About The Artist

Rhiannon is an experienced creative program facilitator, event coordinator, and self-taught artist. She specializes in creating communication and marketing plans, organizing fundraisers, and planning special events. Rhiannon also shares online painting tutorials and conducts in-person classes with a unique focus on providing calming and conscious experiences. She has studied journalism communication, social service work, and psychology counseling and is pursuing certification as an art therapist.

Currently, Rhiannon is the Evening program coordinator for the St.Catharines BGCN (formerly Boys and Girls Club). In this role, she program plans and facilitates creative and intuitive activities for licensed care school-aged children and develops and oversees a supper program and rec-based therapeutic programs for ages 6 to 12 and 13-18 years-old as the Zones Coordinator. She is also active in the community and participates in creative rec-based and creative-wellness sessions for groups and events.

Rhiannon’s artist studio is located on the second floor of the brand new eXchange, a state-of-the-art cultural hub in the heart of Niagara Falls. She is a visual artist who paints whimsical interpretations of the natural scenery. She also paints emotive portraits, illustrating complex emotions such as grief, anger, and anxiety.

Rhiannon has worked and volunteered in the social services industry for over 15 years. Currently, she volunteers with Pathstones mental health and is a Board member for the Niagara Foster Festival. In addition to frontline social work, Rhiannon also contributes by applying her skills as a grant writer, creative consultant, communications and marketing developer, and volunteer and project coordinator.

Rhiannon develops programs and activities that allow others to improve their overall wellness through arts participation. She hopes to one day become a certified art therapist and practice full-time, and run wellness retreats on a grander scale.

It all began for Rhiannon with some natural artistic talent and a sale of four paintings in 2008. Since then, her talent, reputation, and networks within the arts and culture community have grown. Her pieces recently showed in the 2020 & 2021 City of St. Catharine’s Mayors Annual Juried Art Exhibits.

Rhiannon is currently pursuing professional development courses in psychology counseling and business development. She provides calming and conscious overnight and day wellness retreats and group sessions. She also shares online artist studio immersion videos, tutorials, and mindfulness art-based group activities.

In 2018, Rhiannon participated in the Niagara Falls Piano Project, #nfplayplayplay, which ignited her passion for public art projects. She realized that people enjoyed the togetherness that creative projects provided, which inspired her to start new art projects that gained a global audience. In 2019, Rhiannon took part in the Next Niagara GNCC’s ‘Priceless Art Auction’ and won the art battle, which helped her gain recognition as a professional artist.

In 2020, Rhiannon collaborated with Links for Greener Learning on The Secret Garden Doors project, where she used her artistic and social service skills to create a large-scale community garden art installation. She also held several board and committee positions with the Carmel Fine Arts and Music Festival and the City of St. Catharines Cultural Advisory and Culture Planning committees.

In addition to her duties, Rhiannon was passionate about arts involvement and took on additional responsibilities by creating and developing several art projects for these community organizations. This included facilitating social and therapeutic paint classes, spearheading the 150 Mosaic Mural Project for St. Catharines, running youth group crafting workshops, nurturing and developing a 5-week creative program, and organizing a full-day art retreat for seniors.

Rhiannon also participated independently in various art festivals and activities, such as ‘Ontario Culture Days,’ ‘In The Soil Arts Festival,’ ‘Niagara Falls Writers Festival,’ ‘Carmel Fine Arts and Music Festival,’ and ‘Niagara Parks Rooted in the Garden.’

In 2020, Rhiannon renamed her business from ‘Art By Rhiannon Barry’ to ‘Be Whimsi Art Loft,’ with a more focused approach to developing a small business. Due to the social restrictions brought by Covid-19, the company evolved into a variety of creative therapeutic offerings. Once the limits were lifted, the St. Catharines Cultural Investment Program invested in the program ‘Gentle Painting,’ and the success of that program prompted the development of an online arts-based therapeutic wellness curriculum and in-person Art and Wellness retreats.

Using expressive arts as a tool when words aren’t enough, Rhiannon offers retreats in the Niagara Region and North Central Ontario at participating venues.

Learn more about her upcoming events and activities at:

Webpage: www.bewimsiartoft.ca

Email: artbyrhiannonbarry@gmail.com

FB Page: Be Whimsi Art Loft: https://www.facebook.com/bewhimsi/

FB: Creative Wellness Haven:

https://it-it.facebook.com/groups/406326984457748/

FB Group: Art By Rhiannon Barry:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/403290106358914?__tn__=CH-R

Insta: RhiannonBarryArt: https://www.instagram.com/rhiannonbarryart/?hl=en

Hamilton The Artsy Crowd

Podcast:
Creative Conversations-A Living Library of Resiliency: Found anywhere most
podcasts are found, including YouTube and Spotify

YouTube
Be Wimsi Art Loft: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdHWy-gELdBcai9AMZVYPFw