2024 Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Barrie Arts Awards!
Carolyn M. Boyd is a Canadian landscape artist brushing with passion and enthusiasm from the magnificent shores of Kempenfelt Bay, Muskoka and beyond. She studied fine art at Georgian College and North Light Art School and has a certificate in the Fundamentals of Fine Art. Carolyn teaches private art classes and group workshops. Her paintings are in collections across Canada and globally.
Carolyn's paintings have been exhibited in the Barrie Art Club Featured Artist Show, Dundas Valley School of Art Annual Auction, MacLaren Art Centre Benefactor Art Exchange Program, Barrie City Hall First Floor Gallery, Plein Air Artists Show, Orillia Opera House, Women's Art Association of Canada, Hibernation Arts Gallery, Quest Art Gallery, Stack Gallery, and in various other galleries and shows. She's a member of the Barrie Art Club, MacLaren Art Centre, Artists in Canada, Orillia District & Arts Council, Quest Art School & Gallery, Women's Art Association of Canada, Women's Art Association of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Ontario, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kawartha Art Gallery, Arts on the Credit, Muskoka Arts & Crafts, Newmarket Group of Artists and CARFAC.
As a landscape painter, Carolyn’s approach resides in deep and abiding passion. Her landscape paintings will jump to life with colour and movement or retreat to gentle tranquility as she depicts the wondrous beauty found in nature. Occasionally, she incorporates wildlife into her paintings to further explore the narrative of the natural world. The Canadian landscape offers a continual changing panorama with its change of seasons. Her paintings portray a message of beauty and belief in its power and majesty. Memory takes her back to childhood where her mother was a landscape painter. Fortunate to be taken to galleries and plein air painting excursions around Ontario, they painted in lock step. Muskoka was a favourite place to visit. She encouraged Carolyn to observe and imagine the rhythm and flow of water, the gentle movement of trees, as well as light and shadow, and imbue her paintings with deep belief in the power of nature. Her mother introduced her to the world of art and many of her mother’s favourite artists are also Carolyn’s.
Carolyn was involved in the art industry for several years and owned/operated Bluehaven Art Studio from 1999 to 2005. However, due to health issues including chronic pain and fatigue, she had to step away from the business for over a decade. Nevertheless, she continued to dabble in art. Throughout her adult life, she has encountered enduring health challenges including chronic pain and fatigue, and has received diagnoses of fibromyalgia, myofascial pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, environmental illness, among other conditions. She suffered from a severe case of the Norwalk virus in 2004, which further deteriorated her health and led to the closure of her art business in 2005. For many years she devoted her time to studying Metaphysics and Spirituality courses as well as experimenting with various healing therapies.
As a survivor of gender-based abuse and violence, she recognizes the significance of helping other women in the community, which is why she began volunteering at the Women and Children's Shelter of Barrie. In 2015 & 2016, she participated in art therapy classes and assisted with art workshops and other activities. She delved deep into her art and experienced a notable improvement in her overall well-being. At present, she sells original fine art, as well as conducts private art classes and workshops in watercolour and acrylic painting. Creating art continues to play a significant role in her healing journey, despite ongoing challenges with fibromyalgia, myofascial pain disorder, and chronic fatigue. She is so much better than she was just a few years ago.
About the Artist Beyond Barriers Award
Presented to an artist, performer, or writer who has demonstrated creative originality through a body of work despite living with a continuous or recurrent mental or physical disability that results in a substantial restriction in their ability to work, care for themselves, or take part in community life. These individuals may be living or deceased. This award is presented by the City's Seniors & Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Ryan Farley is an entertainment consultant specializing in grant writing and music licensing. He is a self-taught entrepreneur with nine years experience working with live music and music administration. He founded his company, Hubris Entertainment Inc., in 2022 which has grown to serve a wide variety of artists and businesses in the music industry. Acting as the team member you didn't know you needed, he prioritizes organized and efficient workflow to get objectives done with as little hassle as possible.
