Updates and highlights from the world of Inuit art and culture
Tivi Etok Becomes Member of Ordre des Ar ts et des Lettres du Québec
This May, the Conseil des ar ts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) announced that Inuk ar tist Tivi Etok, alongside 11 other luminaries, would be inducted into the Ordre des ar ts et des lettres du Québec in a ceremony on June 6.
An honourary distinction instituted in 2015 to mark CALQ’s 20th anniversary, the Ordre is awarded annually to ar tists, writers, teachers, managers and patrons for outstanding contribution to the development and reputation of excellence of Québec ar ts and literature at home and abroad.
Based in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, Etok is a printmaker and graphic ar tist whose work is defined by the fight for sur vival, por trayed either out on the land while hunting or against spirits and the supernatural.
He is best known as the first (and second) Inuk ar tist ever to have a solo print release. whispering in my ears and mingling with my dreams (1975) travelled nationally and internationally and was quickly followed a year later with a second solo release. Etok’s desire to keep old stories and ways of life alive for future generations was chronicled in the trilingual biography of his life and work, The World of Tivi Etok, in 2008.
Etok is the third Inuk ar tist to be inducted into the Ordre; singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac became a Compagne in
2021 and sculptor Mattiusi Iyaituk was inducted in 2018.
IAQ Takes Home Gold at National Magazine Awards
The 45th National Magazine Awards (NMA) were held vir tually on Friday, June 3. Inuit Ar t Foundation staff and Board members watched over Zoom and were honoured to have been selected as the Best Ar ts and Literary Magazine and Magazine
Grand Prix winner at this year’s National Magazine Awards!
After winning Gold for Best Magazine: Art, Literary & Culture, the Inuit Art Quarterly became eligible for the Magazine Grand Prix, the NMA’s most coveted editorial award given to the best overall magazine in Canada. The IAQ was presented with the top prize by Melony Ward, President, National Media Awards Foundation; and Publisher and Director of Business Enterprise, Canada’s National History Society.
“The Magazine Grand Prix honours a magazine that displays excellence across the board,” said Ward. “The recipient is inspiring, worthy of aspiration and demonstrates the best that Canadian magazines have to offer.” Relaying the
NMA jury’s comments, Ward concluded, “Visually stunning, ambitious and ultimately necessary, Inuit Ar t Quar terly succeeds as both a magazine and as a cultural entry point to a world much of the country hasn’t seen.”
This marks the four th time the IAQ has been recognized for excellence in the category of Best Magazine: Ar ts, Literar y & Culture and the magazine’s first Gold at the NMAs.
Canada Council for the Ar ts Announces Two Funding and Capacity Building Par tnerships for Indigenous Ar tists
This summer, the Canada Council for the Ar ts (CCA) announced two par tnerships to suppor t Indigenous ar tists throughout the North—one with the Government of Yukon and one with the Inuit Ar t Foundation (IAF). During the Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse, Yukon, which ran from June 27–29, the CCA and the Yukon government announced a two-year pilot project that will suppor t Indigenous ar tists in the territory. Through the project, $50,000 in funding will be distributed to ar tists in the first year and $150,000 in the second year. The project will also create and hire an Indigenous outreach position in the Yukon who will assist Indigenous artists to apply for funding and develop their careers.
“I'm thrilled to see yet another groundbreaking co-deliver y initiative honouring Indigenous cultural sovereignty by suppor ting new ar tists and cultural carriers where they live and work.,” said CCA Director and CEO Simon Brault in a Yukon government press release.
On June 15, the CCA and Inuit Ar t Foundation announced their par tnership in the deliver y of a new national Inuit-specific funding pilot initiative, which will distribute more than $100,000 over the course of the first year. The CCA will suppor t the IAF in working with Inuit communities to create the multidisciplinar y granting pilot program — a vital component of the creation process.