City of Hamilton Arts Awards 2015
Award Recipients

The City of Hamilton Arts Awards is one of the oldest municipal-led arts awards programs in Canada: recognizing and celebrating individuals who have made outstanding contributions to our community. Photographs: Low Key Studio. Theatre Aquarius on June 4, 2015.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT BRYAN PRINCE Bryan began his career in bookselling at the McMaster University Bookstore. In the winter of 1989, he opened Bryan Prince Bookseller, an independent bookstore in Westdale that is well-known for its friendly atmosphere, personal service, active community involvement, and fiercely loyal customers. Bryan made Hamilton a destination for touring authors, including Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, and Michael Ondaatje, by hosting book launches, readings, and fundraisers. In 2002, Bryan’s shop was elected the best bookstore in all of Canada. After retiring in 2011, Bryan has remained an active promoter of GritLit, Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival.
THEATRE PAULA GROVE Paula is an actor, writer, and director whose work explores compelling tales from our own community. Paula has worked with Artword Theatre and the Shaw Festival; and in 2014 she presented her first fully self-produced play There Was and There Was Not at the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Paula also initiated a theatre project that encourages at-risk youth to express themselves.
Emerging Artist: Laura Ellis is an actor who has performed with Artword Theatre and the Hamilton Fringe Festival in both dramatic and comedic roles, including a one-woman show "See Bob Run".
VISUAL ARTS LAURA MAROTTA Laura Marotta is a sculptor whose work creates a sense of tension between the practical and the perfect. Laura has exhibited at the McMaster Museum of Art, the Burlington Art Gallery, and with TH&B United. Laura was a featured artist at Hamilton's 2014 Supercrawl.
Emerging Artist: Annie Fraser-Smith is a visual artist whose practice combines textural techniques with sculptural elements. She has exhibited her work at the Hamilton Artists Inc., Focus Gallery, and the McMaster Museum of Art.
ARTS ADMINISTRATION FIONA KINSELLA Fiona is an established visual artist and co-founder of Hamilton Arts and Letters magazine. HA&L Magazine is a free biannual online journal that captures the unique identity of Hamilton’s arts community and promotes and supports local artists. Fiona received a 2014 Hamilton Arts Award in the Established Visual Artist category.
Emerging Artist: Andrew O’Connor is co-founder of Hamilton Audio Visual Node. He currently serves on the Youth Arts Committee for the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, and is a member of Hamilton Artists Inc.
MUSIC BUD ROACH Bud is a classical guitarist and tenor vocalist influenced by the Early Italian Baroque period. He performs with the Bach Elgar Choir, the Spiritus Ensemble, and with various Toronto-based musical groups. Bud has released several recordings, and is founder of the music series “Hammer Baroque”. Bud received a 2014 Hamilton Music Award for Best Classical Recording.
Emerging Artist: Steve McKay is a singer-songwriter. He has worked as a production manager with Tafelmusik, and is technical director of a classical music series at St. John the Evangelist Church.
PERFORMANCE LEARIE MCNICOLLS Learie McNicolls has performed as a dancer, choreographer, and spoken word artist for over 25 years. He is the founder of Myth Productions, and the McNicolls Academy for Contemporary Dance Arts. Most recently, he has performed his original show “Resurrection” at the Pearl Company.
Emerging Artist: Robin “Zee” Zilberg is a performer and story-teller who staged her show “Borderline Me” at the Hamilton Fringe Festival in 2014.
ARTS EDUCATION DAVE TABONE Dave is a teacher and head of the Arts Department at Bishop Ryan Secondary School. Dave has inspired countless students through his direction of various musical ensembles – including the jazz band “Cardinal Swing”, and contemporary vocal group “Spirit of CN.” Dave has led the 200-voice contemporary vocal ensemble “B.R. Xpression” to multiple gold medals in international competition.
Emerging Artist: Nancy Vincic is a vocalist and songwriter. She has been a soloist with "B.R. Xpression", and in 2014 won the Maestro Award for outstanding soloists at the Nashville Heritage Festival.
WRITING AMANDA JERNIGAN Amanda is a poet, editor, and a literary advocate. Her poetry, which often incorporates mythology, fuses childhood rhythms of poems and rhymes with adult concerns of time, life, and language. She has written two volumes of poetry, Groundwork (2011) and All the Daylight Hours (2013), and her work has been published internationally in multiple anthologies and journals.
Emerging Artist: Joseph William Frank is a fiction writer, blogger, editor, and author of the manuscript 'Sleep, Hold' and Other Stories.
MEDIA ARTS MARCO D’ANDREA Marco is a creator of sound art and sculpture, whose practice explores audio culture by using found objects and objects from past decades to provoke a culturally informed way of listening. He has exhibited work as part of TH&B United, the Art Gallery of Windsor, and created a site-specific work Sound Ceiling for Supercrawl 2014.
Emerging Artist: Amy McIntosh is a new media artist and co-founder of the Hamilton Audio-Visual Node. She has exhibited work at multiple Hamilton galleries – including Centre 3 and Factory Media Centre.
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