His start in the music industry was in 2014, acting as road manager on a cross-country hip hop tour. It was there he found the spark that would inspire a new career path. On this tour, he would meet over a hundred Canadian musicians and see the overwhelming talent our country has tucked away everywhere he went. He saw skill, ambition, dedication, and no lack of hard work. He knew a lot of these artists had the potential to make waves much larger than performing local shows would allow them to. This was the beginning of a passionate path towards providing services to enable musicians to reach higher heights through their art. The next few years he took a deep dive into learning about grants, music publishing, copyright law and sync licensing.
In 2015, while making the changes necessary to start Hubris Entertainment, he injured himself, leaving him with a permanent condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, or CRPS. This life altering event interrupted his path to creating Hubris, requiring him to audit and overhaul his entire lifestyle to make life manageable again. No matter how much adversity this situation caused him, his mind always went back to the passionate idea for a way to serve artists that he saw on that first tour.
Several tours, grant applications, consultations, conferences and marketing campaigns later, Hubris would re-emerge. It would be years of educating himself on Canadian arts grants, music publishing, pain management, and the intricacies of entertainment law and the music industry before finally being ready to open Hubris Entertainment.
Today his days are spent working with artists of all genres and styles. As a grant writer he has helped many artists navigate the funding opportunities available to them, assisting in receiving grants from federal, provincial and regional grant organizations, including FACTOR and the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2023 he developed a strategic partnership with Los Angeles-based boutique sync & music supervision house A Matter of Music, working both on films in their music departments and as a sync agent pitching music for major productions. In 2024 he was invited to join EMG Collectives as their official grant writer. With many different projects in development, he is excitedly looking forward to what the future will bring.
About the Business Champion Award
Given to an individual or business operating in the Barrie area that has consistently and significantly supported the arts through either financial and/or in-kind means. This award may be granted to a business that has made a concerted effort to build capacity in the arts.
Iain Moggach is an award-winning professional theatre producer, director, and educator who has been living in Barrie since 2015. He is best known for his work as Artistic Director of Theatre by the Bay. Immediately upon graduation from George Brown Theatre School, Iain was an inaugural participant in Theatre by the Bay's Indie Producer Co-op. It was his first time in Barrie and the beauty and community left a strong impression on him. On the same note, Iain left a strong impression with Theatre by the Bay and, within weeks of completing the Co-op, was asked to take on the role of General Manager, and later, Executive Director. In November 2018, Iain became Artistic Director of Theatre by the Bay. Very quickly, Iain began to establish his presence in the Barrie arts community. He was part of the Cobalt Connects performing art centre consultations in 2016-2017, joined the Barrie Rotaract Club, and served as the theatre consultant for the Downtown BIA and City's Meridian Place plans. It was in 2017 when a life-changing project would happen that set the course of his time in Barrie. Iain was working as an actor for Theatre by the Bay's production, The Five Points. It was a verbatim documentary play that required interviews with people from various walks of life in Barrie. Iain, as a Barrie resident with a flexible schedule, ended up conducting over 60 of the 150 interviews that were the foundation for the show. As a result, Iain interviewed everyone from politicians and business owners to members of the Women and Children's Shelter and Busby Centre. Having such a well-rounded experience, and then getting to put those words into his own mouth for audiences as an actor, was transformative and revealed the potential power and importance of his impact.
After The Five Points, Iain was everywhere, and everyone came to know him. Iain received the Barrie Business Award for ‘Young Professional of the Year' in 2019 (the first and only arts manager to receive this award), the Tourism Champion Award in 2019, and the 2019 Mayor's Innovation Award for ‘Most Innovative Not-for-Profit', and many more. As his reputation for being a respected, trustworthy, and dedicated arts manager grew, so did his responsibilities and impact. In 2020, Iain was hand-selected by Mayor Alex Nuttall to serve as the Arts representative on his COVID-19 task force, which required providing weekly updates on the status of the arts community - which, of course, required him to earn and retain the trust of the arts community to handle sensitive information. In 2021, Iain led the founding of the Barrie Arts Alliance - a group of 20 arts managers from all disciplines that met regularly to focus on local arts advocacy. In 2021, one of the Alliance's achievements was to convince City Council to establish the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee - the first direct line that the arts community has had to council and the shaping of policy. Iain was unanimously voted to be the Arts Alliance's representative on the Advisory Committee, and even served as the Vice Chair while there was such an appointment. In 2024, Iain was mentioned in Marshall Green's Report regarding the new performing arts centre as having been a critical player in the creation of his plan.
