Barbara Simmons wins Murray Clerkson Art award

The Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts has named Barbara Simmons as the winner of the 2020 Murray Clerkson award for emerging artists.
She was selected from a very talented field of 15 artists from the South Georgian Bay Area to receive the $1,000 award bequeathed by the late Murray Clerkson of Collingwood. The prize is now honoured and continued by David and Paula Conning of Clerkson’s Home Store in Collingwood and the BMFA is grateful for their generous support of this valuable prize. The award continues to enable emerging artists to develop and hone their craft.
This honour is accompanied by an exhibition showing of Simmon’s work, along with that of the four other finalists, at the gallery of the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts on Simcoe Street in Collingwood. The show runs until Saturday, Sept. 28 and includes Alexandra Glueckler, Jesse Unsworth, Sarah Hancock and Andrew Aviste. The gallery is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Each of the finalists’ entries were subjected to a rigorous evaluation process by a jury made up of five accomplished artists from the South Georgian Bay Area.