Inuvik (July 30/04) - As the artists who attended the Great Northern Arts Festival packed up their belongings Sunday afternoon, the transformed rec hall slowly returned to its usual sterile grey and green state.

But for 10 days, sights, sounds and colours from nearly 80 artists assembled dominated the hall.

The festival itself provided the centrepiece for much of the conversation in town.

"I'm really pleased," said an exhausted Lynn Feasey, festival artistic director. "We we're very happy with the participants, the workshops and the overall atmosphere of sharing and working together."

Donating to the GNAF one of his carvings -- quite fittingly a mask as that was this year's theme -- before departing Sunday, Paulatuk artist David Ruben Piqtoukun displayed the kind of attitude indicative of the festival.

"I donated this in my parents Bertha and Billy Ruben's memory," said the artist who currently works and resides in Toronto. "I hope (the carving) inspires the younger generation in the creative process and helps them take that spirit to a new level."

Helping up-and-coming artists improve their creative edge is one festival mandate that played itself out in various ways throughout the festival.

For established painter Antoine Mountain, who often works from photographs, this meant exchanging several of Inuvik photographer Megan Snelgrove's pictures for a finished painting by Mountain of her favourite photo.

"For me, it's all about encouraging the youth," said Mountain. "And that's what the youth need, somebody to appreciate what they are doing."

Return the inspiration

As for Snelgrove, she was pleased to be able to return the inspiration.

"I was excited to know that my work has inspired him to want to paint," she said. "That was certainly satisfying."

Along with the satisfying trades between artists, the trading in art for hard currency was a little less than last year due to lower numbers attending the festival.

"I noticed a drop in traffic," said GNAF sales manager Karen Balanuik, who has been a part of nine previous festivals. "But I think we did alright sales-wise, but we're probably not going to break any records."

This was confirmed by Feasey, who says despite the approximate 10 per cent drop in sales, the people who did spend opened their wallets a little wider.

"I'd say there was about a 50 per cent drop in attendance with slightly less profits than last year," she said.

So as the money is counted and the rec hall is cleaned out of art for another year, Feasey says she's already got an idea for next year's theme.

"Things of stone and bone sounds good, don't you think?"