Cape Dorset/Kinngait
Kinngait (pronounced keen-ite) is the Inuit word for Cape Dorset, meaning “high mountain” in Inuktitut. It is located on the remote southwest tip of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. The community calls itself the Capital of Inuit Art and has gained international fame for its art. Many of the nearly 1,300 residents of the small community are employed in a variety of arts such as drawing, bone and marble carving and stone-cutting, stencil prints, etching, engraving and lithograph print-making. Sculpture, including small-scale works and large-scale stone scultptures, continues to be a popular medium for all generations of artists.
In the late 1950s the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative was formed in Cape Dorset/Kinngait as the first Inuit-owned-and-operated cooperative. For more than 50 years, the co-op has marketed the artistic work of carvers and print-makers throughout the world. The co-operative continues today to teach and support Inuit artists and to promote their art. In 2006, Cape Dorset was voted the most artistic city in Canada.
To learn more about the artistic community of Cape Dorset/Kinngait: Dorset Fine Arts