NUNAVUT'S CULTURE ON CLOTH





This fall, the Tongass Historical Museum will mass Nunavut’s Culture on Cloth, a world-traveling exhibit featuring a anthology of 20 fabric wall hangings formed by the Inuit women of Baker Lake, a small Native village west of Hudson Bay in Nunavut – Canada’s northernmost region.

This is the second showing of Nunavut wall hangings curated by Judith Varney Burch, who has spend 30 years collecting, researching, and promoting the fine art of Canada’s Inuit public. Her first collection has traveled to 14 country since 2002. This new exhibition comes to Ketchikan after showing in Virginia, Bermuda and the Yukon.

In the ‘40s and ‘50s, Inuit peoples suffer great hardship when game became scarce, and they were optimistic to settle in organized communities. In the 1960s, the Canadian government promote various art-related cottage industries in an effort to make sustainable jobs for the Inuit. Utilizing sewing skill used in the creation of conventional skin clothing. Baker Lake women began to produce mittens,  parkas, boots and other clothing out of wool duffle. A little used leftover fabric waste to create these expressive plant.

The Inuit wall long curtains, or nivingajuq  featured in the exhibit are characterize by their exciting colors and patterns and arctic images. These exclusive works are composed of cut-out shapes that are intricately prearranged and hand-stitched into charming depiction of hunting scenes, representation of the tundra, spirit transformation, story and traditions. They clearly explain the relationship Inuit people have with their surroundings and contain a wealth of information on Inuit life and culture. Ketchikan will be lucky to view these stunning piece before they journey to Juneau and farther north as part of a planned international circumpolar travel next year.

Initially from Illinois and now residing in Maine and Virginia, exhibit keeper Judith Varney Burch first encountered Inuit art at a arcade in Nova Scotia. Intrigued, she traveled to Montreal and Toronto to  view nationwide collections of the genre, and eventually complete her way to the arctic territories to knowledge firsthand the connection among land and culture that is convey in Inuit art. In succeeding years, she has traveled to the Arctic various times and developed close relationships with the artists, whose work she has calm and promot. She has committed her life to the learn and perpetuation of Inuit art and culture as a research colleague at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, honarable board  member of the Nunavut Arts & Crafts Association, arctic art gallery owner, professor and teacher.


Ms. Varney Burch will be in Ketchikan for the exhibition  opening on Friday, October 19. After the greeting, she will present a slide show and speech on the Canadian Inuit and their art at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center. Through her stay, she will job with kids in Ketchikan schools to make their own wall hangings representing their culture, which will be sent back to Baker Lake as a cultural replace.


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