NWT artists pop up in Yellowknife
People from all five regions are showing their work at the NWT Arts Pop Up Gallery
Yellowknife artist Diane Boudreau shows off her latest fish art creation at the NWT Arts Pop Up Gallery in the Centre Square Mall. Boudreau, a working artist who travels to the communities to teach workshops, says she is determined to give back to the community. - Emelie Peacock/NNSL photo |
Emelie Peacock
Northern News Services
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The richness of the territory's art and culture are on display at a pop-up gallery at the Centre Square Mall this week.
Cousins Dora Blondin and Rosemary Elemie from Deline sit at one table, laden with beaded moccasins, each made with tanned hide, hand-beaded tops and beaver fur. The two were taught to sew in their early teenage years and are now passing on their knowledge to their children, grandchildren and young people in the community.
"Nowadays the kids don't know how to sew," said Blondin, who teaches traditional skills to school children in Deline.
"I show them how to start sewing and then they start sewing. They want to finish it right away and want to put it on. And I say, 'In your time.'"
Rosemary said she sometimes beads eight hours or more per day.
For her, it is a way to relieve stress. She showed the beadwork her daughter and granddaughter have completed, expressing pride at passing on a tradition she learned from her own mother.
Briony Wright, communications officer with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, said this is the first year the department has organized a pop-up gallery.
"Our focus is to try to represent each of the regions and each of the art genres, so we've got performing arts, we've got literature, we've got traditional arts and crafts like birchbark baskets, we've got painting, carving," she said.
The aim is to give the public the chance to interact with and touch artwork from across the territory.
Across the room from Blondin and Elemie, two women sat hunched over a table laden with birch bark. Karen Cumberland threaded dyed porcupine quills through a layer of birch bark as her mother Martine Kotchea prepared the quills. Cumberland and her mother are from Fort Liard.
Yellowknife outdoor artist Diane Boudreau, a biologist who worked for many years in architecture, brought a collection of brightly painted fish to the gallery.
She shared her passion for giving back to the NWT through art workshops in the communities.
"So we paint fish, berries and birds. It is from my culture and their culture so we have something in common," she said. "I give workshops but I always hope some kids will continue on their way because there are a thousand ways to paint."
The pop-up gallery runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day until Saturday.
Darin Woodbury, Pat Braden and William Greenland are set to perform among photographers, painters, jewelers, carvers and traditional artisans tufting, sewing and beading.
