Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today and are addressed to the Minister of Public Works and Services. In May I raised the idea of providing space in GNWT buildings for the display of artist products supported with government policy. The Minister said he thought this was a great idea and that he would work with his colleagues and have conversations with some of the local artist organizations to gather their input. Could the Minister inform us of his progress on that work?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Glen Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still think it’s a good idea, and to that end we’ve actually formed a working committee or working group that consists of Education, Culture and Employment; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Transportation; as well as Public Works and Services. We’ve had a number of meetings. We had some meetings prior to Christmas, where we actually had some input from art organizations in the Northwest Territories. The most recent meeting, trying to put together a plan – and Public Works and Services is taking the lead on the development of a program or policy – was just last week or the week before, February 12th. I don’t have the information from that last meeting but what I’ll do is I’ll get a recent or current update and provide that information to the Member and committee.
Just to remind the Minister, he didn’t say good idea, he said great idea. I just want to keep things going there.
As we know, a brand new GNWT office building is going up right here in Yellowknife. One of the things taken into account in the design of the building is, or should be, the design of viewing spaces. This is established practice in Europe, integrating culture into public life. The new office building presents an ideal opportunity to develop and implement the policy while ensuring a start on rolling this practice out across our facilities.
Will the Minister commit to pursue and complete this policy soon, identifying the physical space requirements, beginning the arrangement with producers that need to be put in place and making this happen at our new building?
We plan to have this policy done long before the building is open. Interestingly enough, it is a great idea. I will stick to great.
In talking to some of the arts communities, different ideas were brought forward. One of the ideas that was brought forward was, rather than having dedicated space for a hanging or painting, it may be better to bring in screens that have rotating art on them so that we can see carvings, paintings, many different art forms on a rotational basis. That means we’ll get a greater degree of artists being presented on a regular basis. We can do things like this in airports, in other areas where we have screens available. We’re just trying to work out some of the details that will actually create the greatest amount of awareness and the largest number of artists that we can support. If we stuck with just a painting on a wall that just rotated every once in a while, the number of artists who would get exposure would be far less.
So we’re very excited by some of the ideas being brought forward. As I indicated before, as we move forward, I will certainly bring that information to the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister had some great ideas there. It shows the value of consulting with the artist, which I very much appreciate.
Concerns were also expressed that such an arrangement would create competition with art retailers, and I supported checking with businesses to see if they had a problem with this art display opportunity. Clearly, the government would not be selling the art.
In his early effort to develop the policy, has the Minister consulted with our business organizations to solicit their feedback and learn whether this would be a good promotion or a problem for them? Mahsi.
I will get back to the Member on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
