Break out into song! Music Exchange is Win Your Space champ

A music hub is set to appear in downtown Yellowknife after triumphing in Yellowknife’s 2018 Win Your Space contest.

Mary Kelly, creator of Music Exchange, actually did break into song as the result was delivered at City Hall on Thursday evening.

“This is a true dream come true. I’m excited to bring this dream to Yellowknife,” she said.

Kelly wins a year’s free leased space alongside up to $10,000 in start-up cash from the NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation, and a range of other incentives.

Mayor Mark Heyck revealed her victory during a ceremony in which five finalists presented their plans to a panel of judges, with around 50 members of the public in attendance.

‘Fresh, new ideas’

“We’re going to have a music hub in downtown Yellowknife with three offices that will be studios rentable for different music activities,” Kelly explained.

“It’ll also have a very large, 800 square-foot space that can be used for many people at the same time doing artistic and creative activities.

“This will also be a huge incubation space for creative people to come together and create fresh, new ideas, and bring them out into Yellowknife and the world.”

Kelly hopes to move into a vacant space next to Ecology North, across from Cabin Radio on Franklin Avenue.

“It’s really beautiful,” she said.

Second prize, a $5,000 credit toward leased space alongside other benefits, went to The Farmhouse – a proposed home decor store pitched by Kerri Nolting.

Marilyn McGurran, who pitched her quilting business Longarm of the North to the judges, picked up third prize and the People’s Choice award – voted on by 176 people who took part online.

David Stephens’ Borealis Bike Tours Unlimited and Jenny’s Painting World, by Jennifer Pohl, also reached Thursday’s final.

Ja-Pain, the Japanese bakery inside the downtown Centre Square Mall, won last year’s contest and opened earlier in 2018.