Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Friday, January 4, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Artists and gallery owners in Old Town were just getting started this summer during the community's first Ramble and Ride festival.

The week-long event promoted the talent and businesses in Old Town with a series of workshops, concerts and other events, and took place just after several business owners got together to create a new Old Town artists and merchants map that was distributed to tourists and residents alike.

The next step for the organizers of the Old Town artists and merchants map is to build a website - a project which organizers say will be finished sometime before March.

"It will include a downloadable map of Old Town with all the businesses involved listed and links to our websites," said Lisa Seagraves, owner of Gallery of the Midnight Sun.

Rosalind Mercredi, owner of Down to Earth Gallery, said since the map came out more people have been coming through.

"It's very handy. People come in all the time - either they have a map or you give them a map, they know where to go next," she said.

Old Town seems to have gotten a second wind, according to Seagraves.

"For the first time in many years I think there's kind of a new spirit in Old Town among the businesses that is quite energetic," she said. "We've had several artists move into the area with their studios and galleries."

Now, she said, it's time for Old Town to promote itself not only to tourists, but to residents of Yellowknife.

"It's amazing how many people who live here keep on finding us," said Mercredi.

Beth Covvey, an artist who works from Raven Studio in Old Town and who designed the Old Town map, will also design the website. Some of the businesses on the map include Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Co-op, Weaver and Devore and Squatterz Books and Curiosities.

Seagraves' gallery features the artwork of several local artists. She said before running the shop she spent several years working in retail downtown, and she now feels very lucky to work in Old Town.

"This is what tourists really want to see when they come to Yellowknife. They want something that's a little more authentic, a little more historical ... it's what's unique about Yellowknife."

Artists based in Old Town are being invited to take part in the project and to get their galleries, studios or businesses on the website's map.