Many artists and art organizations have historically done great things in artistic silos in Northumberland County. NFOTA wanted to collaborate and create synergy so we can all benefit from pooled efforts. We’re proud to partner and collaborate with galleries, art clubs, art businesses, libraries, choirs, musicians, singers, visual artists, writers, poets, dramatists and film makers.

Support from these organizations, as well as businesses, service organizations, municipalities, government agencies and individuals ensures that NFOTA can build on the success of our last two festivals and continue to showcase art and artists.

Many artists and facilitators are also donating their time and talent or performing at reduced fees to help make NFOTA happen. As they say, “It takes a village…”

• Steering – Chaired by Gwynn Scheltema
• Programming – led by Felicity Sidnell Reid
• Marketing & Communications – led by Shane Joseph
• Fundraising & Sponsorship – Led by Ken Morden
• Grant Applcations Led by Tom Pickering
• Finance & Administration – Led by Tom Pickering

Meet some of our Team

The core of our committed and hard-working organizers are people who planned and executed two prior Festivals. They are also widely experienced as artists, performers, producers and business owners. A number of them are civic award winners and sit on boards of various other Northumberland organizations.

President: Gwynn Scheltema

Gwynn is analytical, organized and focussed and having worked on two previous arts festivals in various capacities in 2017 and 2019, she has taken on the role of President of Northumberland Festival of the Arts and heads up the steering committee, as well as being a member of all other major subcommittees.

Gwynn Scheltema qualified as a Public Administrator in 1981, and after over 20 years of diversified experience in accounting, education, and administration became a freelance writer under her business “The Write Connection” in 2000 offering a full range of services to the public and business community, newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and writing related organizations, including press releases, brochures, newsletters, business plans, trade journal and newspaper columns, and articles.

As a partner in “Writescape”, she offers editing services and creative writing facilitation and keynotes for conferences and workshops. For 15 years she worked in Provincial Government Communications as a senior editor/writer with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities, where she handled various communications products, speech writing and minister’s correspondence, training and the organizing of ministry-wide conferences. When Gwynn writes for enjoyment, she loves to write short stories and poetry and has been published in literary journals, magazines and anthologies, online and in print. Her poetry book Ten of Diamonds was published by Glentula Press in 2021.

Gwynn’s volunteer work includes being on the Board of LICHEN Arts and Letters Preview (9 years) and The Writers’ Circle of Durham Region, including Vice President (4 years) She has also served as contest judge for fiction and poetry contests, and editor for community anthologies. She is a radio host on Northumberland 98’7FM since 2012

Secretary: Felicity Sidnell Reid

In  1959, after graduating from the University of London, King’s College, Felicity Sidnell Reid arrived in Canada  and spent seven years in New Brunswick. Then she and her family moved to Ontario. Felicity has taught children of all ages, from Grade 5 to university students and adults, in Canada, England and Thailand. While teaching for the Toronto Board of Education, she taught English, History, ESL and Drama to high school students before taking positions as Vice Principal at Harbord Collegiate and Northern Secondary. During that time, besides raising four children, and writing poetry and short stories, she designed costumes for universities, schools and amateur dramatic societies and directed school plays.

She is the author of a variety of educational materials, including a book for teachers, ESL is Everybody’s Business (with Fran Parkin) and a series of textbooks for language learners. Her books include a novel for young people:  Alone: A Winter in the Woods (Hidden Brook Press, 2015, published as an e-book in 2020, and a poetry collection The Yellow Magnolia (Glentula Press 2021). Her poetry and short fiction have been published in a number of anthologies and online journals and collections. She also paints in water-colours and acrylic and is currently a member of the Cobourg Art Club.

Felicity has sat on the board for the Cramahe Public Libraries, the ACO , Brighton branch, and  has been a  Board Member of Spirit of the Hills Arts Association serving as secretary from 2010-2014 and from 2016 to 2020, and is the current chair of the SOH Writers’ Group.

Felicity chaired the two previous arts festivals in 2017 and 2019 and was recognized with a Distinguished Civic Award from the Town of Cobourg in 2021, for her work with the festival and the festival’s positive impact on Cobourg. She is a director and secretary of the rebranded Northumberland Festival of the Arts 2022 and also heads up the Programming Committee.

Treasurer: Tom Pickering

Tom has a history in the arts, both from the performance side to the managerial and administrative. As a younger man in the 1980s, he was designated as shy by his manager at the time. Get involved in theatre, he said. Get out in front of people and gain some confidence. Looking up Theatre Ontario’s listings of organizations, he called the first one in the alphabet, a group called Amicus Productions. That was the beginning of a ten-year avocation where he became an actor, producer, director, stage manager, and writer of three original plays, all which were produced on a community theatre stage.

Tom completed the Foundation Year from the Ontario College of Art, which was a formative education into fundamentals of design, drawing and painting.

Much more recently, Tom managed the participation of the Writers’ Group of the Spirit of the Hills Arts Association at the 2019 Cobourg Waterfront Festival, and has volunteered with other activities of that Association. He currently serves on the Board for the Spirit of the Hills Arts Association.