The British Museum presents a major exhibition entitled Arctic: culture and climate which is developed in collaboration with Arctic communities, and celebrates the ingenuity and resilience of Arctic Peoples throughout history. It tells the powerful story of respectful relationships with icy worlds and how Arctic Peoples have harnessed the weather and climate to thrive. The West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative recently caught up with curator Amber Lincoln to discuss the exhibition.

We’re very interested to know more about the upcoming exhibition Arctic culture and climate at The British Museum. This is a remarkable initiative that spans 30,000 years of cultural and artistic history, which is an enormous undertaking. Why this project and why now?

Over the past decade or so, the Arctic has received considerable global attention as a result of issues relating to Global Climate Change. Far too often, however, this attention has left out the people who live in the Arctic. Global, and often, urban concerns relating to the Arctic focus on polar bears and sea ice but not the Indigenous Arctic People who have lots to teach southerners about living with rapid change and climate variability. This exhibition highlights Indigenous Arctic histories, focusing on how Arctic Peoples have lived with extreme weather in the past and today, how they are raising awareness about the impacts of Global Climate Change and working with governments and agencies to mitigate the negative impacts of a rapidly changing climate on their communities. This exhibition presents the creative practices, material and environmental knowledge and climate and community work of Indigenous Arctic Peoples in order to bring these valuable perspectives to global discussions of Climate Change.

With such an extensive inventory of objects, both artifacts and artworks, it’s remarkable that one of the standouts is Cape Dorset Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak’s lithograph Nunavut. Can you tell us how that print found its way into the exhibition? Is there something unique or noteworthy that Ashevak’s work brings to the exhibition?

Clearly Ashevak’s work is remarkable and should have a special place in any Arctic exhibition. But her lithograph, “Nunavut”, is particularly fitting for this show because it speaks to the inhabited Arctic, issues that I raised earlier. Ashevak’s Nunavut is not an empty landscape of austere icebergs and lonely polar bears. Her ‘beautiful land’ seems to spin with the movements of people running dogs, kayaking, hunting seals, fishing, setting up camp and using ice, waters and lands in various ways. People are part of her world and her depiction of these lives are shown seasonally. In exquisite detail, Ashevak shows how daily activities, transportation technologies, and relationships with animals and landscapes adjust in response to weather conditions, day-light levels and seasonality more generally. It sounds simple, but her depiction of seasonality is true to the Arctic, we don’t see the four seasons - summer, autumn, winter, spring – quintessential to a southerner perspective. This basic point helps us recognize important Arctic seasonal moments like ‘break up’, when the ice gives way to melting and run off, when waterproof boots are brought out and travel is difficult before boats can entirely replace sleds. It emphasizes a critical point that we hope to stress in the exhibition that in the Arctic, life is lived seasonally.

Thinking about Inuit art in a broader sense, do you see this form of expression playing a more robust role in museological discussions about environment and climate discussions?

I hope so. There are a number of Inuit artists directly using their artwork to address environmental degradation and challenges associated with climate change such as Ningiukulu Teevee, Floyd Kuptana, and David Ruben Piqtoukun. It’s important that these artistic perspectives influence museological discussions, and wider discussions about the health of our world and its representation. Inuit artistic subjects often derive from careful observation of animals and landscapes. This study is also an important element in tracking change. Inuit artists bring these long-term observational studies to the world through their art. They also often frame these subjects in valuable ways. One important perspective that these and other Inuit artists bring to climate conscious discussions is the idea that people have relationships with animals, lands, waters and ice and that such environmental degradation strains or ends these relationships. Personal accountability is at the level of an individual relationship. More generally, creative practices among Inuit artists and practitioners offer eloquent examples of the efficient use of material. Inuit material culture in the past and today demonstrates practitioners knowledge of material and careful consideration of the use of such material. Makers have carefully matched the right kind of material to the need, learning to process materials for efficient use. Certainly, many of the textile forms of art were created to use small pieces of materials left over from clothing and footwear projects. Inuit sculptors choose subjects to match their available material, achieving the most expression and movement with the fewest cuts, the least carved elements. By way of analogy, Inuit art is beautifully efficient, something we might all value and strive to emulate in a world of limited resources.

Our current moment in history presents us with much uncertainty and many questions. This new environment has shifted typical discourse and preempted usual thinking. In light of this, how has the relevance and role of museums shifted? Are there concerns or opportunities that you’re thinking about, moving forward?

This is certainly a period of learning and adjusting for everyone, as we try to carry on doing what we do, with loads of unusual restrictions and lots of activity moving to digital platforms. In additional to our Arctic exhibition being delayed in opening, many of the outreach activities have been reconceived for a virtual online experience. One thing that this does enable is more people from around the world to be involved and participate online. I’m hoping more Arctic People can view the exhibition and programming online. But it’s important that these virtual initiatives appear deliberate, crafted for digital interfaces. For instance, as part of the exhibition we had planned a celebration of the Arctic, music, performances, and talks at the British Museum. It would have included a reception with guests from the North, clearly that can’t happen now. But in collaboration with Border Crossings, we are trying to recreate this as an online live event that feels like a gathered group of people – performers and audience – together online. We intend to celebrate this exhibition and the Arctic in the best way that we can!

The exhibition Arctic: culture and climate takes place from 22 October 2020 to 21 February 2021.