Press enter after choosing selection

In tune with Inuit art

In tune with Inuit art image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
July
Year
1997
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
Related
OCR Text

In tune with Inuit art

Gallery offers carvings and paintings from Northwest Territories

By CATHARINE O'DONNELL

Jack Strickland offers Inuit art such as this soap stone sculpture of a bear Inuit Art of the Northwest Territories. The gallery is located the Marketplace next to the Farmer's Market in Ann Arbor.

'Inuit art is one of the few remaining North American aboriginal art forms that really describe a mythology, a way of life, a perception of the environment and the animals the people hunt.'

— Jack Strickland, owner of Inuit Art of the Northwest Territories

The downtown Ann Arbor gallery is small and the offerings spare, but there's a rich culture behind the prints and sculpture Jack Strickland offers at Inuit Art of the Northwest Territories,

For Strickland, the fascination started about five years ago when he saw the collection displayed at Domino's Farms.

“Inuit art is one of the few remaining North American aboriginal art forms that really describe a mythology, a way of life, a perception of the environment and the animals the people hunt,” he says.

The collection at Domino's has since departed. It was donated to the Dennos Muse- um at Northwestern Michigan Community College after the death of in 1993 of Eugene Power - the person who started the Inuit collection at Domino's and who is better known as the founder of University Microfilms, now called UMI.

But Strickland continues on with the art form in Ann Arbor. He operated a small Inuit gallery for a couple of years at Domino’s Farms and moved a few months ago into the Marketplace building next to the Farmers Market.

Much of the soapstone sculpture and many of the prints render the creatures Inuit people seek: walrus, polar bears, musk oxen, narwals. Historically, says Strickland, Inuit have carved as preparation for the hunt - literally getting a feel for their targets.

Also, he adds, “Carving gave them insight into the animal’s psyche, an advantage in the hunt.”

Power and fellow duck hunter Jim Houston started their non-profit gallery at Domino’s Farms in 1953 after Houston introduced Power to Inuit art, indicating the people needed new sources of income.

“Their only income came from trapping pelts and selling them to Hudson’s Bay Co., but the Bay Co. manipulated prices,” says Eugene Power's son, Phil - who isa member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and owner of a suburban Detroit newspaper chain. Phil Power said that his father’s Eskimo Art, Inc. became the first outlet for Inuit work in the United States.

After the elder Power's death, contents of the gallery went to the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Eugene Power’s hometown.

Interestingly, Strickland now gets much of his Inuit art from the Hudson’s Bay Co. offices in Toronto and Montreal. The artists are scattered in 25 or 30 communities in Canada’s Northwest Territory, most no larger than 1,000 people.

Strickland is currently planning the annual show of Inuit art, scheduled for October, at the Power Center on the U-M campus.

Strickland’s gallery at the Marketplace is open from Tuesday through Saturday, and also Friday evenings. Sculpture prices range from $100 to several thousand dolJars; prints range from $250-$700.