Photo: Out of storage and into view — rare Inuit artworks

Darlene Coward Wight, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s curator of Inuit art, shows off “Hunter in Kayak,” by Bernadette Iguptark Tongelik (Naujaat), a small ivory carving from the Government of Nunavut art collection. This is one of nearly 8,000 works that recently travelled from Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Peterborough and Toronto to a new temporary home at the WAG. The GN has loaned them to the WAG for five years so southern audiences can view the pieces, most of them crafted in the mid- to late-20th century, until Nunavut is able to build its own museum and gallery. “Today our curatorial team had another amazing moment when we opened a spectacular serpentinite stone sculpture of a mother and child by renowned Cape Dorset artist Kiugak Ashoona,” said Dr. Stephen Borys, WAG director and CEO, in a March 3 news release. “We are grateful to the governments of Nunavut and Manitoba for making this historic loan possible.” (PHOTO BY DAVID LIPNOWSKI)