Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 03/99) - Fifty years ago, James Houston brought cartons loaded with Inuit carvings from the Arctic to Montreal where the Canadian Guild Craft Quebec held an exhibit.

The rest is history for Inuit carving. For Inuit jewelry, the present is history in the making. Students of the Nunavut Arctic College jewelry and metalwork program are currently exhibiting their work at the very same gallery.

Beth Biggs, senior instructor with the fine arts program at the college, says the time is now for Inuit jewelry.

"Certainly in the States the Navajo jewelry is extremely popular and West Coast jewelry is very sought after, and very, very expensive. It's a good model for jewelry made by First Nations People. There's a ready market for it."

Nunavut Arctic College has been offering courses in jewelry since about 1989, says Biggs.

"It was a way to spur the secondary art industry. There's a growing number of artists, and people are interested in trying different things, different forms of expression. It's very marketable and transportable. It's been very, very successful and the programs have been growing."

Biggs adds that the college offers the programs when the community asks for them.

Every year an exhibition is held at a gallery. It's part of the curriculum at the college to learn the practice of business and marketing, as well as the jewelry-making skill.

"We're trying to create a situation where they can have an educational experience," says Biggs.

"You learn what a contract is with a gallery, how to price your work to sell to a gallery, and the quality of work for an exhibition compared to a craft market. Those are two different thing."

The 25 students themselves -- from Arviat, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit -- raised $40,000 to attend their exhibit in Montreal on May 6.

The exhibit, which opened April 1, has a retail value of $74,000. By the fourth day they had sold $20,000. Pieces range in price from $100 to $4,000.

Though excited about the great strides jewelry is making, Biggs is concerned about the rift between education and industry, or economic development.

"It's been so successful that it's something economic development has to recognize -- and start supporting in a fairly serious way in how we're really going to get this really going. The college can only deliver education, it can't get into establishing businesses for people. It's economic development's role -- or sustainable development, I should say."