Artists back to school

JOHN THOMPSOM

Artists in Nunavut are also expected to be entrepreneurs when the time comes to sell their work, but many lack basic math and reading skills.

“How are you going to be a businessperson, if you can’t add and subtract?” asks Jim Shirley, co-owner of the Matchbox Gallery in Rankin Inlet.

Several years ago he began a program to address this problem. Every morning, veteran carvers attended classes that began with them working through math equations and taking turns reading aloud.

“You have to do that, or you’re at the mercy of people who can read and write, which is the situation for many artists right now.”

Later in the day, artists put their pencils to a different use and practiced sketching. “Drawing is something you can do for the rest of your life. It’s an endless process, and the foundation of creative work you do,” Shirley said.

During the course the students, who are mostly familiar with soapstone carving, gain experience with other media, such as print-making and ceramics. Rankin Inlet is one of the few communities in Nunavut to produce high-quality ceramics, Shirley said.

“We’re introducing new skills to veteran artists.”

This year the fully-funded program returned, which also provides students with housing and enough money to support themselves. Ten artists began classes on Aug 22. The classes end Nov. 11.

This year is the first time the course has expanded to include artists from the neighbouring communities of Repulse Bay and Baker Lake.

Artists in residence will soon also have another tool at their disposal: a website, due to be online in a few weeks, which will allow southern customers to look at the work of local artists and contact them directly.

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.

Most of the artists he works with have had troubled pasts. “They’re all people under the stress of not having enough to survive,” he said.

Art production remains a large slice of the “true economy” of Nunavut, Shirley said, but that doesn’t make tapping into government funds easy or simple. As soon as funding is secured for one year, he said, he needs to start fighting for the next.

Besides generating money that stays in the community, rather than being shipped down south, the art industry also occupies people who might otherwise turn to crime and eventually wind up in the court system, costing the public more money.

Shirley marches to his own beat, and his programs aren’t associated with Nunavut Arctic College. “Centralizing things isn’t a smart idea,” he said.

He first moved to Rankin Inlet 26 years ago – a long way from New York City, where Shirley was raised. His own art has been showcased across Canada. He said one of the pleasures of working as an instructor is that he continues to learn from his students.

“Every human being brings his own thing to the table, that’s very different from all other people.”