Hands sheathed in soft white gloves, Nadia Kurd, the curator at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, points out the fine craft-work on a basket intricately woven from black ash.

"There's sweetgrass as well," she says, before lifting the lid to reveal the smooth interior. "It was made in the 80s but it continues to hold onto the smell of the sweetgrass."

"A number of objects in our collection have sweetgrass, and if we haven't been in collection storage for ... a week or so, you open the doors, and the smell of sweetgrass still permeates in the air, and it's just wonderful."

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery's collection includes many baskets, but 'in terms of skill, this one really stands out,' says gallery curator Nadia Kurd. The basket is decorated with more than 100 miniature baskets. (Amy Hadley/CBC)

This basket is one of close to 1,600 pieces that make up the permanent collection at the gallery in the northwestern Ontario city.

The art is stored in a climate controlled room located behind the exhibit areas, accessible only to staff. The room is full of drawers and movable shelving units that make use of every bit of space to store everything from paintings and sculptures, to masks and garments.

Thunder Bay Art Gallery curator Nadia Kurd returns a sliding panel to its place in storage. It contains one of the many colourful Norval Morrisseau paintings the gallery counts among its collection. (Amy Hadley/CBC)

There's much to choose from when items from the permanent collection go on display, which happens four or five times a year, said Kurd, with exhibits organized around different themes — often with a focus on Indigenous artwork, for which the gallery has a strong reputation.

The gallery has been collecting since the mid-1980s, said Kurd, with an early focus on First Nations artists such as Norval Morrisseau. The gallery now holds Canada's largest collection of work by the famous Woodland style painter.

Beadwork from artists across Ontario in storage at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. (Amy Hadley/CBC)

In the past decade there's also been a renewed focus on acquiring pieces from northwestern Ontario artists in a wide-range of mediums, Kurd added.

"You know the diversity and range of works that we have in our collection, I think that's one of our great strengths," she said.