Manitoba Inuit Association moves in with Winnipeg Art Gallery

Throatsingers perform at an event organized by the Manitoba Inuit Association, which has moved in the Winnipeg Art Gallery. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MIA)

The Winnipeg Art Gallery has a new roommate: the Manitoba Inuit Association.

With its new location in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Studio building at the corner of Memorial Boulevard and St. Mary Avenue, the MIA plans to share more than just a space with the gallery, known widely as the WAG.

The two organizations have already collaborated on numerous projects to celebrate Inuit art and culture, “a relationship that will only be strengthened with new initiatives,” a Sept. 1 news release said.

“Our dynamic partnership and collaborations over the years has manifested into the recent move of Manitoba Inuit Association offices into the Winnipeg Art Gallery,” Rachel Dutton, MIA’s executive director, said in the release.

“The co-location embodies the spirit in which our two organizations work together to raise the profile of Inuit in this province and across Canada.”

About 450 live in Manitoba, with the majority living in Winnipeg.

But the association for Manitoba Inuit serves all Inuit from around Canada who find themselves in Manitoba to get health care, to study or to live.

The MIA recently lost its federal funding for a program to help Inuit succeed — and stay — in school.

“We are in the process of negotiating funding with the province, so until an agreement is penned the program has been put on hold. Very unfortunate and frustrating,” Dutton told Nunatsiaq News.

The MIA says research has estimated some 15,000 Inuit also access health services in Manitoba.

“So as small as the Inuit population is in Manitoba, our organization is looking at ways we can work with allied health service providers in the province, to better support Inuit who are traveling outside Inuit Nunangat, to Manitoba to access health services, Dutton said.

The WAG and the Manitoba Inuit Association have collaborated on a number of projects, including the Legend of Kiviuq puppet show and the WAG-Baker Lake Dialogue event, an artistic exchange. The WAG also helps to connect Manitoba Inuit artists to buyers and supporters.

“Inuit culture and communities are also at the heart of the WAG, which holds in trust the world’s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art,” said the news release from the WAG, which is planning to build a $45-million Inuit Art and Learning Centre which will cover 40,000 square feet over three floors.

You can learn more about the Manitoba Inuit Association at the its website or follow the association’s activities on Facebook and Twitter.