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'The look of the North'

Adam Johnson
Northern News Services

Lake Harbour (Apr 03/06) - A few phone calls secured the future of a piece of Northern art history.

The Soper House Gallery in Kimmirut is now under the watch of the visitor's centre and its manager, Tommy Akavak. This is a relief for outgoing Kimmirut economic development officer and gallery founder, Kyra Fisher.

After four years in Kimmirut, Fisher has taken a position in Cape Dorset. For a time, she was unsure of the gallery's future in Kimmirut.

"I really hope it doesn't crash," she said at the time, referring to the collapse of a carver's society in recent years.

Fisher's relief isn't just over a pet project, however. She feared for what the gallery contains - history.

The Soper House is the former home of Dewey Soper, built by the explorer and naturalist in 1930. Fisher said the gallery holds a number of watercolour paintings done by Soper in his later years.

The paintings are based on photographs Soper took during his time in the North, and Fisher said they convey the landscapes marvelously.

"They are quite beautiful," she said. "He captured the look of the North."

Fisher said she has a personal connection with Soper's paintings, as she curated a showing of his work while earning her master's degree in fine arts.

She recalled the impact his work had on her early days on Baffin Island, as she went to the Soper River to gather blue lapis stones for an art project.

"I felt the place looked so familiar," she said. "I had seen all of this - the river, the environment - from Soper's watercolours."

"Soper captured an intimacy with the land," she said.

According to her agreement with the visitor's centre, if something does happen to the gallery, the paintings revert to the museum in Iqaluit. While Fisher said the the gallery is in good hands, she was sad to leave it behind.

"It's like raising kids," she said. "You can try to instill values in them, but ultimately they do their own thing."

Fisher is unwilling to take much credit for starting the gallery in Kimmirut, or for the museum Nunatta Sunakkutaagnit in Iqaluit, which she also had a hand in founding.

"It was just a natural progression," she said.

The area needed a gallery and it got one, she said.

"If it's meaningful to people, it will continue," she said.