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Art camp in Rankin

The Kivalliq Art Camp will be held in Rankin Inlet from Nov. 5 to 13.
The annual camp is sponsored by the Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA).

This year's instructors will once again feature Rob Saley, Paul Mantrop and Andrew Qappik.

Falisha Niakrok works carefully on a pencil sketch during a Kivalliq Inuit Art Camp held in Naujaat on June 29, 2017. NNSL file photo
Falisha Niakrok works carefully on a pencil sketch during a Kivalliq Inuit Art Camp held in Naujaat on June 29, 2017.
NNSL file photo

Mantrop said there's just too much on the go in Rankin during the summer and he's looking forward to travelling to Rankin in November.

This is his seventh time coming to the Kivalliq to help deliver the camp.

"I just love it in the Kivalliq and it's becoming a little more familiar each time," said Mantrop.

"Rankin's really becoming a familiar place to me. Rob (Saley) and I both love teaching and we really get results up North.

"You can see people really invested their energy into their work and you also see personal growth in people afterward.

"I don't know what it is, but it just seems to be that they're into it, focused and happy. They make some nice art, get excited and want to make another piece."

Mantrop said the Kivalliq Art Camp is always a rewarding experience.

He said he's still impressed by the level of talent he sees every year at the camp, which has gone up since the camp expanded to all ages.

"We don't have any say in the selection of the students.

"I can recommend students to come back, but the KIA's policy is to give new people a shot first and then, if there's room, we can bring back some of the regulars.

"I enjoying seeing students return and being able to help them and I like to see what they've done during the past year to see if they've moved forward.

"I like the all-ages camp better because, when you get the elders in, they kind of keep the kids from messing around, goofing off, or not showing up."

Mantrop said he really noticed the difference in Whale Cove, when lower numbers in a small community prompted the opening of the camp to everyone.

He said a pair of female elders joined and they weren't long in setting the youth straight.

"We had a couple of grannies join and they didn't take any bull from anyone," laughed Mantrop.

"We had a couple of rough characters in that camp, but they listened to the two grannies and did what they said, I can tell you that.

"The mixed-age group we have now keeps the camp more interesting and every year the students are new.

"And we always seem to have one or two students every year – young and old – who just start to shine from inside when they create something that they can call their own.

"The addition of Andrew Qappik four or five years ago really resolved our curriculum too, so now I'm teaching portraiture, Rob's teaching landscape and Andrew is teaching traditional Inuit stencil technique."

Mantrop said he was particularly impressed with the variety of subjects that were done in Naujaat.

He said the students they had really drew from their life experiences to produce their art.

"We had people doing pictures of their grandpas hunting, or narwhal – just life in general in their community.

"We always do a little exhibition at the end of each camp and the Naujaat work really made for the best one we'd done.

"Seeing life in the community of Naujaat come to life in their art was really cool."