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Sir John Coape Sherbrooke Heritage Award - 2011
Two individuals who have played a significant role in the development of the Sherbrooke Village restoration were honoured on June 11, 2011 the 5th edition of the Sir John Coape Sherbrooke Heritage Awards. In 2011, the Historic Sherbrooke Village Development Society honored Mrs. Joyce Johnston & Mr. Scott Robson.
 Mrs. Joyce Johnston
Born: December 4th, 1927 – North Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
People who know Joyce Johnston remark that she is “a living, giving example of a remarkable senior.” This active, vital Cape Breton native has been married to husband, Jim, for 62 years. They have a daughter, two sons, and eight grandchildren. In addition to her busy family life, Joyce has been a full-time volunteer since she retired from teaching 26 years ago.
An historical highlight of Joyce’s life was an incident that occurred in the winter of 1960 in her home in North Sydney where she assisted in the rescue of two small children aged 5 and 7 who had fallen through the ice in Smelt Brook Pond. This dramatic episode in her life brought a citation from the Royal Canadian Humane Association.
Music has always been a part of Joyce’s life. She worked to obtain a license to teach school music by studying during winter months at home and attending summer school at Dalhousie University. She has been involved with choirs since the age of 12 and has been leading and directing choirs for over 60 years.
Joyce arrived in Sherbrooke in 1970 and immediately assumed numerous positions of responsibility in the community. She was concurrently a librarian, teacher, and secretary as well as serving with the Registry of Deeds. Since then Joyce has been involved with the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission, the Sherbrooke Village Development Society, the Hospital Auxiliary Committee, High Crest Home for Special Care, the Women’s Missionary Society, the Sherbrooke branch of the Women’s Institute of Nova Scotia and St. Mary’s Seniors’ Club. She has also held a variety of offices of distinction in the Order of the Eastern Star of Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
Joyce has brought her music into just about every sphere of life in this community. In the past 41 years, there is hardly a function or venue that can be named where Joyce has not contributed her musical talents. From church services to community choirs to weddings and funerals to a host of other special occasions and community functions, Joyce Johnston has been present to share her gift of music with her community.
“Joyce Johnston is a former member of the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission and the Historic Sherbrooke Village Development Society. She has spent many hours volunteering for both at everything from coordinating musical events to upholstering. Joyce has been a continuous organizer and contributor to the music and cultural activities presented in Sherbrooke and particularly at Sherbrooke Village. She was part of the one act play “Rory Aforesaid” and numerous musical productions."
 Scott Robson - Curator, History Collection Nova Scotia Museum
Scott’s professional experience and training was gained through a long association with the Nova Scotia Museum, where he began as a student assistant in 1966. After receiving two bachelor’s degrees, Scott taught school briefly before a full-time curator’s position became available and he was appointed Curator of Historic Buildings & Furnishings, History Section, in 1971. At the time of the museum’s reorganization in 1993, he took on the present title (which better describes the current role).
Work at the Nova Scotia Museum: Since the summer of 1966, Scott has performed many museum tasks, from cleaning and numbering artifacts to restoration of a stage coach. Since 1971, he has actively collected all sorts of artifacts--furniture, textiles, silver, china, glass, photographs, documentary art, etc. Major effort was spent in acquiring a wide range of artifacts for many buildings at Sherbrooke Village in the 1970s and 1980s. He has worked with the historical collection and various aspects of history and interpretation at most of the NSM’s historic locations, contributing to the restoration, furnishing, maintenance, and presentation of many buildings and interiors. He has served for many years on advisory committees for Province House and Government House, Halifax.
In 2005, Scott worked on a major acquisition for the NSM: the portrait of Susanna Francklin by J.S. Copley, painted in Boston c.1762. This significant artifact was returned to Mount Uniacke, where it had hung for 80 years (removed by the family in 1927). The piece was purchased with funds from the NSM Board of Governors and the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Exhibitions, books, etc.: Scott’s most ambitious project with the NSM has been the nationally travelling exhibition Old Nova Scotian Quilts (1993-6), with its related book of the same title, also in French; co-author Sharon MacDonald. A similar project on hooked mats in the province was begun, with research assistant Sharon MacDonald.
Scott has also worked on special projects with other institutions, such as Great Expectations (Mount Saint Vincent University), a nationally travelling exhibition concerning early images of the province. For the nationally travelling exhibition J.E.H. MacDonald, Lewis and Edith Smith in Nova Scotia (Dalhousie University Art Gallery), he proposed the idea and undertook initial research on MacDonald’s association with Lewis Smith and his sister Edith Smith, both Nova Scotia artists. Scott is co-author (with Shelagh Mackenzie) of An Atlantic Album: Photographs of the Atlantic Provinces, before 1918, a result of another exhibition project that travelled in Eastern Canada.
Scott’s most recent book is Halifax Street Names: An Illustrated Guide (Halifax: Formac, 2002), for which he was co-editor (with Shelagh Mackenzie), as well as one of 64 contributing authors.
Lecturing, teaching: In his job at the NSM, Scott has presented public lectures in the province and across Canada on a wide range of topics to many audiences as suggested above, with emphasis on historic textiles, early photography and documentary art. For several years, he taught an extensions course on antiques in Nova Scotia, for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
“A remembrance of the early days of the Sherbrooke Village Restoration” by Aleah Lomas-Anderson. Chairman 1972-75
“Scott’s attention to details and to what was proper was clearly evident in his treatment of a sofa which needed complete restoration- Real horsehair stuffing! Scott insisted on using the real thing! The “powers that be” agreed until they heard the price, I think it was close to $1000. But, Scott insisted on maintaining the integrity of this item and so it was done…properly! (I think you can still see the sofa in the jailhouse.) Another remembrance…a stern, unbending professionalism and yet a soft heart. At Christmas one year I received a greeting card from Scott. Inside was a most delicately folded, colored, paper flower. I knew that paper folding was an art form but I had never seen such a delicate example of it, certainly not as a gift to me."
    
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