“TRANSFORMATION” by Inuit artist Turataga Ragee, no date, Cape Dorset, soapstone.

“TRANSFORMATION” by Inuit artist Turataga Ragee, no date, Cape Dorset, soapstone.

BRUNSWICK — Rabbi Harry Sky, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El in Portland and a collector of Canadian Inuit art, will visit the Peary- MacMillan Arctic Museum on the Bowdoin College campus Sunday for a public reception in his honor and to discuss the Inuit art collection he donated to the museum.

The art viewing and reception will be held from 10 a.m. to noon in the galleries of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Hubbard Hall.

A release from the college describes the exhibit and reception as follows:

“In a State of Becoming: Inuit Art from the Collection of Rabbi Harry Sky” includes works in which Inuit artists combine human and animals traits, reflecting the Inuit belief that in the distant past humans and animals easily assumed one another’s forms.

In the soapstone piece “Transformation,” for example, a bird stands tall, its long neck arched. But it is no ordinary bird. A human face occupies its body, and the bird’s wings are the human’s hair.

When Rabbi Harry Sky examined this and other works by Inuit artists, he found the artistic expression of his lifelong belief that people are always changing and transforming.

The Sunday morning event is free and open to the public. Access to Hubbard Hall for people with disabilities is through the Hawthorne- Longfellow Library.

For more information, call 725-3416.

¦ “IN A STATE OF BECOMING: Inuit Art from the Collection of Rabbi Harry Sky” includes works in which Inuit artists combine human and animals traits, reflecting the Inuit belief that in the distant past humans and animals easily assumed one another’s forms.


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