As part of Theatre by the Bay, Iain has provided transformative change for the Barrie artistic community. Iain oversaw the transformation of Theatre by the Bay's mandate from Shakespeare and musicals to one focused on local stories and the employment of local artists. The result of which has been a renaissance in interest in Barrie stories, and paid opportunities for local artists. Since Theatre by the Bay’s change in mandate, Iain has helped pay over a million dollars in fees to Simcoe County artists. One standout example is Bobbie in 2023. The production was an original commission by local playwright Trudee Romanek (whose skills emerged through TBTB's Barrie Theatre Lab program). The play was about Bobbie Rosenfeld, the Jewish, female, immigrant, athlete who was part of Canada's first ever women's Olympic team in 1928 where she won gold and silver medals for Canada. The play was a huge success, cemented Trudee Romanek as one of Barrie's most exciting new theatre artists, and led to the creation of the City of Barrie's Bobbie Rosenfeld Day on August 30th (the date of the first performance of the play). In addition, Trudee received the City of Barrie Heritage Award for her work bringing attention to Bobbie and local history.
A huge part of Iain's impact on the local arts community has been his ability to recognize a need in the community, say “I can do that,” and then actually do it. When he moved to Barrie in 2015, he was shocked to discover that there were no spaces or opportunities for local emerging artists, such as a Fringe Festival. Recognizing this need, Iain leveraged TBTB's educational opportunities through an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow Grant to launch the Simcoe County Theatre Festival in 2022. The Festival, recently having completed its third and record-breaking year, is a festival of six or seven short plays written, directed, and performed exclusively by Simcoe County artists. The Festival has had a tremendous impact on the local community. One highlight was that the 2023 festival play, Stiff and Sons, was produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival and was a recipient of the prestigious ‘Best of Fringe'! Unlike other such festivals, the Simcoe County Theatre Festival pays every artist involved directly, handles all of the marketing, and also provides dramaturgy (i.e. script development support) on each of the plays to ensure that they are the best they can be. Community interest in the Festival remains extremely high, as the 2024 festival saw ticket sales double from its first year in 2022.
More recently, Iain played a key role in bringing Pirate Life to Barrie, a living wage employer that provides summer jobs to theatre artists. When giving their presentation to City Council, Iain was thanked by Councillor Bryn Hamilton for helping to bring Pirate Life to Barrie. But Iain's contribution to the community is not just in the projects he has created or the amount he has paid, but the people he has helped to mould that will lead the community into the future. In 2022, Iain launched the local edition of the Indie Producer Co-op. Its four graduates (two per year), have all played a large role in the community since completing the program. Sabrina Merks is working extensively as a producer and theatre educator across the county, Alondra Vega-Zaldivar served as TBTB's Metcalf Artistic Intern, Melissa MacGougan recently moved to work as a Producer at Stratford, and Connor Jesso is working as a Producer of Black Cat Studios where he runs podcasts, creates plays, and much more. This is in addition to the countless letters of recommendation Iain has written on behalf of local artists, the grants and job applications he has edited, and the professional advice he has given - all free of charge, and all to help uplift the artists in the community. For his work, Iain has been described as a ‘trailblazer,' ‘indomitable,' ‘Barrie's artistic champion,' and more. Those titles speak to a man who, in just nine years, has had an invaluable impact on the Barrie artistic community. And while doing this, has always made himself available for a call, for a chat, or for advice. Iain is a true champion for the arts in Barrie.
About the Contribution to the Community Award
Awarded to an individual, duo, or collective that has played a significant role in the development of an arts organization or program or contributed to the overall arts community in building capacity and enriching the lives of Barrie residents and the local environment. These individuals may be living or deceased.
