NorthMart's storefront is looking brighter after a new mural was installed along the front of the store facing Mackenzie Road.
What used to be a blank white wall is now bright yellow with pink, purple and white animal and snowmobile cutouts.
Samantha McKay/NNSL photo
Patrick Thompson, an artist who works primarily out of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, designed the mural with the help of more than 20 Inuvik youth aged nine to 13.
"The mural began in a series of small improvised workshops at the local library here in Inuvik," said Thompson. "We all worked around the big boardroom table, and I did a series of drawing games with them. I got them to just use scissors and paper, no pencil or eraser, and they cut out whatever animals they were drawn to. What it turned into was 90 per cent animals and a few snowmobiles."
After he gathered enough youth-designed images for the wall, Thompson said he set up shop at the Great Northern Arts Festival (GNAF) to enlarge and reproduce the images with marine-grade plywood, and figure out the orientation of the images on the NorthMart wall.
"The final snowmobile, which is closest to the main door of the NorthMart store, it feels like the person is coming off of the land, coming out of emptiness," he said. "It's not everybody's cup of tea, but the majority of people that walk by seem to really dig it, and enjoy these whimsical, strange, fun animals that have some anchor in reality and another anchor in a child's imagination."
The Town of Inuvik received a $10,000 grant from the NWT Arts Council to support the project, as well as in-kind donations and local sponsorships from its partners, including GNAF, the Gwich'in Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.
According to a press release from the Town of Inuvik, the community mural project aims to beautify Inuvik's main street.
"Mackenzie Road is facing many challenges, but one in particular is that of aesthetic value for our residents and visitors," the release reads. "Given the increased visitor traffic this summer with events such as the Great Northern Arts Festival, Inuvik's 60th anniversary, and the first summer of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, the Town of Inuvik wanted to ensure that we maximize our beautification efforts within our community as well as display our artistic talents and cultural vibrancy."
Thompson said he enjoys working with youth, and is very happy with the work Inuvik youth did with the mural.
"The kids did a wonderful job. The boy who was the most not into it at the beginning ended up being the most into it at the end of that day and cut out the huge bowhead whale, and the moose that ended up morphing into the snowmobile," said Thompson. "They create interesting images at that age, because they're not quite adults yet and they aren't too self-conscious."
Thompson works with Embassy of Imagination, a mobile art school in Cape Dorset, and said he hopes to facilitate a circumpolar youth art collaboration in the future.
"In the future, I'd ideally bring those two groups together in order to do a circumpolar collaboration. To have a group of kids in Inuvik, and a group of kids in the eastern Arctic come together to make something, I like that idea," he said. "I think that would be a nice thing for each community to have … to see how another part of the Arctic lives."