Marking the ten-year anniversary of the establishment of Nunatsiavut via the Labrador Inuit Land Claim Agreement, 2015 was also the year in which the Inuit Art Quarterly released our historic
Nunatsiavut! issue, celebrating the people, art and craft of the region.
Ingirrajut Isumaginnguaqtaminnut: Journey into Fantasy opened in June 2015 and featured the work of
Pudlo Pudlat rendered into games and animations by media company
Pinnguaq. This first-ever interactive Inuit Art exhibition celebrated the one-year anniversary of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s collaboration with York University in
Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage (MICH).
Tim Pitsiulak was commissioned by Cadillac Fairview to create work for the lobby of the TD Centre. Pitsiulak's finished piece, Swimming With Giants, measures 12 by 8 feet and was drawn entirely with coloured pencil. It featured a pod of whales, both small belugas and giant bowheads, swimming together.
The Museum of Inuit Art hosted a solo exhibition for the elder artist Barnabus Arnasungaaq. The exhibition Boldly Baker Lake: Barnabus Arnasungaaq was the artist's first museum solo exhibition following a career than spanned over 60 years.
Elisapee Ishulutaq Yesterday and Today (2014) Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery
The Winnipeg Art Gallery received Nunavut’s collection of Inuit Art in a loan for a five-year research and exhibition project in a partnership between Manitoba and Nunavut. The collection includes more than 8,000 prints, carvings, textiles and drawings and were loaned with the hopes of digitization and making much of the collection available online. The Winnipeg Art Gallery also unveiled a mural by Elisapee Ishulutaq titled Yesterday and Today depicting everyday life in Pangnirtung, NU. The mural was on display from April 10th to May 31st, 2015.
Grunt Gallery in Vancouver played host to the exhibition ARCTICNOISE, a solo who of work by Geronimo Inutiq. The media installation was created as an Indigenous response to Glenn Gould’s celebrated composition “The Idea of the North.”
Models hit the runway for the first annual Kakpik Fashion Show in Arviat, NU, in 2015, which has now become a favourite event in the community, featuring both local designers and designers from across the Kivalliq Region.
The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife hosted the major exhibition Abraham Anghik Ruben: Aurora Borealis which featured sculptures that focus on the artist's Inuvialuit identity. Later in the same year the Museum of Inuit Art hosted Beyond Aurora Borealis, an exhibition of Ruben's work that that looked at Inuit encounters with Norse Vikings.