Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Great White North
Here I am-- in the Great White North.
I came to Pang, Nunavut to experience a distinct Canadian culture, implement an arts exchange program with youth, and to volunteer in various other extra-curricular programs. I am travelling with Emma Smit, a friend from home. We will work together on these projects over the next two months and hopefully learn a few lessons along the way.
Art from Pangnirtung is known worldwide for its quality and imagination. It must be in part due to my current surroundings. It would be impossible for an artist to grow up in Pang and not be inspired by the natural contrasts around them.
Around me I see harsh mountains swathed in soft mist. When parched by the desert climate, I taste the clear, cool water of the Pang Fjord. I feel the bright sunlit night--imagining this place months before, where star-specked midday would be relieved only by dancing Northern lights.
If not from their surroundings, surely artists would be fostered by the Inuit culture itself—focusing on adaptation, creative resourcefulness and inclusion. I have never felt more welcomed. The strong sense of community is palpable as I walk down the streets. Children call my name from bicycles and even burly water truck drivers never fail to nod as they pass.
It may also be the first time someone has wanted me on their baseball team…
We have started to implement a few art programs at the local high school for the Canada, Mine and Yours art exchange program (more info below). The teachers have allowed us to have a good chunk of their class-time to complete this art exchange. Even though the teachers have been very accommodating, it hasn’t been easy to produce full art-pieces in the short 45-minute blocks of class-time. I’m learning a lot about teaching from our sessions and from the great teachers at the school. One teacher in particular—Lisee—has provided us with a lot of helpful tips as she has experience both in Inuit and Southern cultures.
I feel blessed by the opportunity to be in this place. I'm struck daily by my surroundings and these welcoming and honest people. The sheltered mountain valley speaks so well to the nature of the people it cradles.
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Canada, Mine and Yours is an art-exchange between youth in two diverse regions of Canada- the Maritimes and the Arctic. In this project, Canadian students will create an art portfolio expressing who they are and how their community and nation have been formative in their development. In order to best accomplish the task, the project features multiple pieces of art presented in a variety of media.
Students will create a self-portrait, a “Canada Reflection”, a group art piece and a piece of art that reflects the local community. An example of a Canada Reflection is “Draw a map of Canada from memory. Compare it to an actual map. Find fifteen cool facts that you didn't know before about the places you drew incorrectly.” The group art piece in Pang will be a “mosaic mural”. It is an image broken into 84 pieces. Each student will complete one piece of the mural using different materials. These pieces will be brought back together to reform the image. Finally the local art reflection in Pang will be printmaking—known around the world for its quality. This is compared to a traditional Mi’kmaq drum completed by their Maritime counterparts.
Canada, Mine and Yours is a project of Postcards for Progress. This summer there will be eight art exchanges around the world each with their own on-sight coordinators. These projects are generously funded by the Davis Projects for Peace grant.
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