More than 8,000 artefacts of Inuit origin will soon go on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Canada as part of a CA$60m (US$43.7m, €39.4m, £30.5m) project to create an Inuit Art Centre.

With more than 13,000 pieces, including 7,400 sculptures, 4,000 prints, 1,800 drawings and hundreds of artefacts, The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit collection is the largest in the world and represents half of its overall collection.

The four-storey, 40,000sq ft (3,716sq m) Inuit Art Centre addition will sit adjacent to the existing gallery. As well as offering a new space for its vast collection, newly-acquired pieces will go into new Inuit and indigenous galleries. The expansion will also include a new visible vault open storage system, space for artist and curator residences and five studios offering year-round programming.

Development will start at the end of 2016 or in early 2017, with a 24-month timeframe for construction. Los Angeles-based Michael Maltzan Architecture are principal architects for the expansion, while Winnipeg-based Cibinel are acting as associate architects.

More than CA$30m (US$21.8m, €19.7m, £15.2m) has been secured so far, including a combination of public and private funding. The CA$60m total includes the new development, future endowment costs and programming.

Maltzan were selected from 65 prospective architectural teams across 15 countries, with the selection committee praising the architect’s “exemplary design work for arts and cultural projects”. According to the architecture firm, the design “draws on the ephemeral qualities of northern environments and includes a wide range of art viewing and educational spaces that celebrate historic and contemporary Inuit art and culture”.

After reaching an agreement with the Government of Nunavut, an additional 8,000 pieces, previously kept in storage, will now go on display at the gallery. As part of the agreement, the Nunavut and Manitoba governments have each agreed to provide up to CA$500,000 (US$364,000, €328,000, £254,000) to fund that project over the next five years.

Plans for the new centre – which will aim to engage and inspire youth and expand and research learning opportunities in Inuit culture – also include the digitisation of the gallery’s entire collection and the development of an online interactive learning tool to make the collection accessible worldwide.

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