Celebration of Joy: Portraits Animal's portraits Assemblages
Joy MacFadyen,
a Cultural Icon of Renown
September 8, 1932 – June 7, 2022
Joy MacFadyen, a name synonymous with cultural development in Scarborough since the 1970’s, was born in Pietermariitzberg, South Africa, 1932. Joy had already led an eventful and interesting life in both South Africa and South America before arriving in Canada in 1967 married to flying ace and Canadian war hero Don MacFadyen.
Joy’s happy entrance to The Art Guild of Scarborough in 1970 led to many years of volunteerism and included the winning of many prestigious community awards. Inside The Guild Joy was the regular winner of painting awards and was also a regular holder of executive offices including many years, on and off, as the president of the organization. In 1978 Joy was invited to participate in a committee of The City of Scarborough, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Ministry of Culture. The resulting steering committee was used to establish the “Arts Scarborough” arts council, of which Joy was nominated as a member of the board. Many things grew from her participation, a long series of TV shows interviewing artists, multicultural weeks at The Town Centre, various concerts, participation in Arts Scarborough Canada Day floats, and serving on the founding board of Human Services of Scarborough.
Joy participated in the “Arts in Action” Conference to establish a five year arts plan for the city. In 1982 she was designated ‘Citizen of The Year’ by the Provincial Recreation and Parks Department. Further along the way Joy received other medals for volunteerism, a Bicentennial Award from the province, and another from the Federal Government celebrating 125 years of Confederation.
Joy took some painting classes when she was a resident of Long Island with Rod her husband before coming to Canada. That early start was broadened by artists who demonstrated their expertise at the meetings of The Guild, and also by painting with the many friends she met there. In addition, Joy had mentioned that she also found a great increase in her knowledge of artistic skills and artistic media by attending adult classes at Wexford Collegiate School For The Arts during the 80’s.
Joy received many awards from participating in the annual exhibitions of The Art Guild of Scarborough. Her portrait of Nikita Marner is proudly held in the permanent collection of Cedra Ridge Studio Gallery. The existential Art Gallery of Scarborough (Gallery X) is displaying over 100 portraits in this remarkable memorial exhibition. Joy had a great love for animals which she included in her painting endeavours. Assemblages have always been whimsical creations that she has made constantly over the years. Her singing, dancing, and acting have been part of many amateur performances and Joy has always brought happiness to others with her love of creating uniquely funny hats, costumes, and papier mache center pieces for celebrations and banquets.
A few weeks before Joy moved to another place in this universe, she phoned me at Gallery X and said she was going to donate the $2000 monetary award she had just received as a winner of the City of Toronto Arts Awards to Gallery X, as she was sure that we “would be successful in establishing a substantial new gallery for Scarborough”. It was a truly remarkable expression of continuing support for The Arts in Scarborough, a path Joy had proudly taken throughout her lifetime.
Peter Marsh
September 2, 2023
There are many photographs in this exhibition and it should be noted that close to all of them were recorded by Joy on her Facebook page. They were accompanied by equally interesting writings which we have used liberally in the comments of this exhibition.