The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, announced funding for the digitization of an Inuit art collection held at McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Through the Digital Access to Heritage component of Canadian Heritage's Museums Assistance Program, the Government of Canada has provided $430,970 to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection to digitize 66,000 works on paper from the Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset) Archive.
The Kinngait Archive will be made available in its entirety on the website www.iningatilagiit.ca, which will showcase trilingual information (English, French and Inuktitut). The manuscripts and interpretations will provide public access to beautiful works of art in the form of prints, drawings, and photographs produced by Inuit artists, which have not been seen by the community since the 1990s.
The website is fully accessible and developed to accommodate Northern internet connections. It will also be an important resource for students in Kinngait and other Inuit communities who will have direct access to their art history. This investment will help preserve the legacy of one of the largest collections of Inuit art in the world, ensuring that this important collection is accessible to all Canadians.
