Ben Courtice
• – • Bayview Yards
About the speaker
Ben Courtice is an Ottawa-born artist now living in Montreal and the founder of Boring Friends, a one-guy design studio and online store. He believes that everyone can and should make art, and that maintaining an art practice is an excellent way to keep from slipping into full-blown insanity in this year of 2026.
Ben will walk us through what it’s like to live in the body of a “make stuff” guy but also the brain of a “no idea what he’s doing almost ever” guy, and how not to let an all-around lack of knowledge or general know-how get in the way of trying new things or, in his case, building a longtime career in the arts and giving a talk to a large room of strangers for the first time at Creative Mornings Ottawa.
Local partners
Additional details
CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for the creative community with chapters in over 200 cities around the world. Each month we host an event that is always on a Friday, always in the morning, and always free. We provide coffee, a light breakfast, and a 20-30 minute presentation from a local creative person on the global CreativeMornings theme for that month.
Event Schedule:
8:30 AM Doors open
8:30 - 8:55 AM Check in
9:00 AM CreativeMornings welcome
9:10 AM Talk begins!
9:40 AM Q&A with speaker
9:50 AM Closing remarks
9:55 AM Audience takes the stage
10:00 AM Off to work!
About the theme:
Our theme for May is CREATE. It was chosen in collaboration with our global partner Adobe and illustrated by Ana Grigorovici.
This marks the first time we have ever worked with a global partner to select a monthly theme. Because at CreativeMornings, we believe everyone is creative—and Adobe couldn’t agree more.
Together, we’re bringing you the motivation and accountability you need to bring your ideas to life. Release Day on May 29th is when we all finally share that special thing we’ve been working on!
Create is about making something. Release Day is about sharing it with the world.
Accessibility: Located at 7 Bayview Station Rd, A short walking distance from Bayview Station, Bayview Yards is located in Mechanicsville just by the river and a short walk away from Hintonburg.
Bayview Yards is wheelchair accessible. If you require any additional help or have suggestions as to how we could make our events more inclusive, please give us a shout ottawa@creativemornings.com!
Para Transpo drop-off entrance: 7 Bayview Station Rd, Ottawa, ON K1Y 2C5
Parking: On-site free parking is available on the gravel lot beside the building.
Public Transit: Take the LRT (Line 1) or one of the many bus routes 16, 2, 61, 66 and get off at Bayview Station, a 7min walk to the venue.
Location
