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INUVIK
Tommy Smith is one smooth ladies' man.

Marnie Hilash, left, the executive director of the Great Northern Arts Festival, with longtime volunteer Tommy Smith and volunteer Curtis Taylor, are all set for the 25th anniversary of the festival. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Smith, the only person to be involved in the Great Northern Arts Festival (GNAF) during its entire 25-year run, is a shy, self-effacing type who says his favourite part of what could be argued is the NWT's largest arts festival is meeting the artists.

That's not what his fellow volunteers and even executive director Marnie Hilash say, though.

"Tommy likes the ladies," she said with a broad smile.

"He likes all the hugs he gets from the women," bellowed Dave Tyler in the distance to general laughter from the painting crew preparing for the GNAF July 6 at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex.

It was difficult to tell with any certainty, but it looked like Smith blushed a little under his weathered GNAF cap.

He quickly tried to divert the discussion to issues other than his longstanding love relationship with the 10-day show that's the major event of the summer in Inuvik.

"I just love doing this because you get to meet the artists, and you make new friends and then you see the beautiful work on display," he said. "I like to talk with them and see them working. It amazes me every year that it grows bigger and bigger and we get more and more artists."

Don't ask him, though, who his favourite artist is.

"They all are," he said. "There's no way I could choose between them."

He said he particularly enjoys watching the artists work from their raw materials to finished products.

Hilash, who has recently taken over from Sasha Webb, now on maternity leave, said she's confident the 25th edition will be special and remain true to the spirit of the founders.

"We're very much trying to uphold our traditions, but we're doing some things differently this year," she said. "We're making a significant change to the opening ceremony and that is partly due to a logistics thing."

She was a bit coy on just what the change will entail, but said there will be three different drum groups in the main meeting room at Midnight Sun Recreation Complex.

That's still in accordance with the tradition of the festival, though.

"Sue Rose and Charlene Alexander thought it would be great to bring some artists from the general Beaufort Delta area together so they could learn from each other and maybe exhibit in a professional situation," she said. "The funding grew on them and became all of the old Northwest Territories at the time."

She's expecting about 40 artists to attend this year, although it's difficult to pinpoint the exact number.

"The numbers will fluctuate up to the moment we open, and we're also expecting that there will be quite a number from the region influxing. That's part of this whole thing."

Hilash said she actually relishes that unpredictability, which she said is an inherent part of what is, at least partly, an outdoor festival dependent on weather.

A full gamut of artists is expected to attend, although carving is likely to be the main draw once again.

"It's sort of a flagship event of its kind," she said. "Very few festivals allow such direct contact with the artists as we do."

The show opens Friday, July 12, and runs until July 21.

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