Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 13/01) - Tommy Smith doesn't take his job title too seriously. Logistics co-ordinator, he says, is just another word for labourer.

Tommy Smith is logistics co-ordinator for the Great Northern Arts Festival. - Malcolm Gorrill/NNSL photo

On the other hand, there's no doubt Smith takes his work seriously. He's co-ordinating logistics for the Great Northern Arts Festival since 1998 (and he volunteered for the festival from its beginnings).

Smith's position is for a set term each year. He was hired on July 3 for this year's festival, and he will work until around the end of the month.

Smith helps out with a variety of tasks. He starts by helping set up the display cases, boxes and other necessary items for the gallery exhibition area for the festival, which gets opens July 13.

The boxes and cases are put in storage each winter, and they need to be cleaned and repainted before being used again. Smith makes several cases, as needed.

And he helps set up tables in the arena area of the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex for an eating area. And he will help get the food required by the cooks.

Another big part his job is erecting the outdoor tents, where artists work during the festival. He says he makes sure the artists get whatever they need, from power bars to safety glasses.

"Usually you're going from here to there," Smith says. "Then after that, somebody gets you, and you go from here to there again with something else."

But Smith enjoys it.

"You meet different artists and you get to watch them," he says. "A lot of these artists are really friendly."

Smith says that he makes new friends each year, plus he touches base with artists he's met at previous festivals.

The festival wraps up July 22, but not Smith work. He will help pack away items and put them in storage until it's time for next year's festival, when the cycle will start all over again.

Smith was born in Aklavik, went to school in Reindeer Station, and moved to Inuvik when the town was built.