Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 3, 2007

FORT SIMPSON - The Open Sky Festival will be twice as long this year as Fort Simpson will host a national arts gathering.

With a theme of traditional arts the 2008 Open Sky Festival will be promoting crafts such as moosehair tufting done by Lucy Simon at this year's festival. - NNSL file photo

The National Aboriginal Arts and Funders Gathering (NAAAFG) is an event where aboriginal arts administrators and funders come together to strengthen aboriginal art in the country, said Lynn Canney, the executive director for the Open Sky Creative Society.

"A lot of incredible connections are made at the gathering," Canney said.

Canney attended this year's gathering in Cranberry Portage, Man. At the end of the event Fort Simpson was chosen to host the next gathering.

The gathering is aimed at assisting more Northern artists in the country and Fort Simpson will be the farthest north the gathering has ever been held, Canney said.

The gathering will be held alongside the annual Open Sky Festival, with a tentative date of the last week in June. The gathering will last four days, overlapping with the three-day festival to create a total of five days of workshops and performances. In effect the festival will be twice as long this year, Canney said.

Hosting the gathering will benefit the village and the festival because approximately 60 administrators and funders from across the country will be attending, she said. The combined event is drawing attention, Canney added.

"There's already some excitement building territorially," said Canney.

With the two events running together, she said the festival attendance should rise.

"I hope and I expect that it will be really well attended. It will be the spot to be," she said.

Plans for the festival and the gathering were discussed at the annual general meeting of the Open Sky Creative Society on Nov. 23.

"It's an amazing opportunity to have artists of a national calibre involved," said Michael Blyth, the artistic director and the festival co-ordinator for the society.

The 2008 festival's theme will be traditional arts.

With a larger festival, the workload to organize it will also double, said Canney. During the AGM all seven of last year's board members volunteered to continue in their roles and another three joined. The increased board size will help spread out the workload, Canney said.

The festival wasn't the only item on the meeting's agenda.

"We've had a very busy year and a very good year," said Canney.

On its list of achievements the society includes its work on the Heritage Centre.

Formerly known as the rectory building, both the Open Sky Creative Society and the Fort Simpson Historical Society have been working together to restore the structure.

Over the year the business and implementation plans have been completed, the architectural work has been almost finished and the structural engineering has been started and has enough funding to be completed, said Canney. Selective demolition inside the building is also finished and electrical and mechanical engineering is ongoing, she said.

"We're set to go for construction when the funding comes through," said Canney.

The societies are now waiting to hear back from a funding source. If their application is approved it will also release funding promised by government agencies, enough to complete the $1 million project.

"Hopefully we'll hear from that soon," said Canney.