Georgian Fine Arts alumna chosen to create Barrie art installation
Sept. 16, 2015
The piece will be called H.I.O. Big Chiefs – celebrating the people who first inhabited the Barrie area – and will be on the roof of Pratt Homes’ new building at 300 Essa Road
It’s been a good year for recent Georgian Fine Arts grad Aylan Couchie. In the past few months, Aylan was named the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center as well as the Inaugural Barbara Laronde award from the Native Women in the Arts (NWIA).
Last week, she was announced as the winner in a high-profile art competition for Pratt Homes.Four artists submitted proposals for largescale pieces to adorn the top of a new building on Essa Road in Barrie. The pieces will be visible from most corners of the city and will be lit up at night. Community members voted to choose the winning proposal.
While at Georgian, Aylan was considered a student leader. She showed her work in exhibitions on campus, in local galleries and internationally. She organized “Who NEW?! Barrie’s Downtown Art Crawl” as well as a student art sale. She also hopped her way to title of grand champion in the butter sculpting competition at the Royal Winter Fair – a title which earned her a segment on the Rick Mercer Report.
Congratulations to Aylan on her achievements.