Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Nov 09/98) - These days, Beth Beattie is one of the hardest-working women in the Nunavut art world.

Whether it's 8 a.m. or 11 p.m., the assertive, longtime Northerner is plugging away at her desk in Nunavut Arctic College's fine arts and crafts building, trying to organize an Eastern Arctic arts council from the ground up.

Dubbed the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association or NACA at its inception almost a month ago, Beattie says the body will eventually provide a unified voice for artists.

"It's blossomed every time we speak...we'll decide which projects to take on first, how we prioritize ourselves," says Beattie, who was hired to fill the co-ordinating role last month.

While the projects continue to rapidly lineup for NACA -- including organizing various exhibits, developing catalogues and contributing to Toonik Tyme -- Beattie says the first task at hand for the nine-member board is to help fill the new legislative assembly with art.

"We met with the (Nunavut Construction Corporation) about the building and we're working out some of the logistics of putting art up, what kind of things we need changed," says Beattie.

She has a more formal meeting planned with the advisory committee later this month, where key issues of accommodating the art will be discussed and NACA and the committee will look at forming a jury to make the final selections.

"Some of the art will be commissioned depending on sponsors, some of it will be a competition and some of it will be direct purchase," says Beattie.

NACA also wants eastern artists to feel like they have a representative voice closer to home, says Beth Biggs, senior instructor in the fine arts program at the college.

She says she hopes that NACA will take on some of the duties that the NWT Arts Council is supposed to perform.

"The fact is that there is no council, no association in Nunavut to support artists in their activities...every other province has one and the NWT Arts Council in Yellowknife isn't really accessible to people in the Eastern Arctic," says Biggs.

Along with promoting education and communication between artists of all mediums, NACA will hopefully give artists more control over their fields.

"The possibilities are endless. The need is there and the desire. There's just not been a solid voice or advocate before."