Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the opportunity that we have with respect to curated shows for northern artists. This is a win-win opportunity, a win for northern artists, but also a win for the Government of the Northwest Territories. To take advantage of this win, I think it’s going to take a partnership between ITI and Education, Culture and Employment, but I only get to ask questions of one Minister so I’m going to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment some questions.
As I said in my statement, there are significant opportunities to displaying and facilitating curated shows in the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment tell me what is being done, or has anything been done in the Northwest Territories, to work with northern artists to display curated shows here in the Northwest Territories, to develop a collection of northern art, take it around the Northwest Territories and, hopefully, take it to the south as well? Has anything been done to that regard? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As the Assembly knows, we have increased our funding to arts and performers, a total of approximately $770,000 over 2009-10 and 2010-11. There have been some various activities that happened in the Northwest Territories and outside the Northwest Territories. I can certainly provide the list to the Member, because it is a long list, but I can touch on just a few of them.
We have sponsored an entry into the Northern Festival Presenters Conference in Yellowknife, March 2010; we had Aklavik Gwich’in Dancers, Arctic Winter Games, in Grande Prairie; the NWT Arts Council contributed to 19 performers for professional development; and the list goes on, Mr. Speaker, the music recording projects in seven communities in the Northwest Territories and the northern arts mentorship contribution to three musicians in three communities.
As we move forward we continue to sponsor our great athletes and also performers in the Northwest Territories. As an example, Halifax 2011 Canada Winter Games; National Arts Program activities for February 2011. Those are some of the activities that the youth and performers will be attending that we are sponsoring as well. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that. I’m in no way knocking any of the things we’re doing, and I think this government is doing an awful lot with respect to arts.
During the Arts Week I had a number of artists in the Northwest Territories say how grateful they are for the increased level of support that we’re providing. But I’m talking about something specific here. I’m talking about a curated show. The advantage to that is that if we facilitate a curated show for our northern artists, then our northern artists have an opportunity to take advantage of programs that the Canada Council offers and provides. Through Canada Council they can go on international tours, they can get other training, and they can have their art, northern art, displayed in national galleries. Right now we can’t do that.
What we need to do is we need to facilitate a curated show where we could bring in art, we could create a theme and we could do it. An official curated show creates huge opportunity. That’s what I’m talking about, Mr. Speaker, and I’m wondering if the Minister could tell me if we could move in that direction and maybe we can get his department, in cooperation with ITI, to organize some curated shows here in the Northwest Territories that will really benefit our northern artists and take them to a whole other level. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, those are the types of discussions that we need to have between ITI and ECE along with the Members. We’ve had various activities and shows displayed at the museums in different communities, whether it be from Scotland where we have Tlicho artefacts there that were brought to the Northwest Territories and brought to the communities as a mobile trade show.
Mr. Speaker, this is an area that I need to talk with my colleague from ITI on how we can approach this, because we need to visit our communities, what kind of performers or the arts display that we need to highlight. Those are the discussions that we can certainly have. We did touch on it in the past, on how we can approach this, so maybe we can revive that discussion. Mahsi.
That’s fantastic news and I hope that you do re-engage those conversations.
Just for the record, the Minister was talking about the shows coming into the North from other locations. That is exactly what I am talking about, but I am talking about going the other way. I am talking about taking our product out to the people of the Northwest Territories. If the Minister could give me a bit of a timeline when those conversations might happen, I would certainly like to be involved in them as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, definitely we need to reach out to other jurisdictions as well, such as the Vancouver Olympics. It was a very true success. We showcased the Northwest Territories. Our own artists and performers there were very successful. We will continue to promote that.
The time frame, we can say maybe sometime after this session we can sit down and discuss with the Member on how to best approach this initiative. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is all great. I have just one more suggestion to the Minister.
The upper gallery in the museum, there is a long walkway where they have held a number of shows. Just in the past week, I attended a photo show that was there. It is a prime location where a curated show could be facilitated. I was wondering if I could get the Minister to commit to having the museum actually do some research on what the criteria are for a candidate counsel for something to be considered a curated show so that we can take advantage of that long hallway, and maybe with very little expense we can actually start having curated shows here in Yellowknife, which could be taken out, but let’s start somewhere. Let’s get some of these shows up on our wall. Let’s support our northern artists. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the museum invited the Member to attend or have a tour. I believe that occurred, or will occur. This is an area that interests us as well. If there is space availability, then, definitely, we should showcase our northern arts and arts and crafts and whatnot.
Mr. Speaker, definitely we need to discuss this further with the museum and my colleague as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
