Hamilton-Wentworth Creative Arts Inc., Festival of Friends

Inducted in 2000

Bill retired in 2000, as Executive Director of Hamilton's Creative Arts, and the producer behind the community's premiere festival, the Festival of Friends.

Hamilton-Wentworth Creative Arts Inc. is a non-profit company founded 26 years ago, as an arts organization run by and for artists, to carry on the day to day business of the arts community for the Hamilton region. The organization, with Bill Powell at its helm, successfully produced not only twenty-five consecutive years of the Festival of Friends, but also created and produced a myriad of other events in and around Hamilton.

Bill hosted the Canadian Association of Festivals and Events Conference in Hamilton in 1986 at which a steering committee was established to found a festival association in Ontario.  He served as the chairman of the steering committee that organized the founding conference of Festivals Ontario, the precursor to Festivals & Events Ontario.