Rob Ingram (b.1953)
	
Rob Ingram was born in Winnipeg and studied at the University of Toronto where he first started learning karate. He moved to Whitehorse in 1979 and in 2000 starting learning Iaido, the art of drawing and cutting with the katana sword. He travelled to Japan in 2015 and earned a sixth degree (rokudan) black belt in Iaido. Everyone around the world who was seeking that status was at the ancient Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine in Japan at the same time. The test included a written exam, and then a test on three forms or styles of iaido. Rob did three performances of his specific style of iaido, Muso Jikiden Eishen Ryu Iaido. He outdid sixteen other hopefuls to win a gold in the competition. As the winner he was required to give a demonstration and a speech at the closing banquet. Ingram is also a sixth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and a third degree in kobudo, a different weapons-based martial art. He teaches all three at his Whitehorse karate club Kita Kaze (North Wind). Ingram has been studying karate for over forty years and has operated his club for over twenty-five, with seven instructors.((Tom Patrick. "Whitehorse martial artist earns sixth-degree black belt in Japan." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 10 June 2015.))\\ 

Ingram is a self-taught artist and illustrator who began showing his work in 1979. He uses watercolour, graphite, and coloured pencil in a storybook style. He has been part of several group shows through the Studio Gallery Association and has shown his work in galleries, shops, and restaurants in Whitehorse and Vancouver Island. In 2021, after the Dark Alice exhibition, Ingram made a switch from fantasy to more realistic bird portraits and then other animals in northern environments.((“Rob Ingram.” 2020 website:  http://www.artsunderground.ca/artist-directory/item/rob-ingram.))

Rob Ingram and partner Helene Dobrowolsky own Midnight Arts, a cultural and heritage resource consultancy. They offer research, interpretation and planning for historic sites, museums and cultural centres, parks, and land use developments. The company was founded by Rob in 1986 and became a partnership in 1988.((Midnight Arts, 2021 website: https://www.midnightarts.net/))