In 1976, the AGN, then the Art Gallery of Cobourg, received a gift of approximately sixty Inuit carvings, sculptures, and materials collected from 1900 to 1970. These works offer a glimpse into the artistic expressions and lived experiences of the Inuit during a period of rapid cultural change.

The collection, sourced from communities across the Inuit Nunangat (Inuit Homeland), are presented alongside a map reflecting the Inuit-Crown land treaties, using their original Inuktut place names as part of the ongoing process of decolonization.

This exhibition honours not only the artistic legacy of the Inuit but also the resilience of their culture.

Supplementing this exhibit is information about the collector of the art pieces and their connection to Lindsay.

Exhibit Launch Event

Thursday April 30, 2026. 6pm - 8pm

Start Time: 6:00 PM

1. Land Acknowledgement & Welcome

2. Grant Acknowledgement (City of Kawartha Lakes)

3. Felicity Pope, curator

   Felicity Pope (Master of Museum Studies, University of Toronto, BA Hons, Kent, UK) spent thirty-five years as a museologist specializing in medical history. In preparation for the Art Gallery of Northumberland’s Inuit exhibition she received the Certificate, “Indigenous Canada,” from the University of Alberta. She worked in Toronto as Curator of the Academy of Medicine Museum, Curator of the Canadian Museum of Health and Medicine, Museum Advisor for the Ontario Government, and freelance curator for the Canadian Museum of History, Royal Ontario Museum and the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre. She has produced some twenty-two exhibitions. She and her husband moved to Cobourg in 2006. 

4. Ian McKechnie, historian

   Born and raised in Lindsay, Ian is a graduate of LCVI and Trent University, where in 2013 he obtained an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. From 2014 through 2020, he served in various roles at the Olde Gaol Museum here in Lindsay, working as both a curatorial associate and a project coordinator. Between 2020 and 2023, he worked in similar capacities for the Kirkfield & District Historical Society, and in 2022 graduated from the Ontario Museum Association's Certificate in Museum Studies programme. From 2024 through early 2025, Ian served the parish archivist at St. Paul's Anglican Church, and since 2020, he has been a member of the Kawartha Lakes Municipal Heritage Committee. Since 2017, Ian has been a contributing writer for The Lindsay Advocate magazine (and more recently the Kawartha Lakes Weekly newspaper), and presently works as the Kawartha Art Gallery's archival coordinator, as well as a freelance editor, researcher, and writer. He has compiled and edited three books: It's All Relative: 170 Years of McQuarrie Memories (2021), Reflections on Old Victoria County: In Tribute to R.B. Fleming (2024), and most recently, Recollections + Reflections: 150 Years of The Presbyterian Church in Canada (2025), which he was commissioned to do for the denomination's sesquicentennial.

   When he isn't editing, writing, attending meetings at St. Andrew's Church, or helping out about the house, Ian enjoys cycling, gardening, reading, model railroading, and writing poetry and short stories.

5. Emily Turner, Economic Development - Heritage Planning

   Graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Emily Turner’s PhD dissertation, “Mission infrastructure development in the Canadian North, c. 1850-1920”, won the Phylis Lambert award presented by the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada for the best doctoral dissertation on the subject of the built environment in Canada. Her research happened to include our local Marsh family in the Arctic.

6. Leslie McCartney, Professor, Curator of Oral History, University of Alaska Fairbank 

   Professor Leslie McCartney is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in oral history. She is the Curator of the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and works remotely from Lindsay. Since the late 1990s she has worked on projects with Gwich'in Elders with the Gwich'in Tribal Council's Department of Cultural Heritage. She has published many journal articles and books, some of which have won awards.

7. Ryan Oliver, Ampere

   Fifteen years ago, Ryan Oliver began his business to “promote and develop gaming in Inuit communities.” His work took him back and forth between Lindsay and Nunavut, and his company grew into the Pinnguac Association, which has evolved into a national business. Ryan Oliver is now Chief Executive Officer of Ampere, an organization that provides STEAM resources in rural and remote communities across Canada with the company headquarters here in Lindsay.

8. Closing Remarks