The Barrie Arts and Sports Academy is a new non-profit by Nithin Liviero, Reegan Anto, Basil Mathew and Denny Jose. The non-profit came out of a need for more arts and sports programming for their children.

“From our experience working with different communities, we know for a fact that a lot of parents in the community are finding it really difficult to enroll their kids in different camps,” says President Nithin Liviero. 

At their launch event, Barrie Arts and Sports Academy announced their visual arts and violin classes, as well as sports programs like cricket and soccer.

The Mayor of Barrie, Alex Nuttall, was also in attendance at the event to help the non-profit announce a partnership in the launch of Barrie’s first cricket league. Cricket is a sport that is close to home for the mayor.

“When we first moved to Canada, we moved from Liverpool, England, and all my friends were playing baseball, and my brothers and I didn’t have a baseball bat, but we did have a cricket bat,” says Nuttall, who also mentioned his father used to watch cricket at Sunnidale Park.

Players can still be seen around town playing cricket without a pitch, but that will soon be a thing of the past as the Barrie Arts and Sports Academy has purchased a portable cricket pitch that will aid them in providing places for the new cricket league to play.

To find out more about the programs that the Barrie Arts and Sports Academy offers, follow them on social media at Barrie Arts and Sports Academy and visit them at barrieasa.com.