Artistic talent shines through

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

For five young Francophone artists there is always sun on Saturdays, regardless of mother nature’s mood.

These fortunate five are the fire that keeps Projet Soleil burning bright. The group of young visionaries is busy preparing a special exhibit of sculpture, painting, photography, film, engraving and stained glass, each one centered around the sun.

The project is designed to develop the group’s artistic skills and teach participants about Inuit art. The exhibit will be on display at Iqaluit’s Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in May, then packed up and sent overseas where it will be displayed in the Musée de Louvre de Paris.

In exchange, a group of young artists in Paris working on the same project will send their exhibit to Iqaluit to be displayed locally.

Projet Soleil was created by Aurelie Le Marec, a volunteer at L’Association des francophones du Nunavut. A native of France, Le Marec was familiar with similar projects in Paris. Together with AFN cultural and community sector employee Marie-Eve Fiset, the necessary contacts were made in France and the project began to take shape.

“It’s a great theme and the children do a lot of different things with it using different mediums,” Fiset said.

Most recently, the group got together and made sculptures with the help of professional sculptor Sandra Hettich. Using the concept of evolution as it relates to the different cycles of the sun, the children designed two sculptures, each demonstrating some form of transformation.

“There was the transformation of a mountain into an icicle, a boat into a plane and the earth into a lake,” Fiset said.

Apart from their own work, the group is excited to learn about the differences between Inuit and Parisian culture through the artwork sent over from their French counterparts.

“The group from France is a bit younger and their drawings and paintings are very different with an Egyptian flavour,” said Fiset.

The children have been working on their showpieces since early October and will be putting on the final touches in mid-April before the May exhibit.