Yellowknife (Oct 22/04) - A meeting held last Saturday to discuss the possibility of an artist-run centre in Yellowknife drew few artists.

About 20 people attended the presentation at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, the majority of whom were members of the Aurora Arts Society. There were also government representatives and other third parties in attendance.

The meeting's scheduling coincided with NACC's 24-hour creation festival, an event that had been scheduled since early September.

Some of the festival's participants phoned Greg O'Neill, the presenter, to express their interest in the project, despite their inability to attend the presentation.

Aurora Arts Society member Jan Fullerton said at the meeting that artists have been asking her what the centre will offer them.

"This is not something the Aurora Arts Society is going to go off and build alone," Fullerton said. If artists are concerned about what's going to go in it, she added, they should step up and help plan it.

In July, O'Neill completed a feasibility study for the arts society, reviewing existing artist-run centres in Canada and surveying the arts community in Yellowknife to determine their facility needs. On Saturday he presented his findings. In the course of the study, O'Neill assessed a number of Yellowknife buildings currently vacant, including the Con Mine Rec Hall, the Hudson's Bay Warehouse, Trapper's Cabin and the Con Mine cottage hospital.

Other options that have emerged since the completion of the study are the RWED site in Old Town, or constructing a new building on the site of the Gerry Murphy Arena, next to City Hall.

"There's no one perfect choice," said O'Neill. Each building has its own concerns, such as size, parking availability and the cost of renovations.

When the question arose at the meeting as to whether an artist-run centre would compete with NACC, O'Neill said the centre would serve a different purpose than the existing arts and cultural centre. He noted that many arts groups find NACC expensive to rent.

O'Neill characterized the artist-run centre as an "incubator," giving artists a place to refine their craft before taking it to a bigger, more public venue like NACC.