Fonds P0190 - Edwy Cooke fonds

Edwy Cooke, a painter and an educator, was born on March 10, 1926 in Toronto and died in Montreal on March 13, 2000. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA (Honours) in Art and Archeology in 1949 and from the State University of Iowa with MFA in 1951. From 1951 to 1959 he was an instructor for the department of Art and Archeology at the University of Toronto. From 1953 to 1959, he was also curator of the Lord Lee of Fareham Collection at the University of Toronto. From 1959 until 1964, he was director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick and also head of the department of Fine Arts at the University of New Brunswick.
He came to Montreal in 1964 and joined Sir George Williams University as associate professor of Fine Arts. He taught various art history courses, including the first full course in Canadian art history offered by the department. He was promoted to full professor in 1969. From 1970 to 1976, he was Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts. He was Director of the Sir George Williams Art Galleries (now the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery) from 1966 to 1973. After the establishment of the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1975, he became an active member of its Department of Art History where he taught until his retirement in 1996.