Copyright by Adria Cowell McCuaig 2009 Arctic-Adapted Art Education: Looking at the Art Education Experiences and Efforts of Inuit Artist Andrew Qappik by Adria Cowell McCuaig, B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin August 2009 Arctic-Adapted Art Education: Looking at the Art Education Experiences and Efforts of Inuit Artist Andrew Qappik Approved by Supervising Committee: Paul Bolin Melinda Mayer Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Andrew Qappik, and to all Inuit artists of the eastern Canadian Arctic, past and present. It is also dedicated to those individuals, both Inuit and qallunaat, who have infused the field of contemporary Inuit art with their enthusiasm, effort, and energy. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the special support of Dr. Paul Bolin, who was receptive to my hazy but earnest ideas from the very beginning, and remained supportive and extremely helpful throughout. I would also like to acknowledge the important input of Dr. Melinda Mayer, who offered valuable insights after reading my first draft. And, although I have never met him, I want to pay homage to James Clifford, a historian of cultural anthropology, whose writings I found most inspiring and relevant to my topic. Additionally, various friends and family were helpful throughout the long process, offering input and moral support, especially Grady, Ian, Leonor Díaz, and Laura Savage- Rains. Local friends Allyson, John, Deborah, and Keith were consistently encouraging. Thank you! I acknowledge the support of my parents, my mother Judith Cowell McCuaig, and my father, Donald Dorsey McCuaig, who, sadly, passed away while I was in the arctic, and my three sisters Alison, Leslie and Dorsey. August 2009 v Abstract Arctic-Adapted Art Education: Looking at the Art Education Experiences and Efforts of Inuit Artist Andrew Qappik Adria Cowell McCuaig, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Paul Bolin This thesis presents a qualitative case study based on interviews I conducted with contemporary Inuit artist and art educator Andrew Qappik. I traveled to Pangnirtung, Nunavut Territory, Canada in order to ask the 45-year-old “master printmaker” about the art education he received as a child and adult while living in a mostly Inuit town of approximately 1,300 in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Additionally, I interviewed Qappik about the art-teaching activities he has been providing to children and adults, in Pangnirtung and beyond, for the past fifteen years. My research sheds light not only on Qappik’s personal experiences, but, by extension, on the nature of the art education models recently and currently operating in his local and regional community. In this thesis, I present information about the “arctic- adapted” nature of art education within a unique borderland society—a place where the traditions, values and contemporary practices of the indigenous Inuit culture are intertwined with those of the dominant, mainstream, Canadian culture. vi Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................... 1 Arctic-Adapted Art Education: ............................................................................... 1 Looking at the Art Education Experiences and Efforts of Inuit Artist Andrew Qappik ........................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Central Research Question ............................................................................. 4 Problem Statement ......................................................................................... 5 Motivations for Research ............................................................................... 7 Research Methods .......................................................................................... 9 Definition of Terms ...................................................................................... 12 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................... 15 Benefits to the Field of Art Education ......................................................... 16 CHAPTER TWO................................................................................................... 21 Review of Literature.............................................................................................. 21 The Origin of Contemporary Inuit Printmaking .......................................... 21 History of Contemporary Inuit Art............................................................... 25 Cultural Heritage of Inuit ............................................................................. 28 Modern Living among Modern Inuit of Nunavut Territory ......................... 31 Literature Related to Andrew Qappik .......................................................... 34 Literature Related to Methodology .............................................................. 36 Ethnography Books and Articles ................................................................. 40 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 43 vii CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................... 45 My Interviews with Andrew Qappik ..................................................................... 45 General Childhood ....................................................................................... 47 Early Art Education Experiences ................................................................. 50 Introduction to Printmaking ......................................................................... 56 Qappik’s Real Training in Printmaking Begins ........................................... 58 Continuing Art Education as a Printer ......................................................... 61 Art Education at Arts Festivals .................................................................... 65 Beginning to Teach ...................................................................................... 72 Teaching Methods ........................................................................................ 77 CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................ 84 Data Analysis and Conclusion: The Muddy Waters of Inuit Art Education “in the Borderlands”................................................................................................. 84 First Central Research Question ................................................................... 85 Second Central Research Question .............................................................. 97 Final Conclusion .......................................................................................... 99 APPENDIX A ..................................................................................................... 104 The Creation of Nunavut ............................................................................ 104 Empowerment of the Inuit ......................................................................... 107 Nunavut Today ........................................................................................... 111 APPENDIX B ..................................................................................................... 122 Interview Questions for Andrew Qappik ............................................................ 122 APPENDIX C ..................................................................................................... 128 Images of Andrew Qappik and his Art....................................................... 128 REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 132 Vita .................................................................................................................... 135 viii CHAPTER OE Arctic-Adapted Art Education: Looking at the Art Education Experiences and Efforts of Inuit Artist Andrew Qappik ITRODUCTIO This study is born out of a love and appreciation for contemporary Inuit art. That appreciation began about fifteen years ago, in San Francisco, when I wandered in the open door of a small gallery on a bustling street, beckoned by some colorful and unusual prints I saw in the window. The art I perused that day enchanted me—the prints were nothing quite like anything I had seen before and held great charm. I loved, too, the beautiful little sculptures I saw along shelves and in glass display cases—especially the polar bears, carved out of gleaming green or mottled black stone, and other arctic animals, like seals, owls, whales, and walruses. Over the next few years I made many trips to Images of the North, and each time was drawn to the curious prints, with their soft colors and somehow-naïve-like look. Sometimes I chatted with the proprietor, who told me that the prints were part of an “annual collection” from a place called Cape Dorset—a settlement somewhere way up north in Canada, apparently. Overall though, I found out little about the art, its place of origin, or its creators; I mainly looked and admired, basking in the warm, aesthetically-pleasing small space