For the first time in the magazine’s history, the Inuit Art Quarterly, the world’s only magazine focused on Inuit and circumpolar Indigenous arts, has received seven 2021 National Magazine Award nominations.
This year, the IAQ received nominations in the category of Best Short Feature Writing, for Krista Ulujuk Zawadski’s piece “Threading Memories;” Best Editorial Package for the Painting, Relations and Threads issues; Editor Grand Prix for Editorial Director Britt Gallpen; Publisher Grand Prix for Executive Director Alysa Procida; and finally a nomination for Best Magazine: Art, Literary and Culture.
Zawadski, whose piece was included in the IAQ’s Spring 2020 issue Threads: Restitching Art Histories, is the curator of Inuit Art for the Government of Nunavut, and is finishing her PhD Cultural Mediations at Carleton University. Her intimate, first-person essay traces the evolution of nivingajuliat (wallhangings) in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, and the ways in which artists used them to store personal histories and cultural teachings.
This is the second year in a row the IAQ has been nominated for Best Short Feature Writing; Blandina Attaarjuaq Makkik took home the gold prize in the category last year for her piece “Remembering Our Ways: Film and Culture in Iglulik.”
This is also the second year in a row the IAQ is nominated for the Best Magazine: Art, Literary and Culture award, for a publication calendar that included issues on textiles, natural resources (water), community relations and painting. The IAQ is nominated alongside C Magazine, the Literary Review of Canada and the Feathertale Review.
Three of the four issues IAQ published in 2020 also made their way to the longlist for Best Editorial Package: Painting, which celebrates the oft-overlooked painters in the Inuit art space; Relations, which explores community and familial ties and intergenerational knowledge-sharing; and Threads, which examines the textile-based practices, both wearable and decorative, across Inuit Nunaat. Also nominated in this category were issues from Caribou, Châtelaine, L’actualité, MacLean’s, SAD Mag, Sprawlzine and the University of Toronto Magazine.
Alysa Procida, up for Publisher Grand Prix, has been the IAQ’s publisher since 2015, and has overseen the magazine during a period of rapid growth at a time when many print publications globally are facing significant financial change. Under her tenure, the IAQ has increased its readership by an unprecedented 2,237% and more than quadrupled the organization’s operating budget.
“A beautiful and challenging magazine about beautiful and challenging art, and a powerhouse fundraiser to boot. No small feat in a pandemic year,” said the NMA jury about Procida’s nomination. This is the second time she has been nominated in this category.
Britt Gallpen, who is nominated for Editor Grand Prix, has been the IAQ’s Editorial Director since 2016, and, alongside Procida, oversaw a full redesign of the magazine in conjunction with the Inuit Art Foundation’s 30th anniversary in 2017 and the launch of the IAQ profiles in 2017. She received an honourable mention in the inaugural Editor Grand Prix category at the Magazine Grands Prix awards in 2017.
“Gallpen transformed an arts magazine into a bridge between cultures,” said the NMA jury, pointing to the 68% Inuit writer composition of the magazine as a key factor in making the IAQ “a publication more vibrant and relevant than ever before.”
The IAQ team would like to extend our sincere thanks and congratulations to all the writers and artists who contributed to our 2020 editorial calendar, for sharing their enthusiasm, passion and creativity in our pages. We would also like to thank our community of readers and supporters for their love of Inuit art and for keeping the magazine going by donating and purchasing subscriptions.
Award winners will be announced June 11 in a virtual ceremony.