We returned to Traverse City and the Dennos for the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Inuit Art Society. This is a regular venue for the IAS, but we met during the summer this time, on August 16 & 17.
Meeting Highlights
Program
Friday, August 16
Reception, introduction, marketplace, and gallery tours
During the reception, participants shopped for Inuit art and books about Inuit art, took guided tours of the galleries, poked around in storage areas, and visited while enjoying appetizers and drinks.
Saturday, August 17
Richard Mohr on “The Collages of Janet Kigusiuq: A Case Study in Inuit Aesthetics”
Mohr’s talk celebrates and analyzes the late-life collages of the Baker Lake artist Janet Kigusiuq (1926-2005), and does so as a vehicle to profile some historically fundamental and still common features of Inuit art. In doing so, the presentation hopes to give a reasoned account of what we intuitively understand as Inuit aesthetics and enable collectors of Inuit art to better understand why we love what we love. The talk also briefly suggests that the Kigusiuq collages pose challenges to Inuit art criticism as it is currently conducted.
- Richard D. Mohr is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and of the Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published on Inuit art in Inuit Art Quarterly, Kolaj (Montreal), Above & Beyond (Canadian North), the Proceedings of the 2019 Inuit Studies Conference (Montreal), The Outsider (Chicago), and has frequently contributed articles to the Smithsonian’s annual Arctic Studies Center Newsletter, including “The Umiaks of Little Diomede”(2020).
You can see his presentation on YouTube:
Pat Feheley and Mark London from First Arts discussed collecting, managing, and downsizing an Inuit art collection
- Patricia Feheley, daughter of the early Inuit art champion and pioneer dealer M.F. “Budd” Feheley, has worked with Inuit art for over four decades. Feheley Fine Arts is one of Canada’s premier Inuit art galleries, specializing in nurturing and promoting contemporary artists. Patricia has travelled north continuously for forty years, consults extensively and has held board positions at the Inuit Art Foundation and the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.
- Mark London, also a second-generation art dealer, grew up working at Montreal’s Galerie Elca London when it specialized in Canadian and international art with a sideline in Inuit art. Assuming the helm of the gallery in the late 1980s, Mark transformed it into one of the preeminent Inuit galleries in the country, specializing in older, classic works. Mark has extensive appraisal and consulting experience and serves on the board of the Art Dealers Association of Canada.
An Inuit Art Roadshow with Mark London and Pat Feheley
IAS members brought pieces from their collections and had Mark and Pat draw on their wealth of experience to tell us more about who made it, when, what’s special or unusual about it, what it’s value might be, and more.
Membership meeting
Members join the board for an open discussion about the IAS and its future.
Gather at the Top of the Park (the Beacon Lounge) and Banquet
Time to socialize (and enjoy the view) from the Beacon Lounge at the Top of the Park Place Hotel.
The Dennos
The Dennos Museum Center is part of Northwestern Michigan College. It’s located right in Traverse City.
Although it’s a relatively small museum, the Dennos has a significant collection of Inuit art, as well as notable Canadian Woodland Indian art, outdoor sculptures, and more.
In the galleries at the Dennos.