The Ottawa Blues Society is an organization of volunteers in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 dedicated to fostering the "appreciation, promotion, preservation and enjoyment of the blues in all of its forms". The Society sponsors an annual Blues Heart Award, awarded "to an individual or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to fostering appreciation and awareness of blues music." Past award recipients have included Mark Monahan (1999), Executive Director of the Ottawa Bluesfest

Ottawa Bluesfest

The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest is an annual outdoor music festival that takes place each July in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While ostensibly focused on blues, the festival has increasingly showcased mainstream pop and rock acts in recent years...

, broadcaster and music historian Brian Murphy

Brian Murphy (broadcaster)

Brian Murphy was a notable and award-winning broadcaster and music historian...

 (2000), blues performer and teacher Maria Hawkins (2005) and blues performer Tony D. (2007). It also publishes a newsletter which has been cited for its music reviews in particular.

The Society is affiliated with other Blues Societies around the world, such as the Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

Blues Society, to which it is specifically linked.