Beth McKenty turns kids into artists

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Weekend visitors stepping inside the red walls of the rectangular Bahai House on the shores of Frobisher Bay are almost guaranteed to find a full table of cheery children and teens, with paintbrushes in hand.
This is the home of Beth McKenty, a 73-year-old grandmother to everyone she meets, well-known to school children as far away as the High Arctic, and to kids running around the streets of Iqaluit.

Last month, the kids and McKenty had extra reason to celebrate as her art program turned five years old, as old as Nunavut. With platefuls of cake and ice cream, they marked what the seemingly tireless teacher called the “renewal” of her one-woman quest to make sure that as many children as possible get to express themselves through painting.

“I see so much that is creative that it is truly a miracle,” she said in a recent interview after serving cookies and tea.

“The more I’m in Iqaluit, the more I’m convinced that each one of us is an artist.”

McKenty launched the program after noticing a lot of children in her neighbourhood, down by the breakwater, who seemed to be wandering around without much to do.

She kept her door open, and spread the word that she had painting supplies on hand, and that anyone was welcome to join.

At first, kids were shy, asking for permission to come in, and only staying to watch others paint. Soon, dozens of children were coming every week, stomping in the front door, and asking for seconds of cookies or hotdogs after they were done making their latest work of art.

Some students have since gone on to show their art in Alberta, as well as the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum and the Legislative Assembly.

But behind the bright smiles, and brighter colours surrounding her, McKenty also admitted that her mission to help children has taken on a somewhat tragic edge.

McKenty returned from a Christmas card workshop in Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay last month, to the bittersweet news that her art poster project to battle violence against women had found financial backers.

Thanks to funding from an anonymous patron and the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, McKenty could afford to send a poster of a flower to every hamlet office, every library, every health centre, and every police station in the territory.

The flower has special significance for McKenty, who remembers encouraging the student who painted it about two years ago.

Jennifer Naglingiq, then 13, wanted to throw out her work because she thought she had ruined the paper with a blotch of yellow in the middle of her page. McKenty told her the colour was a difficult one to make, prompting Naglingiq to keep going, and make the flower design.

Two weeks later, Naglingiq’s body was found in her home. An Iqaluit man will go to trial for first-degree murder next year.

McKenty found the flower picture a couple of months after her student’s death, inspiring her to make “something positive” come from the sad event. The poster would help ensure that Naglingiq, and what happened to her, wasn’t forgotten.

McKenty said the poster project also refueled her interest in the art program.

“Sometimes, I’m so tired I don’t even want to answer the door,” she said.

“[But] the experience with Jennifer has brought home to me how precious the present is,” McKenty said. “The present is what we have.

“So let’s use it.”

Additional sponsors for the Arctic Youth Art Initiative include the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Culture, Language, Elders, and Youth, the Royal Canadian Legion’s women’s auxiliary and the Royal Bank.