirley is instructing eight students, ranging in age from grandfathers and grandmothers to grandchildren, he said.

Besides teaching art, the students also spend several hours each day studying how to read and do arithmetic. Shirley said that empowers his students act as entrepreneurs and sell their work.

“If you can’t read, you feel like you aren’t a part of things,” he said. “And if you’re in business, you need to be able to work with numbers.”

Many of the artists have troubled pasts, Shirley said, but the classroom environment gives them an opportunity to express themselves and tap into their creative potential.

“People have found a new purpose for themselves,” he said.

He said the healing power of art could be used to help troubled residents across the territory.

“Are you really caring about these people? If you do, what they’ve been needing is recognition and support.”

“We don’t have problems with motivation, problems with confidence or problems with morale.”

Shirley wouldn’t single out any of his artists as standouts, however. He said each one is important.

“Everyone here is treated equally. That’s something that comes from business. I don’t buy it, frankly,” he said.

Ceramics produced from the classes have been featured in major exhibitions in New York, Vancouver, Seattle, Colorado, Minneapolis, Toronto and Germany, Shirley said.

Art from the gallery is also in the permanent collections of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, the Prince of Whales Northern Heritage Centre, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, and the Cerny collection of Inuit Art, found in Bern, Switzerland.

Last year, the Matchbox Gallery launched a website to showcase work made by its resident artists. The website still exists, but Shirley said he’s now looking for help to update and maintain the site so it remains current.

Shirley said much more could be done to support art organizations such as his across the territory, and said that receiving funding was easier before Nunavut divided from the Northwest Territories.

“Stop paying lip-service to culture… and really respect it,” he said.

Shirley has spent nearly 28 years in Rankin Inlet, which is a long way from New York City, where he grew up.

Since then he said he’s amazed at the relationships and art that have sprung from the Matchbox Gallery.