To start with, let's take a quick survey through the centuries and examine several artifacts and traditions that you can explore in more detail throughout this unit. To help you start thinking about Canadian art and it's role in Canadian society, we've provided several questions to consider while looking at these works.

• How would you describe this piece?
• What are the characteristics of this piece?
• What might its use be? Why might it have been made or created?
• What does it say about the culture or society from which it emerged?
• What aesthetic choices has the creator made? Why might they have made these choices?
• What might this piece say about Canada or the Canadian experience?
• When might this object have been created? Explain your answer: what makes you choose this date?

NOTES:

I thought we could include the following images and have a link for "find out more about these images" Basically, I thought we could present the works without dates, names, titles etc but have this info available on a link (i.e., do that New Critical thing and suppress the known context).

I've left specifics on this part off until we figure out how to proceed re copyright-- I've tried to get a range of works which cross genre and time so we can play with these later. We could go down to 10

1. early Inuit object
2. Interior House Post (Grizzly Bear), Wood, Kwakiutl Indian, British Columbia, made in the 1870s.
3. Jesuit/ early churchy thing
4. Paul Kane (1810-1871), canvas, "Indian Encampment on Lake Huron," painted in Toronto from a sketch made on Lake Huron in the summer of 1845. (page 62 Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art).
5. Robert Harris (1849-1919), sketch "The Fathers of Confederation" Represents the Quebec Conference of 1864. Preliminary Study made in 1883 for the large oil painting of 1886, destroyed in the Parliament building fire, 1916.
6. Historic quilt? Check UNL site.
7. Emily Carr, "Blunden Harbour" Canvas, painted about 1929. Blunden Harbour is a Kwakiutl village on the coast of British Columbia. (page 62 Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art).
8. Something by Pitseolak
9. Something by Jane Ash Poitras
10. Wynona Mulcaster, "Prairie Pasture" (1982) Contemporary Canadian Art or Dorothy Knowles
11. Tony Onley (1966) "Mirage" (Contemporary Canadian Art 122)
12. Joe Fafard? 238 (Contemporary Canadian Art 122)
13. Michael Snow?
14. Domingo Cisneros (1942- )"Holchelaga, je me souviens" installation, (page 73, Newlands book-- v.cool installation)
    

These activities can be done individually or in groups. You can write about these questions, discuss them in large or small groups, or write and share your ideas with others.

1. Read the material included in the Myths and Literature section and think about the role these stories might play in Inuit communities then and now. Are there connections between some of the included illustrations or the art?
2. Choose a quotation from the Quotations section and discuss its relationship to the examples of Inuit art you’ve seen.
3. Select one of the Inuit art objects you’ve seen and write a story or a poem about the object. What story might it tell? What might a character in the object say about its history? What might the object’s story be?
4. Do additional research on one of the artists in the Major Artists section
5. Examine the Canadian government’s past and current interactions with Inuit artists. What role has the government played in the history of Inuit Art and the lives and livelihoods of Inuit Artists? What are some of the issues that need addressing? What might the government do in the future in this area?
6. Do some research into current artists producing work. How does their work fit connect with the traditions of Inuit art? How does it depart from traditions? What are some of the significant features of this artists’ work?
7. See if you can find examples of Inuit art in your community - see if there are stores that carry it, museums or galleries which display it or books in your library. How might this work or these works connect with the information you’ve read in this unit?