Dorset Fine Arts Partnership

Dorset Fine Arts Partnership

Open Studio and Dorset Fine Arts (DFA) have worked together for nearly thirty years. We continue to strengthen and build upon our partnership by developing initiatives that will encourage artistic collaboration between artists in the North and Open Studio.

Inuit Artist Creative Residency
Thanks to our partnership with DFA, we can provide the Inuit Artist Creative Residency. The Inuit Artist Creative Residency is a two-week residency program that allows us to host an Inuk artist from Kinngait Studios at Open Studio. Through this unique residency, the selected Inuk artist can use Open Studio’s facilities as a resource to pursue their artistic practice, and the experience helps facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing between both print studios.

Past recipients include:
Quvianaqtuk Pudlat, 2019-20
Tim Pitsiulak, 2016-17

Image above: Tim Pitsiulak working on a drawing for a screenprint, 2016.


Inuit Art Print Collection
We also promote the sale of Inuit prints from Kinngait Studios in the Open Studio Shop (online and on-site). Sales are split 50/50 between Open Studio and DFA.

DFA was established in Toronto in 1978 as the wholesale marketing division of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (WBEC). The Co-operative in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, is distinctive among Arctic Co-operatives because of its focus on artists in the community and their creative endeavours.