By Karen Burshtein
The largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world is housed in a groundbreaking cultural campus, Qaumajuq, which opened this spring in Winnipeg. Inuktitut for “it is bright, it is lit,” Qaumajuq has a scallop-shaped exterior inspired by the landscapes of the northern reaches of Canada. The collection includes more than 14,000 pieces of Inuit art, and the museum’s leadership aims to foreground Inuit with its Indigenous Advisory Circle, which offers guidance on exhibitions and programming. The opening of Qaumajuq highlights the creative side of Winnipeg, a prairie city that is also home to the acclaimed Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Other cultural offerings include the annual Warming Huts contest—in which competitors design and build small, hutlike shelters or installations along the frozen river—and winter’s acclaimed New Music Festival, where subzero outdoor concerts are played on instruments made of ice.
