Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery

Ongoing North by Northwest: an Indigenous exploration across Canada featuring First Nations artists from the Arctic and Pacific Northwest. Inuit peoples were nomadic by nature and traveled great distances for hunting purposes and building their igloos wherever necessary to live off the land. Whereas Indigenous groups on British Columbia’s west coast built great cedar longhouses to reside for generations. Combined, they demonstrated a diversity of lifestyles and cultural distinctions that are apparent in their present art forms. They share artistic influences in depicting animals and mythological figures as well as utilizing materials local to their region. By bringing these two groups together, the gallery’s collection illustrates how two distinctive communities can share commonalities between their similarities and differences.