Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Cape Dorset (Oct 09/00) - For the Cape Dorset printmaking community, last year was about celebrating the past and 40 years of annual collections.

With the release of this year's collection, 2000 is about the future.

In a News/North interview last year, Leslie Boyd, manager of Dorset Fine Arts, said one of the most important fixtures of community life in Dorset has been West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, home of the print shop.

Today's focus is on the future of the shop as young artists master the art-form.

"The print shop and the technical staff are stronger than ever, but there's a whole new generation to encourage, to entice to come forward to express themselves in this medium," says Terry Ryan of Dorset Fine Arts.

Ryan, who has been involved with the Dorset printmakers for 40 years, says in the 1960s, the North was a simpler place. Young artists today face many more distractions coming from the world outside the North.

Ryan adds print shops are labour- and money- intensive.

"So that's the support we're looking for. And we're getting it," he says.

Arctic College is currently running a printmaking workshop in Dorset as part of its fine arts program.

The community also hopes the shop will evolve into an "open studio," where printmakers from the rest of Canada and the world can gather and work together.

"We work towards that goal, cognizant of the fact that it will take both time and commitment by many players.

"It took a long time to bring it to where it is today, and today, to try to support and encourage a new generation it's going to take as much, if not more, time."

The shop in Dorset is the longest, continuously running print shop in Canada.

Many of the original artists are deceased, but there are several who continue to create their magical prints and have achieved world acclaim. They include Kenojuak Ashevak, Kananginak Pootoogook, Pitaloosie Saila and Mary Pudlat.

Boyd said there was definitely talent in the younger generation, and with them may come innovative approaches in method and imagery.

When asked if buyers prefer the "traditional" stone cut and stencil methods of the early days, Ryan says, "Of course, printmaking is not "traditional" at all.

"It was introduced in the late 1950s. Buyers react to the image in front of them. If the image is stronger in stone cut than in etching then, of course, the stone cut will sell."

Ryan doesn't believe young printmakers will be restricted by the past.

The 29-print collection will open simultaneously in Iqaluit and Fairbanks, Alaska on Oct. 20, after which dealers worldwide will begin selling the prints.