Cape Dorset (Nov 08/04) - Jimmy Manning spends most of his time at the center of the Inuit art universe. He's the studio manager at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-op in Cape Dorset.

Since 1972, Manning has been involved in the development of the studio.

He works a steady day there, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

He serves as an interpreter/translator for Cape Dorset artists who travel to gallery openings featuring their work.

He has also been a translator for projects like Ansgar Walk's book Kenojuak: The Life Story of an Inuit Artist, which documents the life of Kenojuak Ashevak.

In an average day at the studio, Manning may get visitors who want a tour of the famous Co-op.

He may take phone calls from big-shot art dealers in places like Toronto, or he will talk to Cape Dorset artists who want to sell their work to the Co-op.

Manning is a skilled photographer as well and he loves slide shows.

He straddles many worlds. One minute he's speaking Inuktitut to an artist, the next he's sharing the history of his town with an English tourist visiting "the Inuit art capital" -- Cape Dorset.

You would think all the directions Manning gets pulled in would make him a frazzled person, but he isn't.

Manning has a calm way about him that you must have in order to survive in the art business. His wall at work says it all -- plastered with pictures, drawings and thank-yous from a life in art.

"It never gets boring," said Manning of his work.

The artists who come to the studio now and work through the winter continue to surprise him every year.

But why do the artists in Cape Dorset create such diverse, world-class prints, drawings and carvings year after year?

"It's strictly up to the artists," Manning said after a long pause.

"It just comes out. Sometimes it's shocking. Three weeks ago one of the most elderly people here made a serpentine ship, the Regina Polaris.

"This older person had memories and was able to create a replica of that ship with 115 parts to it," he said. "It's just amazing."

Jamasee Pitseolak, a carver, describes Manning as man with vision who seeks "perfection."

"He knows what he wants. He has a good eye," said Pitseolak.

Manning uses the word "connection" a lot when he talks about Cape Dorset artists.

He talks about the connection between the elders and the youth, and how important it is that elders pass on knowledge, whether it's through storytelling or art.

"Knowledge is strength," said Manning. "Before Jim Houston came here, people were working with ivory."

People worked with ivory, bone and serpentine before people moved into what is now Cape Dorset.

They also relied heavily on their memories and poured them into their work -- memories from childhood, memories of parents and the activities they did together, memories of older carvers and their working style, or memories from a brush with death.

Near-death experience

In his own past, Manning recalls that he nearly died at a young age.

He remains thankful for everything he has and humbled by his life now because of that early experience.

Born in Kimmirut in 1951, Manning had to have his appendix removed in 1955. It may be a standard procedure today, but there was no nurse or doctor in Dorset to conduct the operation back them.

Luckily, the C.D. Howe -- a ship with medical staff on board -- was in the area and a helicopter picked him up and brought him there.

After the operation, doctors were so worried about Manning that they sent him to Port Harrison (Inukjuak) for a year to recuperate. When he returned to Cape Dorset, he had a distinct Northern Quebec dialect which he laughs about today. Manning was scared and homesick at the time, alone without his family in Port Harrison. It was around this time he became fascinated with airplanes -- their inner-most workings and the world above the clouds.

Life today

Today you could say Manning is flying high, travelling many times a year with Cape Dorset artists for public appearances around the world.

He can't imagine a life without the Co-op. Cape Dorset is home, where Manning has "five or six kids" with his wife Pitseolala.

When asked about upcoming talent in Cape Dorset -- something he gets asked from time to time -- he pauses for a while, then mentions Isacci Itidlooie, a carver. In the Inuit art capital it is hard to pick talent, but in the case of Itidlooie he seems to capture the true essence of "connection," Manning said before rushing back to the business of Inuit art.