Summer is just around the corner, and that means arts festival season is too! From music to film to visual art and textile, there are many annual festivals and events which run during the summer months that feature Inuit artists and foster community. Here are some of the key art festivals spotlighting Inuit art and artists that take place every (other) year.
June
Lindsay McIntyre Seeing Her (2020) (still)
© THE ARTIST
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Toronto, ON
June 3–8, 2025
imagineNATIVE, the world's largest Indigenous media arts event, celebrates Indigenous film, video, audio, digital and interactive art through various events like screenings and exhibitions. This year, the festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary and has permanently moved to June in order to align with National Indigenous History Month. In 2025 imagineNATIVE will run from June 3 to 8 in Toronto, ON, with the online festival running from June 9 to 15, with programming including the screening of works by several Inuit filmmakers, such as the world premiere of Lindsay McIntyre’s short film One Duck Down (2025). Check out their website for a full list of current programming.
Kalaaleq singer/songwriter Nick Ørbæk performing at the 2019 Alianait Arts Festival
COURTESY IAF
Alianait Arts Festival
Iqaluit, NU
June 19–22, 2025
Alianait Arts Festival highlights circumpolar Indigenous visual and performing artists, presenting an engaging program over several days. The 21st edition of the festival returns to Iqaluit, NU, in June, aligning with National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and it will be the first time that Jaqqa Petersen and Andrew Morrison will run the event as co-Executive Directors. Petersen is an Inuk multi-instrumentalist from Narsaq, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), and Morrison is a Qallunaaq musician from Iqaluit, known for being a former member of the Juno-nominated band The Jerry Cans. “We are looking to increase Inuit representation in all aspects of the festival, including production, light and sound techs, photography, stage management and more,” Petersen said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News. The first headliner announced for the 21st edition is Sauwestari, a reggae band from Kalaallit Nunaat. The full lineup will be posted shortly before the festival starts. Previous festivals have included performances by singer-songwriter Aasiva; writer, artist and curator Taqralik Partridge; and artist, writer and filmmaker Ashley Qilavaq-Savard.
July
Great Northern Arts Festival
Inuuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT
July 9–14, 2025
The Great Northern Arts Festival is a multi-day festival held in Inuuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, that brings together artists, storytellers, musicians and communities to celebrate Arctic arts. This year marks the 36th iteration of the festival and the theme is “Tales of the Taiga,” celebrating and honouring the taiga, also known as the boreal forest, and its natural richness. The festival will include contemporary and traditional art exhibits, workshops, music and dance performances, and storytelling. There will also be an Arctic Market, where vendors will be able to showcase and sell their work, a film festival and a fashion show, featuring designers and creators from across the country.
August
Audience watching the short film The Owl and the Lemming (2016) by Roselynn Akulukjuk at the 2018 Tillitarniit Inuit Arts Festival
COURTESY FOFA GALLERY PHOTO ZINNIA NAQVI
Tillitarniit Inuit Arts Festival
Montreal, QC
August
Tillitarniit Inuit Arts Festival is an event hosted by arts institutions in Montreal, QC, that celebrates storytelling and filmmaking. Co-founded and organized by Inuk visual artist and filmmaker asinnajaq in 2017, the festival features games, storytelling and film screenings. The fourth edition of the festival took place in 2024 and the theme was home, body, land, featuring work by Inuit artists and filmmakers who are shaping the world. The film screenings during that edition included Grape Soda in the Parking Lot (2023), directed by illustrator and painter Megan Kyak-Monteith and Taqralik Partridge; My Village in Nunavik (1999), directed by filmmaker Bobby Kenuajuak (1976–2020); Project Chariot (2012), directed by writer, director and producer Rachel Naŋinaaq Edwardson; and The Book of the Sea (2021), directed by filmmaker Aleksei Vakhrushev. Aiming to happen bi-annually, the fifth edition won’t take place in 2025, but keep an eye out for it as it will likely include an exciting line-up of Inuit films.
Eldred Allen Frost (2020) Digital photograph
COURTESY THE ARTIST
International First Peoples’ Festival
Montreal, QC
August 5–14, 2025
Held in Montreal, QC, the International First Peoples’ Festival highlights creative works by Indigenous peoples around the world through a wide selection of programming, including concerts, film competitions, exhibitions, traditional dancing and seminars. In 2025 the 35th edition of the festival will run from August 5 to 14 with events held at various cultural venues. In 2024 the festival included an exhibition at La Guilde titled Time and Tide—While Neither Waits on No One, Both Have Changed, which featured works by photographer Eldred Allen and interdisciplinary artist Jason Sikoak, examining the environmental and cultural transitions that influence Nunatsiavut. Check out their website for current programming.
Aqpik Jam
Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC
August, 2025
Aqpik Jam, known as Nunavik’s largest music festival, is a four-day event that includes nightly concerts and activities, one of which is the aqpik berry-picking contest. Held during the second week of August to align with the ripening and harvesting of aqpiit, it has run in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, since 1996 to celebrate musicians with roots in Inuit culture, and it has expanded to include Canadian pop and tribute bands. In 2024 singer-songwriter Beatrice Deer returned to the festival’s stage for the first time since 2016, and musician William Tagoona and singer-songwriter Terry Uyarak were also among the many performers. Be sure to keep an eye out on Facebook and Instagram for the full lineup!
Installation view of Billy Gauthier’s fin whale skull bone sculpture The Earth, Our Mother (2023) within Bonavista Biennale: Host
COURTESY BONAVISTA BIENNALE PHOTO BRIAN RICKS © THE ARTIST
Bonavista Biennale
Bonavista Peninsula, NL
August 16–September 14, 2025
The Bonavista Biennale is a month-long public art exhibition that displays works at sites along the Bonavista Peninsula, NL, every other year. Launched in 2017, the Biennale includes numerous works by Newfoundland and Labrador artists, creating dialogue with work by artists from across provincial and national borders within a given theme. The 2025 edition’s theme is String Games, and is curated by Dr. Heather Igloliorte, who is Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria and Inuit Art Foundation Board President. Also on Igloliorte’s curatorial team are Artistic Director of the Bonavista Biennale Rose Bouthillier and Special Exhibition Co-Curators: sewist and artisan Vanessa Flowers; grasswork artist Ella Jacque; and painter, printmaker and curator Jessica Winters. String Games will feature works by several Inuit artists, including Sarah Baikie, Andrea Flowers (1934–2019), Maureen Gruben, Michael Massie, CM, RCA, and Dr. Nellie Winters, as well as works by artists from Hawai’i, Japan, Kalaallit Nunaat and Sápmi—the greatest presence of international artists in the Biennale’s history.