::ARCHIVED NEWS::

Arctic Rose Gallery started out as a gift. Sharon Sutherland had fallen in love with the hand made dolls of Coppermine in the North West Territories of Canada and wanted to share them with her friends in Montreal, Canada. She began doing watercolours of the dolls and the people that she observed in Kugluqtuq( Coppermine) Her friend Pat suggested that she try putting one of them on a card, and they sold so well in the Eastern Arctic that Sharon decided to try the images on long sleeved white cotton tees. The arctic weather needed a long sleeved shirt for hiking and snowmobiling. The city of Iqaluit had an annual craft fair during their winter festival, and so artist Sutherland set up a small table.

The shirts and cards were sold out in an hour. Both residents and tourists alike wanted the cards for their walls and shirts for presents to their Southern relatives.

Thus was born the Arctic Rose ( of Sharon) Gallery. The first store to purchase items wholesale was Clare Kennedy, owner of DJ Sensation in Iqaluit.. Other stores followed suit, and now Arctic Rose gallery cards and shirts are sold all over Canada in museum boutiques and tourist shops. What started out as a simple gift has become a growing and expanding design business for the once isolated art teacher trying to pass the dark arctic winter nights with her paint box and her new-found Northern neighbours.