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Artists up, visitors down

Festival organizers fearing slow sales

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 11/03) - The 15th annual Great Northern Arts Festival will have one of the best lineups ever, but organizers are bracing for a major drop in visitors this year.

To celebrate the 15th year, over $40,000 was budgeted on flying in some of the best artists the North has.

This years' theme is "Spirit of the Masters -- past, present and future," and will recognize the work of artists who have gone before, the current masters and the up-and-coming artists.

Invited masters include Germaine Arnaktauyok from Igloolik (now Yellowknife), Mayoureaq Ashoona from Cape Dorset, Simon Archie Beaulieu from Rae-Edzo, Dawn Oman from Yellowknife and Simon Tookoome from Baker Lake.

The festival's executive director, Darrin White, said the artists represent a broad spectrum from all three territories and from as far away as New York state.

The Inuvialuit brothers Eli, Joe and Bill Nasogaluak will be at the show as well as the next generation, Joe's son Elmsley from Tuktoyaktuk.

Something different in this year's lineup will be a whip demonstration by Simon Tookoomee of Baker Lake.

"Some of these elders from the Eastern Arctic are deadly accurate with their whips," White said.

He has been wincing from recent reports from tourism in Dawson City and Calgary who are reporting a major drop in the number of visitors this year.

"It's too bad the tourism numbers are down, because the lineup is excellent."

He has mixed emotions over the strength of the loonie, as American visitors won't be as free to spend as they might have last year.

"I love to see our dollar nice and strong on international markets, but at the same time, it makes things slightly less attractive as last year," he said.

The higher cost for transportation, accommodation and food will also mean less money to spend at the show.

"That's all eating into their art buying dollar."

The festival organizers were thrilled with last year's record-setting sales of over $200,000 for the 10-day festival, but White said they don't expect that this year. "That had to cap at some point," White said. "We were at the town's capacity to hold visitors last year, so no matter what, it would have been hard to break that," he said. "I will expect we will see substantially lower numbers this year."

With or without the record crowds, 2003 promises to be one of the best showings of Northern art ever.

"Even if tourism is down, the people here will enjoy it," he said. "I'd really hate to see the numbers drop because we do have such an excellent line up."

"It's so completely out of our control, that all we can do is sit back and smile," he said. "We're trying to stay very positive."

The opening ceremonies kick off at 8 p.m. Friday with the traditional carrying in of the whale bone followed by welcoming speeches and a performance from the Deh Cho Drummers.