The First Floor Gallery, created to profile the incredible artwork of local artists, opened in January 2015. This exhibition space is located at City Hall, between the Service Barrie and Legislative Services counters. The space is open to the public from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).
The First Floor Gallery provides the City an opportunity to serve the arts sector by profiling the works of local artists and beautifying a public area within City Hall, while providing artists with paid exhibition opportunities.
Are you an artist interested in exhibiting your work? Please refer to The First Floor Gallery guiding principles and application process.
November & December 2025 Exhibit
Life on the Lake
This exhibition, Life on the Lake, depicts the natural beauty of our local community and environment. As a lifelong Barrie resident and a nature lover, Meike Brucker strives to express these characteristics through her art. Much of her artwork is inspired by the great outdoors. This exhibit primarily features pointillism, the painting technique that uses countless distinct dots of various colours. The dots provide texture and hint at movement.
Meike’s favourite painting subjects are her hometown and scenes in nature. Water is a common theme in her art as it is a source of peace for many and indeed provides the foundations for a healthy community to thrive. All living beings rely on a plentiful and sustainable source of clean water. Every summer, Meike and her family can be found on Kempenfelt Bay, boating, stand-up paddleboarding, canoeing, and swimming. Meike marvels at the beauty and contrast of colours of the sun rising or setting on the water, which have inspired her to embrace the challenge of mixing ombre colours.
Art has always been Meike’s passion, her hobby, and her favourite way of connecting with nature. Recently she has completed many paintings using pointillism, but she also explores other styles including realism and abstract. Most of her pieces are created using acrylic paints on canvas. She has also experimented with different media such as oil paints, cross stitch, print making, beadwork, sculpting in clay, and wood carving.
As a child, Meike learned various artistic techniques in classes offered by the MacLaren Art Centre. At Nipissing University, she obtained her Sociology degree with a minor in Fine Arts. She is now an elementary school teacher here in Barrie and enjoys sharing her love for the arts with her grade one students.
When creating, she is also inspired by her travels. Wherever she visits, she is eager to learn about their culturally significant art and about local artists’ experiences and creations. In high school, she participated in the Global Perspectives Barrie Youth Ambassadors program which included stays in Cuba and Germany. While completing her undergraduate degree, she did a semester abroad in Barbados. Other travel destinations include the United Kingdom, France, Iceland, Morocco, and several additional countries in Africa. These international experiences have collectively shaped her approach to creating art, as well as her connection with the natural world.
As a grade one teacher, Meike's teaching style is augmented by her love of art. When young learners can express themselves creatively, they recognize that they, too, are artists! Meike believes that the arts can be embedded across curricula and that children are more engaged in their learning when artistic exploration is encouraged. Meike has always loved gifting her art to family and friends and is now grateful and humbled by the opportunity to share her artwork with the larger community.
You can find more of her art on social media at meikebrucker.art (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) or by contacting her at meikebrucker.art@gmail.com.