Sarah Hancock is a contemporary eco-artist concerned with sustainability in a Eurocentric environment. By exploring critical ecology Sarah finds the intersection of femininity, nature and science emerging in her art. She uses hybridity to connect womanhood to environmental advocacy. You can expect to see detailed yet confrontational watercolour paintings of wildlife, mycology/vulture culture-inspired installations, and textile arts exploring natural dyes. Sarah has never defined her practice by a specific medium and instead prides herself in material diversity. She believes materiality evokes nuanced and implicit messaging regarding the environment. Sarah graduated top of her class at York University earning a BFA Honours summa cum laude, and since then has spent her time creating and donating art to support non-profit galleries. Her artwork was selected at the MacLaren’s Benefactor Night and has been auctioned off multiple times for Quest Art School and Gallery fundraisers. Sarah balances her community focus with building an international network. She spent two weeks in Mexico developing her textile skills with the silk and weaving communities native to Oaxaca and has a residency scheduled in Iceland for 2025. Her aspiration is to obtain an MFA and be a professor while always developing her practice to inspire others and challenge master narratives with innovative art.
About the Emerging Artist Award
Awarded to an individual who has begun to develop a body of work in preparation/or pursuit of a professional career in the arts. This award is presented by Georgian College, Design & Visual Arts.
The artist Bruno Revitte, also known as "Smoky", is a self taught internationally renowned muralist and multimedia visual artist. Since he was a child, drawing and creativity were always part of his daily routine. He grew up watching and learning from his father who was an artisan and sold his creations on the beach town of Itanhaem, where Bruno was born. Later, they moved back to where his family was originally from, Brasilandia, a precarious neighbourhood on the northern region of the capital city, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In 2004, he began painting on walls with spray paint as part of the Brazilian graffiti and Pixaçao culture. During this time of his youth, art became his escape from the many negative influences that surrounded him. Unfortunately, bad choices were more common than not, and many of his friends ended up dying young or in jail. Bruno dedicated himself to working with Pipa (Brazilian kite culture), and screen printing and found himself empowered through his artistic expressions, and by 2007 was already able to live from his art. At that time, he moved to Rio de Janeiro where he continued deepening his knowledge and experience giving graffiti art workshops to youth, and getting commissions from companies, community and government institutions to paint murals. He never stopped painting!
Smoky has gained international and professional recognition through his artistic journeys throughout Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay, Sweden, USA, Germany, Netherlands, England and across Canada. He is always in search of artistic exchanges - learning and teaching art is part of his lifestyle. He has worked in various organizations and NGOs teaching the history of graffiti and its role in society to at risk youth.
In 2010, Smoky met Shalak in Rio de Janeiro through mutual friends within the graffiti scene, and right away started painting together. Very shortly after, they moved in together in Sao Paulo, where they married and lived until 2013 before moving to Toronto. When they paint together it is under the name Clandestinos Art, and they fuse their artistic voices to create third visual personality.
Together they have collaborated on many incredible projects including one of their largest collaborative and most acclaimed outdoor public pieces, “Reflections” (2021), which includes 45,000 square feet of painted floor and wall mural, located at the Rendezviews in Toronto's downtown core. The artwork won Best International Mural Project by Streetart Cities and recently received the Award of Excellence for Large Places and/or Neighbourhood Designs Category administered by the City of Toronto. Some other highlights in their artistic career together includes a 2020 Award of Excellence for Park and Facility Design by the City of Richmond Hill, and 2016 Mural of the Year Award in Winnipeg.
Some of Bruno Smoky's career highlights include creating artwork for the United Nations (Street Art of Mankind), City of Toronto, Ontario Ministry of Transport, Disney, Ubisoft, the PanAm, American Express, Adidas, Blue Jays, Algonquin College, Rolling Stone Magazine, PBR, Collective Arts Brewing, Melbec, Miami's Mayor Levine, Brook McIlroy, Brazil's Globo TV, Hamburg Sud, O Boticario, Kelowna Hospital, Toronto Community Housing, Canadian Consulate in Sao Paulo, Amsterdam's Street Art Museum "Street Art Today” and dozens of important community and arts organizations around the globe. He is also a member of GameX, an international graffiti crew.
