Gessell, the Citizen's visual arts critic, was among the winners at the awards bash held in the St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts. Citizen pop/rock critic Lynn Saxberg was also nominated.

Awards for artists of the year went to: Howie Tsui (painting); Farouk Kaspaules (printing); Jeff Thomas (photography) and Adrian Göllner (sculpture). Ramses Madina was named best filmmaker. Exhibition of the year was Oh So Iroquois (Ryan Rice, the Ottawa Art Gallery).

James Philips was named best dancer and Tony Chong best choreographer.

Macbeth (NAC) was named best theatre production, while best actor was John Koensgen and best director was the NAC's Peter Hinton. Camellia Koo won best design for Helen's Necklace (GCTC). Best new theatre work was Disaster, by David O'Meara, who was also named best playwright.

Peter Zanette was named most dedicated volunteer, and Harvey Glatt was named best philanthropist. Rob mclennan was named best poet (written), and Oni the Haitian Sensation was best spoken-word poet.

The best work of fiction was Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay, and best non-fiction was rob mclennan's Subverting the Lyric.

Me et Moi was named fashion designer of the year, and Douglas Cardinal was named best architect.

Music awards went to the Acorn (rock), John Geggie (jazz), the Ottawa Baroque Consort (classical) and Flight Distance (hip hop).

All the winners: For a complete list, see Peter Simpson's Big Beat blog at ottawacitizen.com/bigbeat.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008