The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is slated to open its new Qaumajuq centre, a $C65m (£38m) extension of its downtown location dedicated entirely to Inuit art, on 27 March. The new centre will champion Inuit works by showcasing more than 10,000 Inuit works from the WAG’s collection which for the most part had been relegated to storage.
Qaumajuq (pronounced ‘KOW-ma-yourk’), whose name means ‘it is bright, it is lit’ in Inuktitut, was developed following the 2015 recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which seeks to address historical injustices to Indigenous peoples in the country. According to Stephen Borys, WAG’s director, one of the aims of this museum-within-a-museum will be to ‘acknowledge our colonial past and move forward in the spirit of reconciliation and collaboration’.
With a total of 40,000 sq ft, the new four-storey centre includes an 8,000 sq ft exhibition space, a theatre, a café and art studios. Designed by the Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan with the Winnipeg firm Cibinel Architecture, it also boasts a three-story glass vault for storage and conservation, which means visitors will be able to see conservators and curators at work.
Its inaugural exhibition, titled Inua (which translates to ‘life force’ or ‘spirit’, but also stands for ‘Inuit Nunangat Ungammuaktut Atautikkut’, or ‘Inuit Move Forward Together’), will feature works by more than ninety artists, ranging from drawings to designed objects to a recent sealskin space suit.
