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Gwen Mitchell is a young woman who just recently moved here from Toronto to work for FatKat Animation.

"I wanted to do more than go to work everyday and go home," she said."I want to make this more my home."

Being new to the area, she wanted to find a way to get involved in the arts community here and so she went looking for groups and events in the area she could participate in — no easy feat.

Artists tend to communicate with the world through their work. But apparently they need some help communicating with each other in New Brunswick.

So the province is looking to start a Provincial Arts Alliance.

In its conception stages, the committee to start the Provincial Arts Alliance is touring the province to find out just what artists in film, theatre, writing and painting would need to better communicate.

The committee held a meeting in Miramichi last Wednesday to talk to some of the locals.

So far the provincial government has shelled out $60,000, which was used to hire Jennifer Phillips as a consultant and for the distribution of surveys to find out just what people need and want from this sort of group.

The alliance would serve as a tool for networking, education, promotion, relaying funding sources, proposal writing, business training and mentoring.

At the meeting, many expressed concerns about not knowing what opportunities were out there — from public tenders to produce a statue for Miramichi, to knowing whose shows are on exhibit.

Maria Bourgeois is with the Fredericton Arts Alliance.

"This was many people's ideas floating around for many years. Recently people started talking about it again. And the government thought the same thing — it might work," said Bourgeois.

Local artist Theresa McKnight has been one step ahead. She began a grassroots group for visual artists just recently and their numbers are quickly growing.

"We are not alone, but sometimes it seems like that in the dead of winter," she said at the meeting.

It doesn't matter if you are "pro or semi pro," all are welcome to her Arts Corps.

This is just the kind of thing the NB arts organization is looking to piggy back off of.

"One of the things we found is people in art tend to work in isolation," Jennifer Phillips, the project consultant. "And they are not well connected with other disciplines. There isn't an infrastructure in place for us to communicate."

Phillips said the Miramichi turnout was the best they had yet, which gave her some hope for this to be successful in smaller areas as well.

There were a couple of clues that artists have been looking for something for just like this.

The Fredericton Arts Alliance has been steadily growing and doing a lot for its members. But Bougeois said lately people outside the city have been saying, "Can you do this for me?"

But of course they are only designed to accommodate Fredericton — the usual problem that see big cities flourishing while smaller populations get left in the dust.

There is already a group in existence which does a great deal of advocacy and promotion for Acadian and Francophone artists. The committee would like the new group to be a sister group to the French one.

"Here is this successful group getting support and funding. And there is this lone artist over here saying, can I get a dollar?" said Phillips.

Mitchell took her coworkers, Neven Nesic and Keith Fukumoto, to the meeting with her as a first step toward exploring the Miramichi arts community.

All three were excited about a group that would bring artists together and help them further their careers.

"I think it will be good for career counselling job posting, and to find out who is who,"said Nesic.

"It's good for self promotion, and knowing where arts shows are," said Fukumoto.

Others saw this as an opportunity not only to have help with their own careers, but also to volunteer their time helping budding artists.

Brigitte LeBouthillier is an oil painter living in Newcastle.

"I think we need to stick together or we will never advance," she said. "I like to hang out with other artists and feel the energy... If I can help give others a little push that would be great."

Bourgeois said the group plans to officially begin in the fall, but the first year will most likely be a slow one — a director will be hired and they plan to start a website that will enable members to engage with one another and find out about upcoming events.

But the primary effort will be to collect members.

"The first thing we need to do is find out who everybody is," said Phillips.

Reporter Laura MacInnis covers the court beat and is exploring Miramichi arts and culture in this column.