Virginia Claire McCoy

Born in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, Virginia was the daughter of Neil and Violet (Hill) McCoy. She attended school in Fort William, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Languages from the University of Toronto. She had worked for a few years as a systems analyst for Manulife Insurance, before moving to Cape Breton to focus on her desire to develop as an artist.

Working first in water colour, then in gouache, Virginia gained a following for her art, through which she explored the landscape and culture of the island. Perhaps more personally important, it was through her art that she researched and painted her family’s stories, allowing their influences (Ojibway, French, English) to guide her artistic originality.

In her most celebrated exhibition titled Becoming White, she traced her heritage through those family stories from the early union of a an Ojibway woman and a Hudson Bay explorer through the generations that included the loss of her branch of the family of their Indigenous status. A loss she was able to reclaim in the mid 1990s when the federal government made a change in the Indian Act.

For more than twenty years, Virginia operated Virginia McCoy Artworks, an open studio in Inverness. She also became involved in the community, becoming part of the original Inverness County Council for the Arts, an organization of which she was chair when the board successfully lobbied for the construction of the Inverness County Centre for the Arts, located in Inverness.

For two terms, Virginia served as chair of the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design when the board of that organization was working hard towards acquiring a ‘downtown’ presence, currently located on Charlotte Street in Sydney.

For many years, Virginia was an active member of the Lake Ainslie Weavers and Craft Guild.

Virginia McCoy was pre-deceased by her father, Neil Alexander McCoy, her England-born mother, Violet Jane (Hill), and her sister, Frances McCoy.

She is survived by her husband, Frank Macdonald, her sister Heather (Ian Sharpe) of Smithers, B.C., brothers Alex (Brenda) of Falkland B.C. and Neil (Kathy) of Duncan, B.C. and many nieces, nephews and cousins across the country.

Donations in Virginia’s memory can be made to the Inverness Palliative Care Society, or to the Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Inverness.

A celebration of Virginia’s life and work will be held at a future date.

On-line condolences may be made to: www.invernessfuneralhome.com