His work has been published in books, magazines, newspapers, and he has been interviewed for television, news and radio, as well as received funding for numerous art projects from federal, provincial and municipal grants. He has also participated in several international festivals including Beyond Walls (Lynn, Massachusetts), Concrete Canvas (Hamilton 2023), Free For Walls (Windsor 2023), CRUSH (Denver 2016/17), Artscape (Sweden 2014 & 17), Biennale Graffiti Fine Art (Brazil 2015), Art Basel (Wynwood, Miami 2015/16/17), Wall to Wall (Winnipeg 2016), Meeting of Styles (Houston 2016/Montreal 2009), Meeting of Favela (Rio de Janeiro 2011), and Under pressure (Montreal 2013).
Bruno Smoky is currently based in Barrie, ON, together with his wife and artistic collaborator of 14 years, Shalak Attack, and their magical 5 year old daughter Violeta and kitten Chiito.
About the Excellence in the Arts Award
Awarded to an established professional artist, performer, or author who has demonstrated through one or more bodies of work creative originality, professional maturity, and artistic leadership. These individuals may be living or deceased.
Jules Ozon (she/they), also known as JULES IS DEAD, is an 18-year-old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist hailing from Barrie with an online presence that includes over 300k followers and millions of views on TikTok. Jules has been described as “an explosive force in the emo/punk world, giving voice to the kind of feelings and frustrations rarely expressed in lyric form". The main thing they want to do with their music is to make people feel heard, because for so long they felt as though they were not heard.
Deeply informed by her perspective as a nonbinary artist of colour, Jules’ music ultimately pushes the alt rock genre forward while providing a much-needed outlet for the endless turmoil faced by her generation. In 2022, she was signed to Atlantic Records and TAG music, being noticed through her social media presence and the audience she built. Since then, she has released five songs on streaming platforms as well as four music videos, mostly done herself, as being true to her vision and the DIY punk scene is one of the artist’s biggest priorities. Additionally, creating a safe space for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth in the alternative scenes is a big driving force in why Jules creates her music. During her time these spaces she has been ridiculed and harassed because of who she is and she hopes to prevent that from happening to other young people who look like her. There is a lot of significance in seeing those who look like you helm these spaces, and Jules hopes everyone who encounters her, and her art knows they belong and are safe.
In March, Jules put together their live band and have since played headlining shows in Toronto and Barrie, and been show support for July Talk, Ivy Gardens and played in the Vaughan International Music Festival as well as Pug Fest in Michigan. Recently they shared the When We Were Young stage in Las Vegas with Cobra Starship, performing for tens of thousands of attendees, and were direct support for The Warning at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. Dedicated to keeping the punk and alternative scenes in Toronto and Barrie alive, playing shows is their top priority and favourite part of their career.
About the Most Promising Youth Award
Must be 19 years of age or younger and currently enrolled in a secondary or post-secondary institution. This youth will have demonstrated a superior ability in their art form. This award can be for any form of art, e.g., visual, performing, literary, etc.
Congratulations to all the 2024 nominees and thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. Please consider who you would like to nominate next year!
Category Finalists Artist Beyond Barriers - Andrina Lewis
- Carolyn M. Boyd
- Greg Koturbash
Business Champion - Just Some Noise
- Ryan Farley
- Stephen Sperling
Contribution to the Community Emerging Artist Excellence in the Arts Most Promising Youth - Isabelle Pauzé
- JULES IS DEAD
- Olivia Tucker
About the Awards
Each year, the City of Barrie presents the Barrie Arts Awards, celebrating excellence in the arts across a variety of disciplines.
The 2024 event featured presentations, and performances from local artists and organizations, including Barrie’s Poet Laureate, Tyneisha Thomas, Neda Mazhab Jafari and the Iranian Folk Music Ensemble, the Simcoe County Chinese Association, Lyric Dubee, and Choir Revolution. The award statuettes were created by artist Aylan Couchie.
Nominations for the 2024 Barrie Arts Awards were accepted until August 26, 2024, and a record 68 complete nominations were submitted across six categories. Nominations were reviewed and scored by a third-party adjudication panel made up of cultural managers from municipalities outside of Barrie.
Event Sponsors
The Barrie Arts Awards are generously supported by:
