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POCOCK, Nancy Meek
- Born
- Chicago, 1910
- Died
- Toronto, 1998
- Biography synopsis
- Nancy Meek Pocock (born Anne Dorothy Meek, also known as Nancy Meek and Nancy Pocock) was born in Chicago and moved to Canada with her family around the age of ten. In Toronto, she attended Central Technical High School before studying applied art, with special interest in metalwork, at the Ontario College of Art. After graduating, she spent eighteen months in Paris where she studied jewellery making. Upon her return she opened a studio in Toronto in Gerrard Street Village and was able to establish herself as a custom jeweler, despite the economic depression. She was a member of the artist cooperative Marura. Over the course of her fifty-year career as a jewelry maker, she exhibited at the Women's Art Association of Canada, the Art Gallery of Toronto, the Canadian National Exhibition, and Eaton Auditorium, lobbied for and supported fellow artists/craftspeople, organized exhibitions and worked with craft organizations. She and her husband were also involved with the Canadian Society of Friends (the Quaker’s), engaging in a lifelong dedication to peace activism and refugee aid. Her political efforts dominated the later years of her life, and gained her international recognition. She was also a founding member of the Voice of Women. Her work has been recognized with the Medal of Friendship from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1978), Pearson Medal of Peace (1987), Order of Ontario (1992), and multiple honorary doctorates.
- Media used
- Jewellery making
- Education
- Ontario College of Art & Design (formerly Ontario School of Art) (under Herbert H. Stansfield)
- Memberships
- Order of Ontario, 1992
- File & Archive locations
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
- York University, ON - Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Arts Canada 22 (1965): 45
- "For the Record Sewell Honored." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 7 Jun. 1989: A12
- "Garden Club Members Finish Course in Judging." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 11 Apr. 1961: 12
- "Nancy Meek Pocock, 1910-1998." Ploughshares Monitor Jun. 1998: 22
- "Nancy Pocock, Friend of Refugees, 1910 - 1998." Peaceweb News 1998
http://www.quaker.org/peaceweb/pnmar98.html#Biography - "Smugness on Central America Assailed." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 19 Sep. 1988: A14
- "Woman Who Aids Refugees Gets Pearson Peace Medal." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 11. Nov 1987: A15
- Atkinson, Keith. "Mama Nancy." Toronto Life Sept. 1989: 21-2,37
- Crawford, Gail. A Fine Line: Studio Crafts in Ontario from 1930 to the Present Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1998
- Cunningham, Rebecca. "Youth Corps Event `Listens' to Refugees (Nancy Pocock, refugee helper, guest of honour)." Catholic New Times 29 May 1988: 9
- Flood, Sandra. Canadian Craft and Museum Practice, 1900-1950 Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2001
- Heap, Dan. "Day Nancy Pocock Bearded the Tory Lions in their Den." Catholic New Times 10 Jul. 1994: 9
- Holmlund, Mona, et al. Inspiring Women: A Celebration of Herstory Regina: Coteau Books, 2003
- McLean, Stuart. "Lives Lived: Nancy Meek Pocock." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 10 Apr. 1998: A16
- Ricciutelli, Luciana. "'Mamma Nancy' Pocock: friend to refugees." Canadian Woman Studies 10.1 (Spring 1989): 95-100
- Wood, Eizabeth Wyn. “Canadian Handicrafts.” Canadian Art 2.5 (Summer 1945)
