Gloria Escoffery OD (22 December 1923 – 24 April 2002) was a
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n painter, poet and art critic active in the 1940s and 1950s.
Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica
Saint Mary is a parish located in the northeast section of Jamaica. With a population of 114,227 it is one of Jamaica's smallest parishes, located in the county of Middlesex. Its chief town and capital is Port Maria, located on the coast. It is ...
, the youngest of three children of Dr. William T. Escoffery, medical officer, and his wife Sylvia, Escoffery attended St Hilda's High School, Brown's Town. In 1942 she won the Island Scholarship and went to
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
in
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, Canada, and subsequently studied in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at the
Slade School of Fine Arts
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
(1950–52), and the University of the West Indies's School of Education.
Having held her first solo exhibition in Kingston in 1944, Escoffery exhibited extensively in Jamaica and elsewhere. Her works feature in many public and private collections.
In 1977 she was awarded the
Order of Distinction
The Order of Distinction is a national order in the Jamaican honours system. It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament (''The National Honours and Awards Act'') ...
Musgrave Medal
The Musgrave Medal is an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature.Webster, Valerie J. (2000), ''Awards, Honors & Prizes, Volume 2'', Gale Group, , p. 447. Originally conceived in 1889 a ...
from the
Institute of Jamaica
The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation:
Publications
* ''Landscape in the Making'' (a pamphlet, 1976)
* ''Loggerhead'' (Sandberry Press, 1988)
* ''Mother Jackson Murders the Moon'' (
Peepal Tree Press
Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...