Kinngait has been a centre for drawing, printmaking, and carving since the 1950s and continues to be the community's main economic activity, with some 22% of the labour force employed in the arts. Each year, Kinngait Studios, known as the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, produce an annual catalogue advertising their limited edition prints.
The Kinngait Cooperative was established in 1957 by James Archibald Houston who created a graphic arts workshop in a programme sponsored by the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. The aim was to help the community to generate income by adapting traditional art forms to contemporary techniques. Houston collected drawings from community artists and encouraged local Inuit stone carvers to apply their skills to stone-block printing, to create art that might be more widely sold and distributed.
Between 1959 and 1974, Kinngait artists produced more than 48,000 prints. A list of the most well-known artists together with their biographies and illustrations of their art can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinngait#Gallery
It's perhaps appropriate here to step back for a moment and remind ourselves of the origins of the Inuit culture. The Inuit are one of three separate cultures inhabiting today's arctic regions. In addition, there are the Yupik, and the Inupiat people. Today the word Eskimo is considered a pejorative term but it is the only term that commonly refers to the people of all three cultures.
Inuit Art celebrates the life and history of the indigenous Inuit people, who live in the Artic regions of Eastern Canada. The art of the Inuit people provides a visual history of their way of life and honours the skill and resourcefulness of their ancestors, who adapted to living in one of the harshest climates on earth. Inuit legends tell of the spiritual forces that are present in the world. Many of the Inuit myths and legends are about how humans and other living beings are all connected in a powerful universe. The stories and the spirits they describe continue to be the inspiration for today's Inuit artists.
Most Inuit art consists of bone and soapstone sculptural carvings but as mentioned already since the 1950s the Toronto artist, James Houston, has promoted Inuit printmaking which displays beautifully executed geometric designs. Some art historians say that by the beginning of 19th Century, much Inuit art had begun to be produced specifically for trade with the European Whalers and Explorers. Though often thought to be even more exquisite, this style of Inuit art is criticised for becoming a kind of 'souvenir art' mainly because it has lost much or all of its magical and shamanistic significance.
For more examples of Inuit art: https://inuit.com
To read more about the history and culture of the Inuits and its influence on their art see: https://samsoriginalart.com/en-us/blogs/art/inuit-art
Talking of souvenir art, the photo is of two fridge magnets (You will know of my world-wide collection of mainly hand-crafted fridge magnets!) displaying Kenojuak Ashevak's drawings of owls that have appeared on Canadian stamps as well as a Canadian Quarter Dollar coin. She is just one of the many now famous Inuit Artists who have worked at or with the Kinngait studios. A full biography of her life and career as an artist, that makes for an interesting read can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenojuak_Ashevak
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