Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association picks new board

Nunavut artists have a new team with greater Inuit representation advocating on their behalf, who say there’s a huge need for studio spaces and support for artists.

Members of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association elected 12 board members at an annual general meeting earlier this month.

The new board—11 of whom are Inuit—includes veteran artists like Abraham Tagalik, Elisapi Gordon and Lucie Idlout.

Idlout, a musician who toured festivals for 20 years and wrote soundtracks for TV shows and movies, said she is hopeful the new board can produce new ideas and innovative ways to help artists.

“I think artists are great at being artists, but … we are bad at promoting our own art. We’re great at underselling ourselves,” Idlout said after the July 2 meeting.

“I’m looking forward to contributing as an advocate on behalf of Inuit artists, to expand on sharing their art with a global audience.”

It can be difficult for Nunavut artists to access that global audience because of the territory’s remote communities, Idlout added.

NACA can help put Nunavut artists’ faces to their work through promotion and advocacy, including by ensuring the authenticity of Inuit art sold around the world, Idlout said.

And NACA can push towards a collective workspace for Nunavut artists, whose work is often lonely, she said.

“I think building collective work spaces would be one way to address that for people who want to work around other artists. It would also address equipment needs for people who don’t have all the tools they need, which can be very expensive … and it is a warm place for those who don’t have a proper workspace in cold weather.”

Access to studio and exhibition place is the biggest of many challenges for Nunavut artists, Jesse Tungilik said.

Tungilik, another new board member elected July 2, comes from a family known for its artists and began his own art career at the age of eight when he made a sculpture at Rankin Inlet’s Matchbox Gallery.

More recently, Tungilik, who served a short stint as NACA’s executive director, made a sealskin space suit while in an arts residency at Concordia University in Montreal.

The lack of studio and exhibition space in Nunavut means most art created in Nunavut is not easily accessible to Nunavummiut, Tungilik said.

And artists themselves face big barriers too, he added.

“Artists in Nunavut score lower in almost every social determinant [of health] compared to the territorial average. This should not be seen as normal or acceptable.”

With one of the highest per capita concentrations of artists anywhere in the world, there are more than twice as many Inuit working as artists than in all of the Government of Nunavut, including territorial corporations, Tungilik said.

“Yet support and representation for Inuit artists is dismal.… Artists help to provide a sense of identity, purpose, connection and well-being—all of which are absolutely necessary for healthy communities,” he said.

But NACA has had some serious challenges in recent years, so board members have their work cut out for them, Tungilik added.

In the spring sitting of the legislature, David Akeeagok, minister of the department that core-funds NACA, said the arts organization is currently in a deficit position. The Department of Economic Development and Transportation is working closely with NACA to address that, Akeeagok said.

In response to questions from Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak, Akeeagok confirmed that NACA’s core funding will increase from $400,00 to $550,000 in the 2019-20 fiscal year. According to financial statements provided at NACA’s July 2 meeting, the organization’s deficit ran around $18,000 in 2016-17 and jumped to over $60,000 in 2017-18.

“My staff are monitoring it very closely and working with the new executive director in terms of how to get back into non-deficits,” Akeeagok said May 31.

Financial support from the government has been sorely lacking, Tungilik said, and NACA needs to find a better way of working with the government.

But the new board at NACA and increased Inuit representation gives Tungilik reason for optimism.

Tungilik also serves as the chair of the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum board of directors.

“I think it’s important for small, like-minded non-profit organizations in the North to work closely together and help each other when they can. I think there are a lot of opportunities for NACA and the museum to work together,” Tungilik said.

“I am very proud that both NACA and the museum are both governed and led by Inuit.”

NACA is holding its annual arts festival, which brings together visual artists from across the territory, in Iqaluit Aug. 20 to Aug 25. Nunavut artists can apply to attend the festival until July 22.