Jennifer Geens and Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 04/04) - More than 50 pieces of contemporary Inuit art are travelling to Salem, Mass., for an exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum.

John Grimes, the museum's curator of Native American art and deputy director of research and new media, said Our Land: Contemporary Art from the Arctic displays a wide spectrum of art from Nunavut -- everything from carvings, ceramics and tapestries to photographs and multimedia installations.

Most of the art is from the collection of the Government of Nunavut.

Grimes said the exhibit will be educational for people in Massachusetts, some of whom may not even be aware of the new territory of Nunavut.

"But many people have heard of Fast Runner," he said. The museum hopes to use the fame of Zacharias Kunuk's film as a starting point to introduce people to modern Inuit art.

The Peabody Essex Museum has one of the oldest collections of Native American art in this hemisphere. Some of its art dates back to 1799.

Grimes said the intent is to eventually tour the exhibit within the U.S.

Kimmirut's Billy Akavak, 29, is one of the artists. About 11 of his digital pictures of landscapes, sunsets and flowers -- all taken in and around Kimmirut between 2003 and this past summer -- have been selected for the show.

"I'm very excited. This is my first exhibit," said Akavak, who works at Qaqqalik school in Kimmirut.

Grimes said a researcher for the Peabody Essex exhibit was looking for a photographer for the show and ran into Akavak's work in Iqaluit.

Akavak has never had photography lessons, but ever since he picked up a digital camera a few years ago, he can't stop using it.

The first pictures he ever took were of family and friends.

He moved on to landscapes, even close-ups of ice, and has seen his works appear in the pages of Nunavut News/North and the Government of Nunavut Internet homepage.

The pictures selected from Akavak's large body of work for show at the Peabody Essex Museum were taken using a Fugifilm 3800 digital camera.

Akavak cannot say exactly what attracts him to photography. Surrounded by carvers and other skilled artists and craftspeople most of his life, he never even had the desire to carve. It was always the life through the lens that he liked.

But when he thinks about it, he says the promise of sharing images of his hometown is a big part of it. "Not a lot of people get to see the land here and how beautiful it is," he said.

The exhibit runs Nov. 26 to Jan. 30.