Inuk among several artists honoured at Rideau Hall ceremony
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, right, presents an Artistic Achievement Award to visual artist Germaine Arnaktauyok at a ceremony honouring visual and media artists at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence in Ottawa, on Friday. (Photo by Sgt Anis Assari, courtesy of Rideau Hall)
Inuk artist Germaine Arnaktauyok was among the recipients of an Artistic Achievement Award presented by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon at a ceremony Friday in Ottawa.
Arnaktauyok, who grew up in Igloolik and Chesterfield Inlet and now lives in Yellowknife, was among dozens of artists honoured at the event for their significant contributions to art in Canada.
“You show us the wonderful, the mythical, and the mundane. You shine a light on issues that impact our communities every day,” Simon said at the ceremony.
Award recipients represented cohorts from 2020 to 2023, with Arnaktauyok part of the 2021 group.
In a news release, her nominator, Darlene Coward Wight, curator of Inuit art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, said of Arnaktauyok’s 60-year career in the arts: “She has charted her own course and created her own unique visual language, and her lifelong interest in her own unique Inuit culture has been an inspiration to many younger artists.”
The ceremony for the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts was held at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence.
