OCAD U’s INVC program hosts Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership meet-and-greet

OCAD U’s Ryan Rice, Associate Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, formerly Delaney Chair, along with The Inuit Art Quarterly/Inuit Art Foundation (IAF), hosted a meet-and-greet with partners of the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project.

The project is a partnered research training initiative (PRTI) that will support Inuit students studying to become academics and cultural leaders working to build capacity for Inuit to work in the arts.

INVC/OCAD U and IAF are the Toronto partners in the project. Two Master of Arts Indigenous students from OCAD University  ̶  Emma Steen and Adrienne Huard  ̶  have been hired as research assistants for the project.

Led by a group of Inuit advisers, this project seeks to address the longstanding absence of Inuit leadership across the humanities by establishing a culturally, socially and geographically relevant PRTI to provide meaningful opportunities for education and advancement. Pilimmaksarniq/ Pijariuqsarniq are the Inuit societal values of developing skills and knowledge through "observation, mentoring, practice, and effort."

The meet-and-greet included all of the partners working on the research project and upper administration, deans, chairs and Indigenous faculty.