NUNAVUT

Inuit art and culture took centre stage for almost three full days at an art gallery in Paris, France, recently.

Igah Hainnu, Liliana Costa and Goretti Kakuktinniq of Rankin Inlet, from left, quickly adapted new display methods for 12 exquisite wall hangings on 500-year-old solid stone walls at the host Galerie Art Inuit Paris in Paris, France, recently. - photo courtesy of Mike Chapman

A group representing the Nunavut Development Corp. (NDC) and the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association (NACA) went to initiate an Inuit art exposition supported by the Galerie Art Inuit Paris.

The group included Justin Ford of Iqaluit, Igah Hainnu of Clyde River, Kyra Fisher of Pangnirtung, Goretti Kakuktinniq of Rankin Inlet, and Liliana Costa and NDC general manager of southern operations Tom Chapman of Mississauga, Ont.

The display - designed to expand awareness and advance distribution of Inuit art - was extremely well attended, with Galerie sales exceeding expectations and new European consumers being inspired to collect Inuit art.

Hainnu, sponsored on the trip by NACA, reportedly wowed the Paris crowds with her carving demonstrations and unique goose-foot baskets.

Chapman said the trip was a corporate decision.

He said European consumers are highly interested in both Inuit arts and crafts, and Inuit culture.

"We looked for an appropriate partner, venue and city we could visit to further the distribution of Inuit art, and Paris was chosen through the host gallery," said Chapman.

"The gallery deals exclusively in Inuit art in Paris and, on behalf of NDC, it's important to support these dealers who are on their own halfway around the world.

"We can better serve and help them when we're able to get out and hear the issues they face first-hand."

Chapman said it was interesting to get halfway around the world and be met with unforeseen challenges.

He said once at their space, with the show but hours away, they realized they'd have to do some quick adapting to make the display work.

"Nobody told us these were four-foot thick, 500-year-old walls of stone.

"The women quickly got to work and improvised ways to get the hangings on the wall and put the show together.

"Their ingenuity and sewing skills were incredible, especially under such pressure."

Chapman said a number of people who had never purchased Inuit art were

thrilled by the exhibit.

He said they were impressed by the quality of both the fabric and stone art.

"They were so inspired that many of them did, in fact, open their wallets and do some business.

"The event, itself, ran for almost three days, but we were there for about six days.

"It was well worth our time and effort to participate in."

Chapman said NDC plans to keep looking to expand internationally, in addition to its healthy and growing North American distribution network.

He said word of the Paris show is continuing to spread around Europe.

"We've begun discussing a similar event with a very large client in Bern, Switzerland, who could use some help in advancing the industry in that region.

"We're just in the preliminary stages of that and, no pun intended, there's nothing carved in stone yet.

"It has to be advantageous to not only the client, but Nunavut as well.

"We're focusing mainly on centres that have an existing Inuit art gallery or dealer, so we can strengthen their abilities to grow their businesses, which is a win-win situation for everyone."

Kakuktinniq said she found NDC's mission to Paris to be very productive.

She said it's good to create exposure for Nunavut carvers and artists, so they can sell more of their work.

"When we saw where we had to place the wall hangings, we had to make a very quick decision," said Kakuktinniq.

"You really expect to find drywall, but everything there was stone or concrete.

"We knew what we had to do, so we went right away to buy bias tape (binding), needles and thread.

"We put the bias tape on the back of the hanging so we could put a dowel in back, and the gallery owner provided us with fishing line so we could hang them on the wall."

Kakuktinniq said the bias tape they used for the hangings is the same type used on homemade parkas.

She said on many of the customized parkas people wear to show their favourite hockey team, or whatever, the colours are done with bias tape.

"As sewers, we gave it about two-minutes thought and knew bias tape would allow us to hang the items properly and it worked very well.

"The people seemed to be just as interested in our culture as they were in the art, and we were asked a lot

of questions about Inuit culture.

"The three boys who got the Inuit snow goggles were very, very proud of them.

"The goggles were given to NDC by NACA to be given away at the event and they were thrilled to get them."

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