•Suggestions for supporting NWT Artists
•in the Short-Term / Mid-Term / Long-Term / Ongoing
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•Immediately! Speed up the process of approvals and bureaucracy to get $ to the artists from GNWT funding faster than normal from the NWT Arts Council.
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•Immediately! Create a fund for a streaming concert series that could be performed without an audience (Yukon is doing this!). Use NACC or other empty venues, partner with WAMP / Artless Collective / PIDO and other media companies to produce the video/audio, and host through a ticketed streaming program like Side Door Access. This could be done over the next 12 months, with a guaranteed fee for artists, technical production costs covered, and any ticket sales coming to the artist.
•Immediately! Advocate to include the arts in schools as a priority for reopening in September. Acknowledge that the classes may be different than before, but allow teachers to find creative ways to adapt to make the students safe while still engaging in the arts. Working in digital realms is an excellent way to keep students safe, ensure they are learning skills to engage in future digital arts worlds and economies, and provide creative outlets in times of stress.
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Immediately! Support established arts groups who are coming to the GNWT with ideas for adapting their 2020/2021 programming, and encourage them to look beyond March 2021.
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•Short/Mid Term - Create a dedicated Arts fund to support northern artists for the next 18 - 24 months to cover their business expenses, living expenses, etc. This should be a GRANT not a loan, available to full-time and part-time artists. This acknowledges the need for support needed by artists that goes beyond project funding (like the Creative Industries Economic Recovery Funding) and beyond immediate lost income (like the federal CERB fund).
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•Short Term - Create a fund to support emerging artists and students (especially age 15-30) who want careers in the arts but are now struggling to continue their studies or see how their profession will exist. By supporting emerging + young artists, we will create our own solutions for continuing to make the arts a viable career for northerners. Partnering established artists with emerging artists could be a great way to do this.
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•Short - Long Term - Support Drive-In Concert ideas, or other creative ways to keep northern artists and audiences engaged and safe.
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•Short - Long Term - Allow 100% of a project’s funds to be sourced from GNWT $. Any revenue that was expected to come in from ticket sales / audience will NOT be coming. This could apply to Arts applications to SEED (/ other ITI funding / NWT Arts Council.
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•Mid-Term - Create a GNWT-commissioning fund to generate new works by established professional artists during the next 12 months. These works could be curated, exported, promoted, designed to be a show of strength and adaptability for people from the NWT. These could be visual art, literary, musical, drama, dance, film.
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•Mid-Term Offer a basic grant i.e. $2500 to any established artist that applied for NWT Arts Council funds for 2021, whether their project will be successful or not. (British Columbia is doing this! Their only request was a 30 min streamed concert or offering some form of workshop or mentorship). Include eligibility to use funds to support full-time artists who are full-time parents as well.
•Mid-Long Term - Create a fund specifically to support artists engaging in digital ways that were not there before - i.e. for purchasing / renting / learning to use equipment like video cameras, mics, software programs; also for hiring and collaborating with local media / digital production
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•Mid-Long Term - Create a fund specifically for recording the performing arts especially music, to keep generating and exporting content. This will keep northern artists relevant for audiences outside the north.
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•Mid-Long Term - Support NWT artists to travel within the NWT once travel restrictions ease, even if the NWT border is closed. This could be a great way to get performances in small communities, and support performing artists and the cascading jobs that are required to support them.
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•Long Term / Ongoing - Increase the amounts available to the Nwt Arts Council and Support for Northern Performers for 2021 and moving forward.
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•Long Term / Ongoing - Support a revitalization of appreciating and compensating artists for their art - lead the way! Artists and their art have been devalued and undervalued for too long.
•Long Term / Ongoing - Keep clarifying the restrictions on singing as time goes on, as many forms of performing and music education and engagement requires singing (i.e. young children music engagement, seniors / dementia music engagement, vocal artists, bands with singers, choirs)
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•Long Term / Ongoing - Keep clarifying the restrictions on concerts, galleries, performances, bars, etc. as time goes on.
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