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Barrie's best in arts honoured last night (16 photos)

Evening included live performances by Danny Michel and Plex

Barrie’s arts community took centre stage last night as the best in the city were honoured for their contributions to the scene.

The 9th annual Barrie Arts Awards (BAA) took place at the Southshore Centre Wednesday to a packed room. The event was hosted by Shelly Skinner from Rogers TV and performer Andrea Murray while different performers throughout entertained the close to 300 in attendance.

The night is put on by the City of Barrie’s Creative Economy Department and Culture Branch and their Culture Officer Amanda Dyke was running the event for the second consecutive year. Dyke was happy with how the night went and proud of all involved.

“This was just a fun and fantastic evening for which I’m so proud of all who contributed their time to help with,” said Dyke. “This is the key gala event for our arts community and our chance to acknowledge all of the amazing work that is done in Barrie by the artists and arts organizations. A lot of the people and groups volunteering their time to put on great shows and visual arts displays for the city, so it means a lot to me to be able to recognize these people on a night like this.”

The BAA will be celebrating 10 years next year and with Barrie’s arts community growing steadily with every event and with the Southshore Centre reaching capacity before the night even began; Dyke believes the BAA may need to eventually move should something become available in the city.

“We don’t have a big enough venue in Barrie but we’re hopeful that we might be able to have a new venue soon where we might be able to grow and expand,” said Dyke. “Otherwise we’re happy to remain at the Southshore Centre; it just might have to become a ticketed event in the future.”

If it ever did become a ticketed event, it is unlikely that the organizers would have a hard time selling out as there was not only great food to enjoy but amazing live performances. The headliner was JUNO nominated Danny Michel, and a standout performance was given by Indigenous hip-hop artist Plex.

Plex spent time in the Barrie area while also living in Toronto and while his performance got the crowd into a celebratory mood to close out the night, it was mixed with a traditional dance by well-known Anishinaabe activist and dancer Sarain Fox.

The evening began with a performance of a scene from Theatre By The Bay’s (TBTB) We Must Have More Men. Alex Dault was the winner of the Excellence In The Arts category as under Dault’s direction, TBTB has made the decision to tell more stories about Barrie as successfully seen with this past play The Five Points and the aforementioned We Must Have More Men. The TBTB Artistic Director was admittedly nervous before his name was called but very proud of what he and his company have begun.

“My hands started to tremble when they said my name,” said Dault. “Suddenly I was standing in front of the Barrie Arts community feeling incredibly honoured. I wanted to thank everyone in the community for making what we do at TBTB possible, starting with my own team. I am really proud that our approach of telling local stories is having an impact and being recognized. It's one of those things that now seems pretty obvious in retrospect but at the time we made the decision it felt like we were making a big jump.”

Dault was happy to see the many artists and organizations getting praise last night, but feels that the city of Barrie needs some recognition for putting on such a wonderful tribute to what he loves so much.

“I think the awards are a great thing,” said Dault. “I've been attending for the last four years and they are a great way to recognize and thank the individuals and businesses who are making arts happen in our city. The city does a great job organizing and this year I particularly appreciated the inclusive feeling the event had.”

Other winners included:

Contribution To The Community: Simcoe Contemporary Dancers

Business Champion: Anna Small

Artist Without Barriers: Leonora Husveti-Frenette

Emerging Artist: Brendan Hiles

Most Promising Youth: Melina Melle