Kigiqtaq

2019-2020 School Year

Art teacher: George Guyver

Julian and Emilia work with the 2nd grade class in Kigiqtaq, 2020.

Arist Residency with Julian Saporiti and Emilia Halvorsen, January 2020.

Elementary students from Shishmaref school rewrite common songs to better represent their own world and culture. They encorporate local ecosystems and Inupiat language into their lyrics.

Baby tutu on the frozen tundra,

You run so wild, you run so free.

The heavens above and the sea below,

and a little brown tutu on the go!

Julian and Emilia work with high school students to record interviews with local Elders, eliciting and documenting traditional knowledge and Elders' experiences in Kigiqtaq.

Emilia works with high school students on symbolic representation of Elders' and traditional stories using embroidery and fabric patches -- Kigiqtaq 2020.

Students from Shishmaref school engage with a Project ARTiculate Kit, "Andy GoldsWorthy: Art from the Earth," in order to study how natural environments can be incorporated into artistic expression. After studying the work of Goldsworthy, they took a field trip out and started off my exploring the natural and man-made landscapes and objects nearby.

Students used small rocks from the beach to interact with the positive and negative space formed by ice building up and falling through cracks on the large rocks of the sea wall that protects their village.

With the a smooth place in the snowy ground as a canvas, students used natural objects to build the lines of their artwork. These students used last year's grass, which they gathered from places where it was partially buried beneath snow and ice, to form this geometric pattern. Concentric circles encircled in turn by their own bodies.

- Kigigtaq (Shishmaref) Alaska, 2019

On their field trip, students use found natural object, rocks and driftwood, to create mound. They corm a circle, holding hands, as if gathering warmth by an imagined fire.

2018-2019 School Year

Art teacher: Nic Sweet

Darrell Eningowuk & Dylon Iyatunguk, along with Art teacher Nic Sweet, worked as the film crew for the Kipiġniutit Iñupiuraallaniukun Iñupiatun Language Summit in Kotzebue in January 2019.

Students in Brianna Wheeler's class in Shishmaref made Valentines using watercolor washes and salt, using Inupiaq phrases compiled by BSSD's Cultural Programs Coordinator, Mary Huntington.