Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Oct 28/05) - The Matchbox Gallery, a cross-cultural arts studio in Rankin Inlet, wrapped up the first half of a regional artists program last week.

The Kangiqlinik Center for Arts and Learning Traditional Arts Workshop gathered 11 artists from around the Kivalliq for 10 weeks.

They represented a variety of traditional media, including carving, printmaking, ceramics and drawing.

"This is the first workshop that has brought in artists from communities throughout the region, rather than being community-specific," said Jim Shirley, the gallery's co-coordinator.

"When you put people into a situation that they haven't been in before, there're all kinds of things that happen," he said.

"People make new bonds and friendships. They share information at a technical level and it's a new gestation period for creative thinking."

Some of the creations produced during the workshop will form an upcoming exhibition at the gallery.

"We have some outstanding drawings coming out of this group," Shirley said. "I think definitely we'll be doing something with printmaking and drawing and maybe with a side of ceramics, as well. We have seen some really interesting new approaches to ceramics.

"There's more narrative figures and images drawn on the surfaces or low relief narrative images. It's very exciting."

The artists will bring their new skills back to their communities and show others what they've learned.

"These arts are very important to our local economies," Shirley said.

"The capabilities of the artists are bringing in net revenues that are very important, particularly in communities that have very delicate infrastructures."

The second half of the program will continue in January.

It will expand to include more artists, including non-Inuit artists from the North, Shirley said.