Qaumajuq – Winnipeg Celebrates Canada’s National Inuit Art Gallery

Qaumajuq becomes Canada’s newest National Inuit Art Gallery

TDS News – The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announce a new partnership days before the March 27, 2021 opening of Qaumajuq, the new Inuit art centre at the WAG.  WAG-Qaumajuq provides a home for largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art, while the NFB has a rich Indigenous Film collection that stretches back more than 70 years. Building on a long-history of collaboration, this expanded partnership will further WAG-Qaumajuq and the NFB’s joint mission to provide a platform for Inuit to share their art, culture, and knowledge with Canada and the world.

The Partnership Agreement reflects a shared commitment to partner on a variety of programs and events in coming years, including: discussions with Inuit community on Inuit-content from the NFB’s Indigenous Film Collection; screenings geared for both kids and adults; integration of NFB Indigenous and Inuit Film Collection and NFB Archives into WAG-Qaumajuq online and in-gallery programming; and a diversity of audio-visual projects, such as developing and producing new original works created by Inuit artists to be presented at Qaumajuq and elsewhere.

Reflective of the partnership and its first joint project is a new WAG-Qaumajuq commission by Geronimo Inutiq, an Inuk multimedia artist working in electronic music production, performance, film, video, and digital images. Inutiq created a new media work using Inuit footage and archival material from the NFB, resulting in an innovative “remix” of traditional and contemporary Inuit visuals and sounds. Adding futuristic layers of colored filters, and a fascinating digital soundscape, this new work by Inutiq honours Inuit ancestors and family members of artists and communities in the North.

Inutiq’s commission was recently debuted in a larger outdoor projection show on the exterior walls of two connected WAG-Qaumajuq buildings, running every Friday and Saturday night until March 27, 2021, as part Qaumajuq’s inaugural year celebrations.

WAG will also be featuring a variety of NFB films on Qaumajuq’s new Visible Vault digital platform launching in April 2021. The WAG-Qaumajuq is working with youth, artists, elders, and knowledge keepers throughout Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland of Canada, and beyond to share the stories behind the art. The digital platform will promoteInuit Qaujimajatuqangit, Inuit traditional knowledge. 

Qaumajuq’s Learning Steps, named Ilipvik, Inuttitut for a place where you go to learn, provide an interactive theatre for screening and discussion programs with Inuit community members.

Image source Wag/Qaumajuq

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