Arts Orillia
Bringing the Arts to Life
Arts Orillia enriches the cultural landscape of Orillia by programming diverse arts experiences that would otherwise not be seen in our region. Our focus is Youth! We are proud to support guest and local talent while fostering community inclusion.
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Our Mandate:
• Engage Youth: Through workshops, camps, and school programs.
• Support Artists: Offering spaces and resources for creativity.
• Promote Inclusion: Offering diverse programming with access for everyone.
Join us in building a vibrant, creative community!
Mission
Arts Orillia exists to build diverse artistic programs to foster positive experiences in the arts within our communities.
Vision
Our communities will experience a diversity of voices and stories that respond to the important issues of our time through powerful public encounters that encourage and support artistic creativity.
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Values
Arts Orillia Believes in...
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Collaboration: Actively working with individuals and organizations from our community, our region, and beyond to encourage creative inspiration and expression.
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Curiosity: Ensuring that we are ready to adapt to changing circumstances by encouraging the exploration of all artistic disciplines.
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Innovation: Seeking out resources that enable us to be nimble and creative and provide a setting that encourages outstanding opportunities for artists and their audiences.
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Inclusion and Equity: Providing opportunities for all to be actively engaged with us in supporting the diversity of artistic expression.
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Meet the Arts Orillia Team!
Kate Hilliard is an artist, curator and educator. She is the Creative Director at Arts Orillia, fostering programming and residency opportunities for artists across disciplines. Over the years she has cultivated a teaching practice in her own community and in several institutions, including The Stella Adler Studio of Acting in NYC. Kate has instructed at Ryerson University since 2015 and is dedicated to nurturing students in their creative work. She has performed with Le Groupe Dance Lab, The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, Fortier Danse-Création and was a company member of Dancemakers and The Centre for Creation for five years. After performing Tino Sehgal’s work in several international galleries, Hilliard broke from dance practice to pursue curatorial work with a focus in contemporary performance and visual art. Her own choreography has been commissioned and presented in Canada, USA, Mexico, and Germany. Kate’s performance research blends highly codified gestural movement language with improvisation. Her choreographic structures include spoken word, writing, and digital media. At the centre of each choreographic body, Hilliard aims to comment on the experiences that we share in relation to the passing of time. Her 2020 premiere “this happened…” was nominated for The Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Best Original Choreography”. Hilliard studied Art History at The University of Toronto and holds an MFA in Creative Practice from Plymouth University’s Transart Institute in the UK.
Kate Hilliard
Artistic Director
Jeanette Heywood
General Manager
Jeanette Heywood brings over 25 years of experience in the charitable sector, specializing in empowering organizations to expand their impact and sustainability. With a strong academic foundation from Cambrian College’s Recreation and Business Program, the Executive Development Program at McGill University and the Women’s Leadership program at Yale University, Jeanette is a leader in strategic planning, financial management, and organizational development.
Since joining Arts Orillia in 2023, Jeanette has played a pivotal role in strengthening the organization’s foundation. Working closely alongside Artistic Director Kate Hilliard, she fosters a collaborative team approach to ensure Arts Orillia’s vision is realized. Together, they develop and implement programming that brings transformative arts experiences to Orillia’s youth and community. Jeanette’s disciplined approach to budgeting, financial processes, and operational management complements Kate’s creative leadership, resulting in a dynamic partnership driving the organization forward.
As Principal of The Other Half Consultants Inc., Jeanette has guided numerous organizations in achieving sustainability, crafting strategic frameworks, and communicating impact. She has also successfully led major initiatives, such as opening two state-of-the-art YMCA facilities and exceeding operational and fundraising targets. Her collaborative style and coaching mindset have empowered teams and organizations to achieve transformational outcomes.
Jeanette remains an active contributor to the charitable sector. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Central Ontario Chapter and a Peer Reviewer and Mentor for Imagine Canada’s Standards Program. Her commitment to excellence and team-oriented leadership ensure that Arts Orillia continues to thrive as a cultural leader, inspiring creativity and enriching lives through the arts.
Sean Rees is a graphic designer specializing in typeface design, branding, and website design. He has made work for companies and individuals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Sean is also a University Professor in Graphic and Web Design teaching branding, typography, user experience, web design, and drawing. Sean also has an art practice in graphic design, drawing, photography and fabric art. He's shown in galleries in the U.S., Canada, and Germany.
Sean Rees
Design Manager
Meet the Arts Orillia Board!
Fred Larsen
Chair
Fred is a retired English teacher and department head for the Simcoe County District School Board. He was president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation twice during his teaching career. Fred’s lifelong dedication to education and learning is evident in his community work. In 2006 Fred was a member of the Orillia Mayor’s Task Force whose work brought Lakehead University to Orillia. He is the former president of the Kiwanis Club of Orillia and of the Orillia Vocal Ensemble, a community choir. He has recently taken up the volunteer role of Treasurer for Sustainable Orillia, a Mayor’s Task Force. He and his wife Lois live in Oro-Medonte.
Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux serves as the 1st Indigenous Chair for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada for Lakehead University where she continues to develop pathways forward to reconciliation across Canada.
