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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - If there is any doubt about the significance of the new arts and business movement ArtsEnergy, the high profile roster of supporters that showed up at the group's reception in Old Town last week bodes well for the future of the grassroots effort.

ArtsEnergy founder Morag Macpherson sits in front of an image from Yellowknife photographer Robert Wilson's most recent exhibit, The Treachery of Images, which was displayed at the ArtsEnergy reception on July 14. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo

Leaders of Yellowknife's arts and business communities as well as federal and territorial government officials were on hand Thursday to voice their support for the ArtsEnergy project, which aims to create a blueprint for stimulating Yellowknife's economy through the arts.

"This initiative of bringing business and the arts together is brilliant," said NDP member of Parliament Linda Duncan from Edmonton-Strathcona, who attended the reception with NWT MP Dennis Bevington. "If you want to attract sound, sustainable investment in a community, you want to be able to attract people to a community where they actually want to move to," she said.

Bevington also voiced his support for the connections being made between the arts and business communities, "because art is business, and it's good business – it's the business that keeps on rolling."

"We want sustainability in the North, and arts and culture are the sustainable parts of our economy," he said.

Resident Morag Macpherson first approached Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director Tim Doyle in March with the vision of creating the group, made up of arts and business leaders from organizations including the chamber, Music NWT, the Artist Run Community Centre and the City of Yellowknife.

"We were having discussions about how we can find ways to generate interest in this city," Doyle said, lamenting a lack of winter events and the demise of the Raven Mad Daze festival. "The concept is to generate some real buzz in town, promote the arts, promote tourism and help the downtown community by having a bunch of people coming to celebrate with us.

"We just saw a lot of energy there."

Macpherson said it was not hard getting more people on board, including GNWT press secretary Drew Williams and Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Bob McLeod.

"They just got the energy, the understanding of bringing together the creative industry in Yellowknife with business, gathering up that energy in one place and actually doing something with it," Macpherson said, "and ArtsEnergy was born."

Minister McLeod appeared to agree.

"There is a lot of excitement in the air, and I know when people get excited and dynamic we can accomplish a lot," he said.

Chamber director Doyle said the committee is in the process of being registered with the city and is working on a constitution with the help of J.P. Ellson, a founding member of the Western Canadian Music Alliance.

"It's not about a specific concert or event or day," Ellson explained. "It's about vibrancy, it's about building excitement in your city and we need a cadre of dedicated, excited people that are willing to do that.

"They need to be able to look beyond the next fiscal, the next AGM, the next shareholders meeting, the next annual report -- and look at this globally."

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