Yellowknife (Nov 03/06) - Santa has come a little early for Northern artists, particularly in Yellowknife.

Last Friday, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) announced the handing out of $355,000 in project funding to 65 applicants through the NWT Arts Council, 26 of whom are based in Yellowknife.

2006-2007 recipients Sandy Pringle Cynthia Russell Meinders & Koshik Video Links Club Western Arctic Moving Pictures Tyler Heal Fran Hurcomb Edwin Kolausok German Saravanja Crazy Legs Contemporary Dance Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre Ozgur Culha Alex Czarnecki Kris Schlagintweit Diane Boudreau Folk on the Rocks Nats'eju Dah K'e Northern Arts and Cultural Centre NWT Highland Dance Recording Arts Association of the NWT Solstice Festival Strings Across the Sky Yellowknife Choral Society Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts Yellowknife Ukrainian Association Yellowknife Watercolour Society

The 2006-2007 recipients range from established musicians recording demos to dance troupes running workshops; from screenplays about Northern families to books about street signs.

These include long-time recipients such as the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts for pottery workshops, and newcomers like Tyler Heal, the 15-year-old author working on his first book (which is profiled elsewhere in this section).

"They've been very good to us," said guild board member Janet Diveky of their funding history.

"We got money to bring in a couple of pottery instructors, one for hand-building and another for wheel-throwing.

"When we're assured of a new home, we'll look into booking somebody," she said with a laugh.

Fran Hurcomb is a first-time recipient, working on her third book.

It's a children's novel called Going Places, about a "girls hockey team in a fictitious NWT community called Fort Desperation."

"It was different," Hurcomb said of receiving funding this year. "You don't really make any money with books, but it does take a lot of time."

She said the money would go towards editing costs, and she hopes to have the book out in the summer of 2007.

ECE public affairs officer Ella Stinson said the department will not list the exact amounts received by individuals and organizations, citing privacy concerns.

"(The recipients) haven't given us permission to give out this information about them," she said.

However, Stinson did say average payout had increased to $6,500 from $2,900 in 2005-2006.

This was due to the number of applicants falling from 124 to 90, and successful applicants falling from 84 to 65, as the total amount of funding remained the same.

Education public affairs manager Shawn McCann said 70 per cent of applicants were applying for the first time, though she did not identify which artists and organizations on the list were new.

While the recipients were announced last Friday, many artists received their funding as early as May.

The deadline for funding applications was Feb. 28.