Cynthia was inducted as a “Honourary Witness” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2014 and Chairs the Governing Circle for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. She was the inaugural Nexen Chair in Indigenous Leadership at the Banff Centre, and sits on several diverse boards in Ontario and is a dedicated social/justice advocate.
She is a member and resident of the Chippewa of Georgina Island First Nation in Ontario and has dedicated her life to building bridges of understanding between peoples. She is deeply committed to public education and sees endless merit in bringing people from diverse cultures, ages, and backgrounds together to engage in practical dialogue and applied research initiatives.
Dr. Cynthia Wesley Esquimaux
Director
Laura Clark
Director
Laura Clark is a social innovation practitioner and playwright. She works at MyStartr in the MaRS Discovery District, the largest innovation hub in North America, promoting systems change in the Canadian youth employment sector. Passionate about social justice and advocacy, she strives to promote a more sustainable, accessible, and creative world.
Born and raised on a dairy farm in Oro Medonte, she holds a BFA from York University in Theatre Production and Psychology, and a Graduate Certificate from Humber College in Global Development and International Project Management.
A stage manager for seven years, Laura is experienced in festival performance and managing independent, multidisciplinary productions. Her joy in collaboration has led her to work on creative projects internationally in the United States, the Czech Republic, and Scotland, and domestically in Ontario at regional theatres in Toronto, Barrie, Orillia, and Brampton.
She serves as a Community Engagement Strategist with the Al & Malka Greene Artists' Health Centre in Toronto. She also founded Journeys of Resilience using her research on the relationship between artist self-efficacy and mental health at York University.
Outside of her artistic pursuits, she has worked with Médécins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders Canada and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana.
Stevie Baker is a producer, director and costume designer based in Severn, Ontario. A prolific theatre creator and artist, she has been a part of innumerable productions in Toronto’s vibrant theatre community over the past 15 years.
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Stevie has been the Head of Production at Dauntless City Theatre since its inception in 2007 (originally Urban Bard). Her work with Dauntless is rooted in queering, subverting and modernizing Shakespeare to better reflect the dynamic people of Ontario.
She centers queer joy, anti-racism and anti-poverty in her work, life and the raising of her two children. Stevie has worked internationally with Kansas City’s MET and served as Artistic Director of The Daegu Theatre Troupe in Daegu, South Korea. She orchestrated the DTT’s first touring show and directed South Korea’s first English language production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Stevie Baker
Director
Rex Deverell
Director
Rex is a socially engaged playwright and librettist, born in Toronto, raised in Orillia and now splitting his time between the two. He is a graduate of McMaster University and Union Theological Seminary (NYC) in Theatre and Theology. He has been writer in residence for the Globe Theatre (Regina), the University of Windsor, and the Blyth Festival. His work has been translated into five languages. Rex was a founding member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and has served as its president. In 1978 Rex won the Canadian Authors Award for Boiler Room Suite, his most widely produced play.
Marg Schreurs-Kelly is a retired social worker and play therapist. She has devoted her career to working with children, youth and their families in the field of child protection, developmental services, youth crisis and for the last 15 years of her career as a therapist at the Regional Centre for Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect at Orillia Soldier’s Memorial Hospital. Marg maintained a small private practice as a play therapist. Through play, children and youth are able to explore and express their feelings through various creative mediums.
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Having worked with traumatized children and youth in various capacities, Marg was passionate about the care and treatment of children and youth who experienced trauma, disclosed abuse and the various adult systems they were exposed to during the investigative process. This passion to provide an improved coordinated and child/youth focused system resulted in her vision in creating and establishing the Child and Youth Advocacy Centre of Simcoe Muskoka. The Centre officially opened in Orillia in 2014. As a result of her work Marg was recognized, receiving an Attorney General’s Victim Services Award of Distinction (2014) and was named Orillia’s Citizen of the Year 2014.
Since retiring in Dec. 2019 Marg has become involved with Huruma Children’s Home, Nairobi Kenya, having visited on two occasions doing volunteer work. She has since become a Board Member for Huruma Trust Canada (Collingwood). Marg has also been volunteering in the Orillia community in various capacities.
Marg holds a BSW from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (1982) and a Master’s Degree from University of Windsor (1984). Certified Play Therapist 2012. She and her husband have raised their family and lived in Orillia for over 35 years.
Marg Schreurs-Kelly
Director
Our Commitments
DEI Statement
An intrinsic part of our mission, vision, and values is our commitment to provide opportunities that are equitable, diverse, and inclusionary. We seek to celebrate and lift up our community and everyone in it through the arts.
Land Acknowledgement
Arts Orillia is grateful to work and gather on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy.
We celebrate Indigenous history, art, and culture and recognize the enduring presence of Indigenous peoples on this land. We are committed to moving forward in the spirit of reconciliation and respect with all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in a collaborative process that honours long-lasting relationships with our Indigenous colleagues.
Privacy & Use of Information Policy Statement
This policy outlines Arts Orillia’s commitment to respecting the privacy of personal information of individual persons and explains how we collect, use, protect and disclose of personal information. This includes the personal information of applicants, program providers, donors, prospective donors, board members, volunteers, and our staff. This policy governs the activities of Arts Orillia.
Arts Orillia is a fully incorporated, autonomous charity.
