Helen Kalvak
1901 - 1984
In 1961 Kalvak co-founded the Holman Eskimo Co-operative, and in 1962 her drawings were used for sealskin stencil experiments. The annual Holman Island print portfolios published 176 of Kalvak’s works between 1965 and 1985, and six of them in a retrospective portfolio in 1976, the year after the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts inducted her as a member. In 1978, the same year she became a Member of the Order of Canada, she ceased drawing only because Parkinson’s disease prevented her. The following year, her work was featured by Canada Post on a national postage stamp.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts preserves an untitled lithograph (1973) by Kalvak depicting three Inuit figures; she designed the piece for the Northwest Territories’ centennial. Kalvak died in 1984.