Beautiful Utility: A Look at Inuit Crafts

Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum & Arctic Studies Center Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum & Arctic Studies Center

Exhibition: Beautiful Utility: A Look at Inuit Crafts

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Arctic Museum main galleries

Northern people have a long tradition of fashioning practical objects for everyday use and for trade, and more recently for sale. These objects are often skillfully made and elaborately decorated, in traditional or innovative styles. This exhibit looks at a selection of crafts that incorporate the essential everyday skills that men and women alike must master in order to survive in the Arctic.

Inuit create items of all sizes by hand. They make large kayaks, sledges, dog harnesses, tents and snow houses; more modest sized objects, such as dolls and clothing made of skin and cloth; and tiny creations such as decorative beadwork, leather mosaic and embroidery. The people have crafted some types of objects for thousands of years. Others, such as woven baskets of baleen and embroidery, are more recent traditions.

Examples of Inuit crafts may be seen in the Museum galleries. This exhibit is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of Bowdoin College.



Pictured above: Building a kayak frame, Northwest Greenland, ca. 1935. Inkjet print from photograph in the Robert Abram Bartlett Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College Library.

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