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Life on Campus
A group of engineering students established Graditude
in 1983 to address a deficiency in student club funding.
Other U of T faculties and colleges soon followed suit
Doris McCarthy
An Artist’s Legacy
Doris McCarthy’s life’s work finds a
permanent home at U of T Scarborough
FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS, CANADIAN ARTIST DORIS McCARTHY
celebrated Canada’s diverse and rugged wilderness with her
bold and spirited works of art. Now, her creations will be
celebrated by University of Toronto Scarborough, the recent
recipient of her life’s work.
More than 200 paintings and more than 6,000 pieces of
memorabilia – one of the largest gifts-in-kind ever made to
the campus – were donated from the estate of McCarthy,
who died in 2010 at age 100. The collection will allow U of T
Scarborough, where McCarthy completed a BA in English
in 1989, to enhance studio and art-history instruction and
expand its public art programs. “This important gift enables
us to integrate McCarthy’s artistic production more fully
into our academic mission,” says Ann MacDonald, director
and curator of the Doris McCarthy Gallery and a visual and
performing-arts lecturer.
The paintings, created between 1924 and 2006, feature
McCarthy’s well-known representational and abstract
Canadian landscapes – including her famous depictions of
Arctic icebergs. Some of the pieces were exhibited at the
gallery in 2010 to mark her centennial birthday. Other
donated items include sketches, letters and even diaries.
McCarthy, who taught art for 40 years at Central Technical
School in Toronto, was an Order of Canada member whose
paintings reside in collections across the country, including
at the National Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The landmark donation provides new momentum to
U of T Scarborough’s expansion plans, part of which involves
building a new and bigger art gallery to showcase the work
of McCarthy and other contemporary artists. “This gift has
created an infusion of excitement that sets us on a path to
fulfil our mandate of becoming an intellectual and cultural
hub in the GTA,” says Georgette Zinaty, executive director
of development and alumni relations at U of T Scarborough.
“It sets us apart in the community as a place to enjoy art.”
– SHARON ASCHAIEK
Going the Extra Mile
Graduating engineering students raise
thousands for their faculty
AFTER THEY’VE SPENT FOUR YEARS and tens of thousands of dollars
earning a degree, you might think persuading departing
students to donate money back to their faculty would be a
tough sell. But not for U of T’s engineering class of 2012,
whose graduating members have raised almost $10,000 to
support the students coming up behind them.
The program is called Graditude, and while many faculties
and departments run their own versions, the Faculty of
Applied Science and Engineering has always boasted the
highest participation rates, with nearly one in three graduating
students pitching in. (A donation of $20.12 earns a
commemorative lapel pin.)
“This campaign is to give back to student clubs, so I’m
all for it,” says Kathryn Tang, who is graduating this year from
mechanical engineering. She says she gained a lot from her
involvement with extracurricular activities such as the Skule
Orchestra and The Cannon, the more serious of the two
engineering student newspapers. “It’s an important part of
the school spirit that we have these organizations,” she says.
Another secret to the campaign’s success is Bill Daniel
(BASc 1947, LLD Hon. 1980), a former president of Shell
Canada, who offered to match the students’ donations dollar
for dollar. In his final academic year, Daniel received a
$100 “Second Mile” graduation scholarship from U of T,
recognizing his exceptional academic and extracurricular
achievements.
Today, he describes going that proverbial extra mile,
whether on the job or as a philanthropist and volunteer, as “a
major part of the philosophy of my life.” Supporting Graditude
allows him to pass that message on: “We’re teaching these
young people to go the second mile.” – GRAHAM F. SCOTT
16 www.magazine.utoronto.ca
PHOTO: KEN JONES