Artists in the Park

This summer Parks Canada hosted its second Artists in the Park camp in Ivvavik National Park. For ten days in July five artists camped at Sheep Creek Operations Centre on the Firth River. Those ten days flew by, with lots of hiking and exploring the park, and even more carving, painting, sketching, print-making, and filming!

Artists in the Park offers Inuvialuit and non-Inuvialuit artists an opportunity to create art in the inspirational natural setting of Ivvavik. The first year of the program was in 2003.

Inuvialuit artists Audrea Loreen-Wulf from BC, Ronnie Felix from Yellowknife, and James Ruben Jr. from Paulatuk participated in the 2003 program.

A Young Artists in the Park camp was held in 2004. Fiona Joe, Hebert Kowana, Eric Kendi, Saiyla Inglangasuk, Dustin Edwards, and Crystal Saunders spent their days hiking, sketching, painting, and learning new art skills. For their final project they worked together to create an art booklet, using print-making techniques they learned at the camp. In 2005 Elaine Alexie and Patrick Joe from ICS also joined the camp, to capture some of this creative energy on film. They made a documentary about the program, which was recently aired on Suaangan.

Another Artists in the Park program is planned for August of 2006. If you are an artist or you know an artist who might be interested in this opportunity, please contact us at 7778800, or at inuvik.info@pc.gc.ca for more information about how to apply.