Introduction by Ed McKenna, General Manager

Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts [1991-1995]

 

 

 

 

Last year's annual print collection was completed on kitchen tables, in carving shacks, in the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts board room, and on makeshift tables set up alongside the looms in the Pangnirtung Tapestry Studio. But on June 10, 1996, we celebrated the grand opening of the spacious new Pangnirtung Print Shop!

 

Again, this year, the schedule for producing the Collection has had to be severely compressed, but the hard work of editioning proceeds happily over this summer. We hope there is some indication of this in the images you see here – less of the response to surviving past calamities, and more of the view of a challenging and expansive future.

 

We have been fortunate to have had the assistance of master printer Paul Machnik from Montreal, who came to Pangnirtung for three weeks in June. Paul helped set up the Studio for etching, and worked with local artists to prepare the etching plates for printing.

 

The re-establishment of the Pangnirtung Print Shop over the past nine years (and especially since the destruction of our Studios in the fire of 1994) has been achieved because of the vision and determination of the Pangnirtung printmakers, the members of the Uqqurmiut Inuit Artists Association, and the community at large. Without this community base, nothing can be accomplished; but you depend on outside help, too. This help came to us in many forms: from government officials who did all they could to reduce the red tape so that we could secure public funding to individuals who make personal financial contributions. We've tried to thank everyone before, but a few must be recognized here: Alma and John Houston, Carol Heppenstall, Don Holman, the Inuit Art Foundation and The Friends of Equinox – all made special efforts to assist us.

 

It's important, too, to acknowledge those who have helped with the preservation and conservation of the drawings and prints – one of our greatest concerns for the future. After the fire we received immediate assistance from the Government of the Northwest Territories through the regional office of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and from the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. Since then we have been helped by Kathryn Rumbold at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Christine Lalonde at the National Gallery, and by Ingo Hessel and July Papatsie at the Canadian Inuit Art Information Centre. We intend to build on these efforts to ensure the preservation of Pangnirtung's irreplaceable (and growing) collection of Inuit imagery on paper. Some outstanding examples of this work follow.

Ed McKenna

General Manager

Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts