Many people I’ve spoken with have said that Jean is just one of those people who they thought would live forever.  There is a real resonance in those words – I suppose that’s because she was, sort of, “always there.”  By my estimation, Jean Johnson participated in the development of three generations of visual artists and craftspeople. She was surrounded by a rich multigenerational pool of evolving insight that she never stopped soaking up.  Through our support of (and our resistance to) her ideas about the history and contemporary relevance – and ongoing consideration of the very definition – of Canadian craft and design, Jean does live on.  Through generations, and through our collective memories and shades of experience, we have not one, but many Jean Johnsons who will indeed live on forever.

Through Jean, I came to understand the values of volunteerism.  Among the many hours she contributed to the Canadian cultural sector, she served on the Board of Directors at the Textile Museum of Canada, as well as on our exhibition and program committees, for over a decade from the late 1980s and through the 1990s, earning an esteemed place as an Honorary Trustee.  Jean’s was a voice that was new to the character of our board at the time, and it was at her urging that a place was made for an artist to sit on the Board of Directors at a crucial stage in our development.  She was an advocate for contemporary thinking and was quite at home figuring out new models – also known as making it up as you go along.  This was during a period of transition for the Textile Museum of Canada, and Jean was one of the few board members who had experience working in the land of real living, breathing artists and craftspeople.  She understood funding structures, governance, and audience-building too, but for me, the take-away message had to do with the importance of making a meaningful difference in the life of a cultural worker.  Exhibitions and workshops and international conferences yes – but she also helped us to understand that we mattered as individuals, and she expected us to be grown-up about it, encouraging us to contribute to projects and organizations and as-yet-unformed ideas with a political voice, as advocates for what we believe in, for what will shape us. For generations.  Jean was a woman of action.  She knew who to talk to at arts councils, she knew which individuals might write a cheque to support her next project, or who would billet the out-of-town artists who she had scraped enough money together to pay, yet unable to cover the cost of a hotel room.  She knew the value of a pot-luck garden party – and perfected it as a way of feeding said out-of-town artists!

She knew how to sweet-talk the right guests into travelling to Toronto, even though they really thought they couldn’t afford the time.  She understood that if she wanted to shape the formation of skilled and informed practitioners she would have to figure out how to get us together. And she did.

Jean was a professional woman; and a single mother to Anne.  She was a role model and a mentor, a woman whose extraordinary social fluidity allowed for complete blending of her personal life with her professional world, enriching her own passions as she participated in and promoted the enthusiasms, skills and creative impulses of others.  And, she liked to have fun.

I don’t know if anybody else plans to mention Jean’s famous Birthday Book this evening but I think that this occasion would be incomplete without making mention of it.  Full of the names and contact information of Interesting People, it was a DIY reference tool, as she put together lunch dates, dinner parties and road trips, introducing us to one another because our names happened to appear on the same page, aligned with the same sign of the Zodiac, the same rhythm of life celebration. It was also about “Capital F Friendship.”  I think Jean did this just to see what happened: invite two or five people to lunch, and presto – something will probably come of it.  This is one of the playful ways Jean made sure there was always something new going on.  Jean took enormous delight in introducing people to one another. And so I suggest that, as we celebrate the life of Jean Johnson today, we honour her, and each other, by being sure to introduce ourselves around the room – extending the social imperative by which Jean Johnson lived her life.

 – shared by Sarah on the occasion of “A Tribute to Jean ”
 July 22nd, 2014 – Lakeside Terrace, Bill Boyle Artport, Harbourfront Centre