National visual artists’ group appoints first Inuk president

An organization advocating for Canadian visual artists has appointed its first-ever Inuk president.

Artist and art collector Theresie Tungilik was named as the new national president of the Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens, known as CARFAC, on May 28 in Winnipeg.

She replaces outgoing president Paddy Lamb.

Originally from Rankin Inlet, Tungilik has been involved with the non-profit organization for years, joining CARFAC’s national board in 2017 and becoming vice-president in 2019.

She also sits on CARFAC’s Indigenous advisory circle, has been an arts adviser for the Government of Nunavut for more than two decades, and in 2021 was appointed to the board of the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Indigenous advisory committee for Qaumajuq, the Winnipeg gallery’s new Inuit Art Centre.

Tungilik is a strong advocate for CARFAC’s Artist’s Resale Right campaign, a project that aims to give five per cent of profits back to visual artists if their work is resold.

She wants to see it become law in Canada, ensuring an artwork “will always belong to the artists themselves no matter how many items that piece of art resells and belongs to new owners.”

“That would mean the artists would get royalty payments [for] secondary sales to galleries and museums and auction houses. So, it would give them a little bit more financial security,” she said.

It’s also a way to make sure artists are properly recognized for the work they do. More than 90 other countries have similar laws in place, according to Tungilik.

“Look at musicians, when their music is used here and there by businesses they always get royalty payments. Why can’t it be the same for visual artists?” she asked.

“My dad was a visual artist. I am a visual artist. I know many who are visual artists, so to me it’s very important that Canada will include your distribution rights and [have it] become a law under the Copyright Act.”

CARFAC also advocates for artists to have access to safe spaces to create art, and helps artists document their works for publication and for websites while being protected from their work being stolen or used without consent.

As well, Tungilik is part of a team working on the repatriation of Inuit art from museums around the world, but she doesn’t think that all Inuit art should remain in Inuit communities.

“We want some of the things back that should rightly belong in the North,” she said, such as art that was taken by explorers and missionaries without the artists’ consent, “but also I have a vision of art being enjoyed in the world.”

Art is a teaching tool, she said.

“Inuit art is so good. It’s so fantastic. It’s so wildly great that it just shouldn’t be in the North. It should be disseminated around the world so other peoples of all cultures can view what [the] art is,” she said.

“I think, to me, art is a loudspeaker without sound.”