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NUNAVUT - The government is backing up its arts strategy with extra funding to help develop Nunavut's arts sector.

On Jan. 14, Peter Taptuna, minister of Economic Development and Transportation, announced an additional $425,000 support for the arts through the creation of two new funds.

The funds will help support the purchase of art materials and equipment, business training for artists, website development and promotion, workshops and training, and investments by artists in wholesale and retail.

There is also an artistic innovation fund for applicants who don't fit under any other category.

"Our arts and crafts strategy and this new implementation funding demonstrate the government's increased commitment to this important part of our economy," said Taptuna. "At the same time, we are helping the artists who maintain our culture and traditions."

The department estimated that the arts and crafts sector is worth $30 million to the territory and that implementing the strategy will bring its contribution to the economy to around $50 million.

The additional funds to implement the strategy, created in June 2007, may be renewed annually.

"There's funding for the next fiscal year as well," said Ryan Oliver, the department's senior advisor for arts and traditional economy.

Last week, Qiatsuq Qiatsuq, acting economic development officer for Cape Dorset, was already looking at ways the funding could help grow the local economy.

"I've been going through it - how it is comparable to other grants," he said last week. "This grant looks like a lot less tight lines, a lot less criteria.

"I think this program will be very useful in a community like mine where the arts sector is a huge economic factor."

Disseminating information through Nunavut's economic development officers, as well as local arts venues, is one of the ways of getting the word out to artists about the new funding that is available, said Oliver.

"The arts community in Nunavut is very tight," he said. "If you let one person know, it spreads like wildfire."

But for some artists, finding and accessing such support can be a challenge, said Iqaluit artist Eva Eseemailee.

"For me, I don't know what the government is giving artists," she said. "I haven't heard. I haven't seen. A lot of us don't have computers.

"For an artist that doesn't have much education, it's kind of hard to know where to get funding or what is available for them," she added. "For a real older Inuk guy or woman who's an artist for a long time, I don't know where they get information."

Applications with lots of text and complicated language can also be discouraging, said Eseemailee.

"For me, once I start seeing application forms trying to get to grants, it's so many pages, it stopped me for awhile to apply," she said. "For me, I'm a visual learner. I have to see."

Oliver said the applications and grant information are currently available in English and Inuktitut, and will soon be translated into Inuinnaqtun as well.

He also said the department is changing its policy with regards to how grant recipients are able to report back at the end of a project.

"It's not always the most fun to write out a two page letter on what you've accomplished, so we've introduced oral reporting," he said. "It stays in line with the IQ principles. It will be really interesting to see how it's used."