The Ikajuqtiit Circle changes lives all year long.
Members of the Ikajuqtiit Circle—those who help—are caring donors who protect and nurture the Inuit art community.
As Ikajuqtiit Circle members, you provide opportunities for artists to explore their practices, learn new skills and grow. You raise global awareness and appreciation of Inuit art. The generous Ikajuqtiit Circle members listed in these pages make all this and more possible. Your support is especially critical now in these uncertain times. Thank you!
Gifts made between December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020.
The IAQ has played an instrumental role in highlighting my work and has helped me reach new supporters of what I create. This is invaluable because now I am able to network with other creatives, which opens up more opportunity for collaboration and future projects. The exposure that the IAQ provides is extremely crucial in helping the next generation of artists find an audience, while continuing to honour the legacy of Inuit art.” KYLE NATKUSIAK ALEEKUK
As an artist, it can be difficult to connect to your audience and to know how your work is being received. Having my work chosen for the cover of the magazine was that connection. It is helping me to keep creating. Now I am thinking of new ways to explore my heritage in my art through film and pursuing international residency opportunities. I am excited for what is to come!” CHANTAL JUNG
The IAQ operates on a shoestring budget and I’m always amazed at the quality of the issues that come out and do so on time. So when I heard that there was a need to raise funds I wanted to help. I gave, and also wanted to support by donating my time and skills. That’s also part of the reason why I designed a button for the donors—to thank them for making sure the IAQ would continue.” GLENN GEAR
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From his vantage point in his living room, before he begins to paint, Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk contemplates these images created more than 40 years earlier by his relatives. Aleekuk examines the innate affinity between his own artistic style and works by Agnes Nanogak Goose and
Peter Aliknak Banksland in his first feature for the IAQ, “Family Lines,” allowing him to connect to his culture and family history. COURTESY THE ARTIST
COURTESY THE ARTIST PHOTO RHIANNON SAR AH
Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk is a visual artist based in Edmonton. Aleekuk explored the influence of his ancestors, grandfather Peter Aliknak Banksland and great-aunt Agnes Nanogak Goose, on his artwork in his first major feature for the IAQ in the fall of 2020. Aleekuk has written a heartfelt letter to members of the Ikajuqtiit Circle which we have shared on page 15 of this issue.
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Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk discovered a relationship between the dark black lines and vivid colours of his ancestors’ artwork and his own style of tattoo art. So important to his artistic practice, Aleekuk bears tattooed images of his grandfather’s artwork on his arms as a tribute and reminder of this familial connection.
COURTESY THE ARTIST
PHOTO RHIANNON SARAH
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For Chantal Jung, pairing flowers with portraits of friends and family uncovers personal and communal histories—something she explored in her works which comprised the Fall 2020 cover of the IAQ. In this collage work
Jung pays tribute to her anânsiak by using images of aqpik flowers (also known as bakeapples or cloudberries) to enhance a found image from National Geographic magazine.
COURTESY THE ARTIST
COURTESY THE ARTIST
Multidisciplinary artist Chantal Jung was introduced to IAQ readers in September 2020 in a dedicated Artist Spotlight newsletter and her vibrant collage portraits graced the Fall 2020 cover of the
IAQ. Originally from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Nunatsiavut, NL, she now resides in California, where she explores her ancestry and the relationship between flowers and identity through collage, short films, animation and zines.
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A fundamental theme in Chantal Jung’s collage work, which appeared on the cover of the
Fall 2020 IAQ, is flowers. Jung is most comfortable surrounded by flowers, as they are deeply linked to her identity and practice. In the work from her series introduced in the IAQ, she demonstrates how flowers can tell the stories of the land and the people from it.
COURTESY THE ARTIST
PHOTO LISA GR AVES
Animator, filmmaker and visual artist Glenn Gear took part in a residency in Anchorage, Alaska, through the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and the Inuit Art Foundation. For the Fall 2020 issue of the IAQ, he wrote about the Anchorage Museum’s collections and how handling Inuit artifacts has given him a new appreciation of the social and cultural context of the works. Gear is also a supporter of the IAF.