Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 02/99) - The festival and its many participants have come and gone, and now the Great Northern Arts Festival is in tear-down phase -- taking about a week to vacate the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex in Inuvik.

"We've got seven or eight people working on it, trying to muster up energy, which is very hard because the clean-up part and tear down is really a drag." says co-ordinator Tanya Van Valkenburg, sounding wiped out.

"All the adrenalin is gone after the big event and we're all sick. We wish somebody else would just come along and clean everything up."

Despite the anti-climactic nature of the festival's aftermath, now that all the remarkable artists and enthralled visitors that energized the space are gone, Van Valkenburg manages to cast a look back at the success of the 10 days.

Sales figures are slightly more than last year, sitting at $133,000.

"It's not hugely more but considering how bad the weather was and that the Dempster Highway was closed for one day, we're just thrilled. And we had fewer artists this year, a bit less art as well," says Van Valkenburg.

"On top of that we had a very large wholesale sale -- $25,000 -- after the festival closed."

The festival has an arrangement with Canadian Arctic Producers, who own the chain of Northern Images galleries.

"A representative from there comes up here during the festival and picks out what he would like to purchase and if they haven't sold by the end of the festival, we contact each of the artists and ask them if they want to sell it wholesale," Van Valkenburg explains.

"It's still a substantial purchase for the artist, and it's also very good for getting their art circulated within the Northern Images system."

Another bonus this year came by way of national exposure in the pages of the National Post.

"The article (published July 26) was fantastic," says Van Valkenburg.

"I can only imagine how that's going to affect us in terms of recognition. We aren't really a household name yet, even though there have been some national stories and we have had our video. But there is now the possibility, with the article Allen Abel did, that that will change. Which is fantastic for us."

Yet, ironically, the festival has a growth limit, imposed mostly by the ability of the town of Inuvik to accommodate a large influx of people.

"There is a limit to how many people can actually come here. Our infrastructure in town will only allow so many people to come in. In fact, we couldn't really handle too many more people than we had this year -- with the hotels and the campgrounds being almost full."

The heart of the festival is the artists -- and on the final night several of the artists were recognized in an awards ceremony.

The People's Choice Award went to William Gruben of Inuvik (carving), John Rombaugh of Lutsel K'e (two-dimensional art), Allyson Simmie (jewelry) and Berna Beaulieu and Agnes Iqqugqtuq of Pelly Bay (traditional art).

The Artists Choice Award honoured Simon Qamanirq of Arctic Bay (carving), Joyce Majiski of Whitehorse (flatwork), Ruben Komangapik of Iqaluit (jewelry) and Beaulieu and Iqqugqtuq, once again, for traditional art.

The Emerging Artists Awards were presented to Noah Kudlak of Cambridge Bay for sculpture, Mark Airut of Iqaluit for jewelry and John Rombaugh for two-dimensional art.

Plans for the 2000 Great Northern Arts Festival are already under way. Co-ordinators Van Valkenburg and Marilyn Dzaman haven't yet decided if they will jump onto the big millennium train, though they are planning one special project so far.

"We're hoping to do a mural project that would involve a lot of people within the community, as well as the artists. So we're going to be applying for funding for that from the Millennium Fund," Van Valkenburg says.

For a little festival that started 11 years ago, the Great Northern Arts Festival can now be considered, irrefutably, an arts success story. And I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the next one.