Fort Simpson (Oct 23/06) - Fort Simpson's Open Sky Creative Society is getting ready for another year.

This week, as the society was preparing for its annual general meeting, its artistic and executive directors shed some light on the plans it has for the future.

Margaret Bouvier of Hay River displays a wedding dress she made from deer skin at the Open Sky Festival in Fort Simpson several years ago. - NNSL file photo

"We have a three-year planning session happening for a few days following the AGM," said artistic director Michael Blyth, on top of plans to review the year and elect a new board.

Executive director Tonya Makletzoff-Cazon said some long-term plans include finishing the Heritage Centre at the reclaimed Sacred Heart rectory, which will be a boon to the arts in the Dehcho.

"It would be a multi-use place for workshops and art galleries and stuff like that," Blyth said.

He said the timeline was set for the "next couple of years, but it's going to take a lot of work."

The Heritage Centre is a shared initiative between Open Sky and the Fort Simpson Historical Society, with a projected budget of more than $1 million.

Cazon said future meetings will also include a great deal of "capacity building," a catch-all term she said refers to all the initiatives that can help the society "see how we can go from surviving to thriving."

She said these include looking at new funding options and reaching out to outlying communities through workshops. This includes more work in traditional arts and crafts.

"(Artists) would like to see more of the traditional arts that are not being passed down," she said.

In the short term, the society has plans to continue the Beaver Tale Jamboree and the Open Sky Festival, Blyth said.

"It went pretty well, from what I saw," Blyth said of the sixth-annual festival.

This year, the event included performances from Fort Simpson's Jared Sowan project and Yellowknife rapper Godson, as well as carving and jewelry-making workshops.

In the even shorter term, Blyth said the society is also holding its annual logo contest, which is only just getting underway.

"I think you're one of the first people I've told," he said.

This year, the contest will wrap up around Dec. 19, as a Northern artist's design is accepted to represent the seventh-annual Open Sky Festival.