Performing arts still Qaggiavuut priority
Organization has full-time staff, working on programs and building facility
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, September 26, 2016
IQALUIT
Qaggiavuut is on fire, and that energy was crackling at the organization's annual general meeting Sept. 21.
Several new board members were acclaimed at the Qaggiavuut annual general meeting Sept. 21 in Iqaluit. From left, new board members Jenny Soucie, Maxine Carroll and Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, continuing members Marie Belleau and Vinnie Karetak, and new member Jamie Griffiths. Absent are continuing members Miali Buscemi and Daniel Taukie, and advisory member at large Rhoda Ungalaq. - Michele LeTourneau/NNSL photo |
The group, which began as an organization dedicated to training emerging and established Arctic performing artists, is "on the cusp of becoming much bigger than we are," said chairperson Vinnie Karetak.
"We've already grown so much this year."
The organization won a portion of the coveted Arctic Inspiration Prize to the tune of $600,000 as Qaggiq in January. Now the organization is Qaggiavuut - with the original project only one part of a larger dream. Thanks to those funds, additional funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Nunavut and a variety of other partnerships Qaggiq is now only one of many programs being developed.
"Until now we've had part-time employees. For the first time we are able to have full-time staff," said Karetak. "We are a fully functioning organization."
Top of the list of goals, but furthest away from becoming reality, is establishment of a Nunavut performing arts facility.
"This is, I think, at the very core of what Qaggiavuut is all about - is that we give a performance art centre here in Nunavut," said Karetak. "I think in the eyes of the federal government it's starting to be an embarrassment that Nunavut is the only jurisdiction that does not have a dedicated space for the performing arts."
Performances, whether local, territorial or imported from the south, are staged at the high school gym or, occasionally, at a church.
"And we remind them at every opportunity. We continue to advocate for an arts and cultural centre. It's a necessity for Nunavut."
Qaggiavuut is embracing its role as a one-stop shop for production companies looking for Inuit actors. The Arctic is increasingly a sought-out location for making film and television. Although the expense of film production in Nunavut remains exorbitant, there is an unprecedented number of talented Inuit actors.
Qaggiavuut intends to have a complete listing, with profiles, of Arctic performers.
"They're based on ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) profiles and they're going to be a lot easier for a director or film who comes into town, or any town, and wants to find who are the actors in that community, they'll be able to just push a button and all the actors in (for example) Clyde River will show up. The same with music," said executive director Ellen Hamilton.
"One of the things we'll be doing this year is really work hard at promoting and marketing our artists. Qaggiavuut has a big plan. We received money from (Economic Development and Tourism) to do this."
Hamilton noted that during the Qaggiq Summit, held this past summer, artists from across the Arctic "told us one of the things we should be doing is helping the artists get more gigs."
"We took that to heart," she said.
From now until December the focus will be on actors and from January the focus will be on musicians.
"There are a lot of big opportunities happening right now for actors," said Hamilton. "There's a huge television show coming up to Iqaluit. We're helping prepare actors for the auditions. Right after that the Stratford Festival is coming up. They're going to be holding a reading in order to audition and select eight actors for the Stratford Festival. It will be the first time there will be Inuit actors in the company."
The Stratford Festival, located in Stratford, Ont., began in the 1950s and is an internationally recognized annual repertory theatre festival running from April to October.
"So these actors would live on campus at Stratford. It's a huge gig, full-time paid, to be part of the company."
The NBC/BBC-produced television series called The Council will be filming in Iqaluit and will require numerous Inuit actors.
"That will be a 10-episode, one-hour per episode TV show," said Hamilton.
Some actors may get full-time work from April to October. By the time December rolls around, Qaggiavuut hopes to have 150 filmed actors reels.
"Those will be available to actors any time a director wants an audition."
There are many more initiatives going on at Qaggiavuut, which now has its own office space in Iqaluit. The organization also has a new website - where all of its projects are available, including the master class video series.
"The excitement from winning the Arctic Inspiration Prize and the grant from the Canada Council meant that we could finally start working on the stuff that we want to do ... for years it had been just fighting for the organization to exist so we could do something, the dream of being able to do what we're doing now, said Karetak.
"The dream of one day being able to do this for our artists ... we're finally able to say we're doing it. We're living the dream."
