NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA AND DISTRICT ARTS COUNCIL
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The Orillia and District Arts Council is pleased to announce the nominees for the 2018 Orillia Arts Awards.
The awards recognize the valuable contribution that artists, art educators, and art supporters make to the vibrancy of our community and its citizens. The awards and awards ceremony this year are sponsored by Accutrac Capital and the City of Orillia.
There are four categories of Arts Awards: Education in the Arts, Arts Achievement, Community and the Arts, and Emerging Artist.
In the Education in the Arts category, Daniel Bazinet and Laura Lee Matthie are the nominees. Bazinet is a local private music teacher and musician, and Matthie is a music teacher at Orillia Secondary School.
In the Arts Achievement category, there are three nominees: Patricia Guinn, Paul Baxter, and Underground Orillia.
Guinn is a local visual artist who works with the Bayside Artists group along with other local groups. Baxter is best known for his work with special events at the Leacock Museum along with his mural at the bottom of Mississaga Street. Underground Orillia is a group of local film producers who have made a movie about the spaces under our fair city. Underground Orillia was also nominated in the Emerging Artist Category.
Also nominated for Emerging Artist were Christina Hartwick, Anitta Hamming, and Lyric Dubee.
Hamming is a painter who was recently accepted into the International Guild of Realism. She has recently begun teaching workshops in this medium in our area. Hartwick is a local artist known for her sculptural art, mainly made out of wire and often life-sized. Dubee is a local singer-songwriter who has enjoyed great success with Lyric’s own brand of music, Revolution Rock.
The Community and the Arts category has four nominees this year: Zain Campbell, Somniatis, Huronia Cultural Campus and Patti Agapi.
Campbell, a musician, helped spearhead the recent Vallis Forever fundraiser at the Geneva Event Centre, held to raise funds for a recording studio in the Orillia Youth Centre. Somniatis this year held a wearable art fashion show to raise funds for the mental health unit at Orillia’s Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. The HCC has held numerous cultural events in the area over the past few years, the most recent being a literary recital featuring Tom Wilson this past week. Agapi is a well-known local artist who is on the organizing committees of ZephyrArt, the Peter Street Arts District, and Starry Night.
This year’s winners will be announced on Nov. 22 at the annual awards night, being held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Geneva Event Centre in Orillia. Light refreshments will be served, and there will be a cash bar and entertainment by Sol City Jazz.
Please join us as we celebrate the best and brightest in the area.
This year’s Arts Awards are being held in partnership with the City of Orillia Parks, Recreation and Culture Department, with thanks to the generous financial support of Accutrac Capital.
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