Sustaining lifelong passions with a legacy gift 

An alumna’s generous donation supports research and innovation in cultural heritage 

Joyce Sowby spent her long life actively engaged with books, art and history so it’s fitting that the unrestricted gift she left to the Faculty of Information will go to support its GLAM Incubator, whose mission is to work with community partners to address current challenges in the cutural heritage sector. (GLAM stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums.) 

Sowby’s cousin Jane Craig says that Joyce loved to attend lectures, visit art galleries, and make use of libraries up until she was well into her nineties. She was passionate about Canadian History, keeper of her family’s archives, and a lifetime member of the AGO and McMichael Gallery. Sowby was especially fond of the Group of Seven, several members of whom she met when they worked for her father’s fine printing company, Rous and Mann.  

“It’s a perfect fit,” said Craig, to see the unrestricted funds Sowby left to the Faculty of Information go to support its GLAM Incubator.  

According to her cousin, Sowby always felt great appreciation for the institutions that shaped her. These include the Faculty of Information, an earlier incarnation of which trained Sowby for her career as a librarian; the summer camp she attended as a child; the galleries and libraries she loved to frequent; and, perhaps most of all, the Cathedral Church of St. James ,where Sowby was awarded the Order of the Diocese of Toronto in recognition of her outstanding work. As a result, Sowby left generous bequests in her will to all these organizations and more. 

“Joyce was intensely loyal to family and friends and the institutions and organizations that were part of her life,” said Craig. “This gift [to the Faculty of Information] really speaks to her gratitude to those institutions and organizations.” 

Sowby’s lifelong love of books led her to volunteer for decades with the Friends of the Trinity College Library at U of T, where, among other tasks, she helped run the annual Trinity book sale. In recognition of this exceptional and longstanding volunteer service, she was awarded the St Hilda’s College Alumnae Association Long Service Award and the University’s Arbor Award. 

Sowby left her funds as an unrestricted bequest, allowing the Faculty of Information to allot them as it saw fit. Taking into account how the GLAM Incubator is a key priority of the Faculty whose work aligns with Sowby’s lifelong interests, the Faculty decided to use her gift to enable the GLAM Incubator to continue its work and partnerships this year and next. Additional investments have also been made by the Faculty and its Knowledge Media Design Institute. 

Conceived by Professor Sara Grimes and launched during the pandemic, the GLAM Incubator puts out an annual call for projects from GLAM institutions, seeking out small-scale projects that experiment or incubate new programming, service models, interactive experiences, technical services, knowledge media, and user interfaces that will have an impact on GLAM institutions or professions more broadly. 

Thanks to Sowby’s gift, the Archives of Ontario is partnering with the GLAM Incubator and Professors Anastasia Kuzminykh and Shion Guha as they look to use new technologies to transform how we find materials within large archival repositories. For its second 2023 project, the GLAM Incubator, Professor Sara Grimes and the Fredericton Public Library are working together to produce screen-based storytelling kits and a corresponding curriculum to foster digital literacy and creative skill-building in school-aged children. 

“It wouldn’t be possible to experiment in this way if it weren’t for this gift from Joyce Sowby. We’re very grateful for these funds,” said Professor Patrick Keilty, the GLAM Incubator’s Director. “Ms. Sowby’s gift is supporting projects that are innovating to push cultural heritage sectors in new directions.”