Arts institutions support the Memorandum of Understanding between the government of Greenland and the government of Nunavut.
Joint Press Release - September 3, 2022
The government of Greenland and the Government of Nunavut has just signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation and cultural/performing arts plays a big role in this.
“This is something we can fully support and we are already working together and building bridges culturally,” says Susanne Andreasen the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Greenland and Looee Arreak the Executive Director of Qaggiavuut Nunavut Performing Arts Centre in a joint statement.
Qaggiavuut is a non-profit society dedicated to strengthening Nunavut's performing arts community. A major goal of the Qaggiavuut Society is to build the Qaggiq, a performing arts and cultural learning hub in Nunavut that they hope will also be a place for artist support including a campus for the Qaggiq School of Performing Arts.
Susanne Andreasen continues: “There is a real need and a desire to connect Greenland with the other inuit areas. It is very important, as we become more and more independent, that we continue to have meaningful connections with other inuit who share our stories and experiences.
One of our most prominent goals from The National Theatre of Greenland and its Acting School is to be able to have two students from other Inuit areas following our acting program. With the newly enacted amendment to the higher education bill in Greenland, we are one step closer to be able to start a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, which could open up for international students to join our Acting School in Greenland – the immediate and natural step would be to invite our fellow Inuit from Nunavut and other Inuit regions to the program.
We share the same culture, traditions and history and we would love to be able to welcome Inuit students from outside of Greenland. This would be a win-win situation since it would broaden our perspective on our program and strengthen the cultural and artistic connections across the inuit areas. We have made efforts to make it possible to have other Inuit students in our acting school, when the new Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting is implemented, all we need would be funding and a cross institutional agreement that ensures certain standards are met from us and Qaggiavuut.
Another dream from The National Theatre in Greenland is to create an ‘Inuit Performing Artists Network’ (working title). Where artists can meet, learn, develop and perform together. The sharing of knowledge, traditions and passing of skills on to the next generation is important in this work,” Susanne says.
Looee and Susanne are both looking forward to more collaboration: “It’s very positive that the Memorandum of Understanding acknowledges the importance of culture and performing arts and we really hope that the two Governments will support us in our continued work in this field.”
Press contact:
Susanne Andreasen susanne@nuis.gl Phone: +299 588849 Artistic Director The National Theatre of Greenland
Ali Hinch ali@qaggiavuut.com Communication Manager for Qaggiavuut Nunavut Performing Arts Centre. Phone to Qaggiavuut: (867) 979-6485
Photo: The National Theatre visited Iqaluit this June with the performance Angakkussaq, based on the book ‘Those Who Run in the Sky’ by Aviaq Johnston.
On the picture from left to right: Dina F. Sandgreen, Salik G. Lennert, Josef Tarrak-Petrussen and Milla Marie Petersen.
Photographer: Gerth Lyberth.
