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INUVIK
Next week, the Midnight Sun Complex will go under a dramatic transformation.

James William, an artist entering the 2012 Great Northern Arts Festival, shows off two new pieces of artwork in Inuvik on Monday. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

The Great Northern Arts Festival (GNAF) will begin Friday, July 13. For the following 10 days, artists from around the North, former Northerners, and tourists will join residents in Inuvik for Canada's largest arts festival North of the Arctic Circle.

The 2012 festival is themed Year of the Drum.

"It's sort of a theme of cross-cultural strength and healing," said Sasha Webb, executive director of the festival. "We have asked the artists to interpret the drum in any medium they work in, and it also means more cultural entertainment. We've always found that the best-attended performance arts are cultural events."

Along with a jam-packed performance art schedule that has events during all 10 days of GNAF, the festival includes art workshops, children's workshops that will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. every day, a gallery that will display thousands of pieces of art, a carving village and other artistic work-spaces.

Webb works on planning the festival all year long with the support of her board of directors. That year's worth of work is all in preparation for a 10-day festival, this year from July 13 to 22.

The purpose of the festival is to gather artists from around the North in one space for 10 days, where they will both display and sell some of their pieces, host workshops, collaborate together and take advantage of the professional seminars offered. The festival's mandate is simple: to offer Northern artists the same opportunities as southern artists, said Webb.

"Southern artists have art centres that they can go to, they have funding people they can talk to, they have many resources that they can access," she said. "Many of our artists are living in remote communities where they don't even necessarily have access to each other."

James William, an artist from Fort McPherson and Aklavik who has been living in Inuvik leading up to the festival, agreed he uses the festival to meet other artists.

"You see old friends, make new ones," he said "You meet a lot of people."

William carves, paints and draws. He first participated in the festival in 2004 with only one piece – a moose antler he had carved. It was his first antler carving and he still isn't sure what inspired him to use the medium.

"Imagination, I guess," he said. "It just came together all of a sudden. There were tools there and an antler over there. Then I sold it for a good price so I just kept going."

William said that one of the hardest parts of making a living off of his art is knowing how to set the prices for his work. This is something organizers of the festival work to help artists with, said Webb.

"Many artists rely on their art as their sole source of income and the arts festival is one of the main economic opportunities during the year," Webb said.

Marnie Hilash has participated in the arts festival since moving to the North to live in Tuktoyaktuk in 1993. After moving to Inuvik in 1999, she became more involved, serving for two years as executive director, and she still serves on the board of directors.

Hilash is a mixed-media artist, and she works with different mediums depending on her inspiration at the time.

She said that a main benefit for artists who participate in the festival is that, "it's an opportunity to look at their work in context to each other.

"It's really slippery and hard to pin down what Northern art is because there are a lot of artists in the North and a lot of variety," said Hilash.

Hilash will be conducting three workshops during this year's festival, one in drawing and two using pastels.

"I believe everyone is an artist, they just may not have found their technique yet," she said.

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