$10-million Nunavut media arts gets project management money from feds

Estimated to cost more than $10 million, the new media arts centre, spearheaded by the Inuit Broadcasting Corp., would provide Nunavut’s first full-scale, state-of-the-art, digital recording and production facilities. (FILE PHOTO)

The Nunavut Media Arts Centre got a boost today with the announcement that it will be getting some money from Ottawa.

A May 9 federal government news release did not put any figure to the money slated for project, but a spokesperson from Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq’s office confirmed that the Inuit Broadcasting Corp. will receive $164,000 over two years towards the management of its new centre.

In 2011, CanNor said it would give IBC $108,000 to hire a project management team for the centre.

The May 9 news release says CanNor will continue to support the IBC in the development, coordination, monitoring and reporting on all aspects of the Nunavut Media Arts Centre’s fundraising, communications, training and planning.

The Nunavut Media Arts Centre, which has been scheduled to open in Iqaluit in 2013, will cost about $10 million.

The IBC has also received money from the Inuit regional associations and the Government of Nunavut’s economic development and transportation department for the centre, which will be the territory’s first digital audio, video, recording, performance and post production facility.

The IBC has completed the structure’s design and a thermosiphon foundation has been installed at the future site – a heating and cooling system that circulates liquid without a mechanical pump.

When finished, the centre’s 8,000-square-foot building on Federal Road will house the Inuit Film and Video Archive, a facility where all the old tapes from IBC can be preserved, catalogued, digitized and stored safely.

It will also provide office space and post-production facilities for IBC’s subsidiary, Inuit Communications Systems Ltd., which does contract work with government agencies, businesses, designated Inuit organizations, community organizations, social service agencies, and other non-profit groups and private broadcasters from across Nunavut and the rest of Canada.

The IBC says the new centre should attract local and territorial freelancers, production companies and broadcasters to work in Nunavut.

“The Government of Canada is proud to invest in projects that promote social and economic development in the North,” Aglukkaq, also the minister responsible for CanNor, said in the news release. “The arts sector in Nunavut is an important contributor to the northern economy and this new facility will build capacity in local film and video production, promote Inuit artists and bring increased investment to the territory.”

“I am delighted and grateful for the ongoing support the Minister has shown for the Nunavut Media Arts Centre,” Madeleine d’Argencourt, the chair of IBC, said in the same release. “It is welcome recognition that the culture of Nunavut is one of our proudest and most valuable assets. With CanNor’s assistance, and with strong community partnerships, we will be able to showcase the best of our culture — our filmmakers, our artists, our dancers, our performers -— to Nunavut and the world.”