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The City of St. Catharines paid its due to the community’s creative best, and those that support them, on Sunday night.
Nominees and their guests joined performers and presenters at the FirstOntario Performing Art Centre’s Partridge Hall on Sunday night for the annual City of St. Catharines Arts Awards. For the second year running the event was livestreamed, allowing residents across the city and beyond to tune in and take in the excitement.
Celebrating excellence in all areas of artistic creation, the awards not only recognize artistic talent, but promote the city’s vibrant and growing arts scene. Awards recognize creators and those that support them through their leadership, financial assistance, and volunteer efforts.
“A big congratulations to all the recipients and nominees, we can’t thank them enough for sharing their gifts with us and enriching our community,” said Cultural Services Supervisor Noora Rizvi, adding, “this year’s award winners represent only a small segment of the hundreds of talented individuals who make the arts happen in St. Catharines. This event is just one of the ways the community expresses its gratitude and shines a light on the artists, arts workers and volunteers who contribute to our vibrant creative city.”
Arts Awards recipients each received a hand-crafted award created by Clayton Haigh of Balance Glassworks, and $500 to support future projects. Arts Awards winners were selected by a jury comprised of past recipients Danny Custodio, Erica Sherwood, Candice Turner-Smith, and awards committee representative Wynne Nicholson.
Please continue reading for a full breakdown of this year’s St. Catharines Arts Awards winners.
Arts in Education Award: Curtis Tye
Tye has a diverse background including a career as an actor, director, theatre administrator, classroom educator, consultant, and school principal. He is currently teaching future educators at Brock University and is involved with educational initiatives locally with Start Me Up Niagara, Carousel Players and Willow Arts Community.
Emerging Artist Award: Elise Naccarato
Naccarato is conductor and vocalist who is deeply involved in the local choral music scene as an apprentice conductor and vocalist for Chorus Niagara and administrative director for the Chorus Niagara Children’s Choir. She also assisted in developing the Treble Festival and the Niagara Honours Choir for students with financial barriers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been instrumental in developing digital rehearsals and performance recordings.
Established Artist Award: Peter Shea
Shea began his lifelong love affair with music surrounded by a family of musicians and music lovers, and is considered one of Niagara’s eminent jazz pianists, percussionists, vocalists, composers, and arrangers. He is passionate about bringing jazz, world music and culture to St. Catharines, through his work as co-creator of the TD Niagara Jazz Festival.
Making a Difference Award: OPIRG Brock
Since 2017, OPIRG Brock has expanded their social justice mandate to include a focus on the arts and has developed many projects that bridge the arts and social justice communities in the city. The group partners with local organizations and festivals and have presented performances of The Coming Out Monologues and the Queer & Trans Concert. They support the artistic community by showcasing Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (QTBIPOC) artists / performers.
Jury’s Pick Award: Jean Bridge
Bridge is a multidisciplinary visual artist and former professor of Digital Humanities at Brock University. In 2019, Bridge helped to create the Rodman Art Institute of Niagara, seeking to advance a new public art gallery project in St. Catharines. Her work with the institute aims to develop partnerships and feasibility studies for the gallery project and relocation of the Rodman Hall outdoor sculptures to the downtown core in partnership with the city.
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