Carving a niche
High-tech approach to selling traditional art

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (May 19/99) - If Rankin Inlet entrepreneur James Sandy has his way, collectors around the globe will soon be able to purchase Inuit art and crafts via the Internet.

Sandy had a brainstorm after a chance encounter with a local carver and has started the wheels in motion for a web site auction which would feature the works of Inuit artists across Nunavut.

"I started this as a personal project to more or less give me something to do," says Sandy. "It all began one very cold and windy day. I was at the Sakku Investments building when a carver came in with a fairly large piece, going from office to office trying to sell it for $50 or $60.

"I thought no way he should have to do that and bought the carving. I was looking around the Internet for ideas and came across an auction site I thought would be perfect."

Right now, Sandy's company, Sakku Arctic Technologies, is buying the items outright and auctioning them on its own arctic.ca web site, but he says eventually, he wants his idea to be a non-profit way of promoting and selling traditional arts and crafts.

"Most carvers want the money right away when they give you carvings. Eventually, I want the carver or artist to come here, fill out a basic auction form and I'll enter the item on the site to be displayed. The artist would pick an auction deadline from one day to two weeks."

"At the end of the chosen period, the artist would get the full amount the piece sold for. Registration to bid in an auction is free. An artist can have us be the middleman between them and the bidder or they can deal directly with each other."

Sandy has no budget for the project, but says he wants to help out Inuit artists. He says the auction will work by the artists agreeing on the starting and reserve (lowest amount piece can be sold for) bid.

The program running the site would e-mail Sandy when someone has bid and notify anyone who has been outbid. All bidders are notified when bidding is complete.

"I've spoken briefly with RWED and they're interested in the project. I would like to see the government do all the postings for local artists in the various communities. There may be some training involved, especially if we can incorporate digital cameras into the project, and CEDOs are the perfect people to help with this.

"I've already sold one to a woman in New Jersey who saw the piece on the Sakku site. I don't know how far this might go, but it would be awesome if it turned out to be a Nunavut-wide program.

"One area we have to seek funding in is packaging. I don't want these things busting during shipment. They're one of a kind and you just can't come up with a replacement."