For Rebecca (Becky) Mearns, learning doesn’t always begin on a page or in a classroom. Often, it begins by making things with her hands.

That understanding has shaped Ms. Mearns’ recent time as artist-in-residence at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.

It also underpins her academic experience and doctoral research at Memorial University’s Labrador Campus. 

“Working with your hands opens something up,” she said. “It creates that space for discussions and for learning.” 

A PhD candidate in the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Ms. Mearns approaches art as a way of learning and knowing that is interconnected with scholarship, allowing learning to happen through making, storytelling and engaging with community. 

Her month-long residency at the WAG-Qaumajuq, offered through a partnership between the Government of Nunavut and the gallery, provided dedicated time and space to focus on her creative work. 

For Ms. Mearns, who grew up learning to craft and make clothing and other creative outlets, it also marked a moment when long-standing threads in her life came together. 

“It really felt like an unexpected convergence between art and academics,” she said. “I think art can be such an incredible tool for the learning process.” 

Storytelling culture

For Ms. Mearns, art has also become a tool for storytelling. 

“Storytelling has always been a big part of creating art, and so that was my focus going into this residency.” 

During her time in Winnipeg, Ms. Mearns focused on embroidery as a storytelling practice, building on an embroidery workshop she had previously taken in Iqaluit that centred Inuit storytelling through textile work. In that workshop, she embroidered an Inuit story about shape-shifting people who can turn into seals. 

“We had been listening to an elder who was telling stories and we researched different Inuit stories to bring into what we were making,” she reflected. “That process of knowledge production and learning from one another while we were working with our hands gave us the space to have those discussions as part of the learning process.” 

For her residency project, she took the embroidered piece she had previously made and created an accompanying piece inspired by Scottish Selkie folklore, in which seals shed their skins to become human. 

Ms. Mearns grew up in Nunavut but spent part of her childhood in Scotland and was drawn to the shared themes across the two cultures. 

“The pieces I created depict two different stories from two different cultures that are still quite similar in ways, but it shows that storytelling culture exists across different places.” 

Creative exploration

Alongside embroidery, Ms. Mearns experimented with needle felting, linocut block printing and pottery.

She also created a series of small, felted landscapes inspired by picking crowberries, blueberries, cranberries and cloudberries — an annual land-based activity in Nunavut. 

“Berry picking is something that we all do here in the late summer, early fall,” she said, describing how everyday practices on the land became part of her creative exploration. 

The residency also included workshops and opportunities to engage with gallery staff and other artists.

At its conclusion, Ms. Mearns participated in a public meet-and-greet and showcase at the gallery shop. 

“Getting to talk to people about what I created, and just seeing people’s reaction to the art,” she said, “that was something that I’ve taken away with me.” 

While the residency brought her work into a national gallery setting, creating has always been part of Ms. Mearns’ life.

Having grown up in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, sewing and crafting were practical skills taught in school and at home.

As a student, she made duffel mittens and learned embroidery.  

“I’ve always done some crafting,” she said. “I can make all of my own outdoor clothing.” 

Leadership and learning

That creative grounding has accompanied her academic career, which includes many years in post-secondary education leadership and her former role as president of Nunavut Arctic College. 

When Memorial launched the Arctic and Subarctic Futures graduate program at the Labrador Campus, Ms. Mearns was compelled to join the inaugural PhD cohort while still working full time. 

“The campus is . . . aligned with my approach to education, and it’s incredible to have this opportunity.” — Becky Mearns

After a couple of years, she stepped away from her leadership position to focus entirely on learning, completing an intensive Inuktitut language revitalization program before pursuing her doctoral studies full time. 

Ms. Mearns notes that her experience at the Labrador Campus has been different from her other post-secondary experiences to date. 

“It felt very different to be in a class of people in the North,” she said. “The campus is more welcoming and aligned with my approach to education, and it’s incredible to have this opportunity.” 

While her PhD research is still being finalized, her focus is on community-based adult learning programs grounded in Inuit knowledge, language and ways of knowing — an interest shaped by her own experience in community initiatives. 

“My experience through the language program, through engagement with embroidery and different programs offered in the community,” she said, “it’s piqued my interest in looking at how those contribute to supporting adult learning within our communities.” 

Looking back on her residency, Ms. Mearns sees it as a continuation of her academic journey that will inform her approach to knowledge mobilization as she moves forward with her PhD. 

“How do I share and engage with others?” she asked. “How do I continue this learning and share what I’ve learned with others, too?” 

Ultimately, she hopes her experience encourages others to see creativity as a tool for learning.

She says learning “doesn’t only happen through reading and writing.”

“Sometimes it happens through making, and for me, that’s where a lot of learning actually happens.”