Spotlights From Across the Circumpolar North

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has been working with Indigenous and other Northern communities across Canada since the 1940s to tell their stories. The NFB’s growing collection of Inuit cinema features titles from all four Inuit regions in Canada: Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.

This spotlight celebrates the opening of Qaumajuq, an innovative new museum dedicated to Inuit art and culture, and a home for the largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world. This first-of-its-kind centre is connected to the Winnipeg Art Gallery on all levels, creating an 185,000-square-foot cultural campus in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

This spotlight presents art and culture from Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Sápmi, in the northern part of Sweden, with a population of approximately 500,000 in a geographic area covering about one-third of Sweden.

This spotlight showcases artwork, filmmaking, and music from across Nunavut. Nunavut is a massive, sparsely populated territory of northern Canada, forming most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its islands have expanses of tundra, craggy mountains and remote hamlets, accessible only by plane or boat. Nunavut is known for its Indigenous Inuit people’s artwork, carvings and handmade clothing.

This spotlight showcases the art and culture of northern Norway through a dynamic presentation including visual arts, craft, film, dance, music, and provocative talks and discussions by artistic and cultural leaders. Highlighting collaboration within and among artists from various disciplines and backgrounds in the north of Norway, this spotlight focuses on urgent issues within the region: gender, identity, political organizing, Indigenous sovereignty, Arctic self-determination, the power of cultural mythology about the North, climate change, ecological crisis, connections to land and materials, tradition, technology and adaptation. 

This is a spotlight on Greenlandic art and culture. Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland, is the world’s biggest island, in the middle of the Arctic, with a population of 56,562. Kalaallit, the people of Greenland, have a strong sense of identity rooted in the traditional Inuit culture—a traditional hunting culture with a lot of spirituality. Greenland is also part of the Nordic countries and has historic relations to other Nordic countries. All of this is apparent in Greenlandic art and culture.

Bringing together contributions by Sámi artists, collectives and organizations, this spotlight centres on artistic creation and exchange across Sápmi, the Sámi traditional territory stretching across the northern part of the Scandanavian Peninsula and large parts of the Kola Peninsula.

Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) is diverse in nature—and so are the artists that live here. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the land and rich culture and tradition of its people, artists of all genres are inspired to create and share the story of their art.

This spotlight highlights the artwork of Inuit in Nunatsiavut. Nunatsiavut is one of the four regions that comprise Inuit Nunangat, with a settlement area that spans 72,520 square km of the northern region of Labrador. 

In this spotlight on the Arctic Arts Council platform, the Yukon Arts Centre shares some of its current, recent, and ongoing projects in support of the Yukon’s diverse artistic communities:

In this spotlight, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat focuses on the positive and successful cooperation between artists and cultural institutions that normally takes place across the Norwegian-Russian border. 

Barents Spektakel is a cultural-political cocktail with contemporary art and music, theatre and performance, architecture and design, seminars and debates as its ingredients—all spiced with current issues related to the Barents Region and the High North in general. Between the 23rd and the 27th of February, 2022 Pikene på Broen invites visitors to experience the 18th edition of the Barents Spektakel festival! 

This spotlight showcases the work of Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project, a seven-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant project that aims to dramatically increase the number of Inuit and Inuvialuit in leadership positions in all sectors of the arts by providing innovative, hands-on mentoring and training opportunities for students across the North and South. This spotlight presents a selection of the many activities undertaken by the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership team in collaboration with their partners, mentors, and Ilinniaqtuit (students / learners). 

This spotlight showcases a selection of stories from Canadian Geographic about the North—its dramatic, ice-sculpted landscapes, its unique flora and fauna, and the resilience and ingenuity of those who call the Arctic home. At the same time, these stories are underpinned by the understanding that climate change is reshaping the Arctic faster than any other place on Earth. As an organization based in Southern Canada and covering stories from across the country, Canadian Geographic recognizes the urgent need to listen to northerners on issues like food insecurity, shipping, pollution, biodiversity loss and cultural preservation and understand how these challenges stand to affect not just the Arctic, but the rest of the world. 

This spotlight celebrates artistic work from across Nunavik, one of four Inuit homelands that make up Inuit Nunangat, covering over 560,000 square kilometres of Arctic Quebec.

This spotlight showcases Finland, who hosted the Arctic Arts Summit in 2019. In this spotlight, Finland shares Indigenous Sámi art and work by other artists who work with Arctic themes, in support of Arctic sustainability. The University of Lapland is an active partner in the development and research of Arctic art and design. Various Finnish art institutions, as well as grassroots organizations led by artists, regularly collaborate with their Arctic friends and partners, and this spotlight also reflects various multinational projects and collaborations.