Jackie Adams Talks the Goodall Gallery and the Best Burger in Town by Kirby Knowlton

“There are relationships being cultivated, and connections and learning happening that extend beyond the art and the space, into the daily lives of our students, our campus, our artists, and our community that inspire how the arts are a meaningful part of our lives.” – Jackie Adams

This is what Jacqueline Keane Adams, coordinator of Columbia College’s Goodall Gallery, aims to create with each show. The mission of the Goodall Gallery is to educate, enrich, and engage the public by presenting contemporary art exhibitions that promote the arts in the community through artists who have established a voice to express issues of personal significance. A graduate of Columbia College herself, Adams has experience in the for profit and not profit arts sector, has worked with Guy Lipscomb and Clark Ellefson of Lewis and Clark, and has taught in Richland County District One and at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Adams comes from a line of applied arts craftspeople, but was trained as a fine artist. When her former instructor and mentor, Stephen Nevitt, approached her while she was managing her own studio space to ask if she would be interested in coordinating the Goodall Gallery, she returned to Columbia College. “I didn’t know how long or how involved the work with Goodall Gallery would become,” she says. “The position has blossomed into far more than I ever expected over the past ten years.” What excites Adams most about being the gallery coordinator is “being able to experience how each exhibit uniquely and directly transforms the audience’s experience.” She doesn’t find the work too different from being a studio artist, saying “just like art making, my work is a constant development of one’s craft, always striving to be better and finding solutions.”

The next show at the Goodall Gallery is the Women’s Landscape Painting Invitational Exhibition featuring Columbia College’s own Mary Gilkerson and Diane Kilgore Condon, with a possible third artist yet to be confirmed. “The interesting element in the show thus far,” says Adams, “is the contrast of landscapes between these two artists—Gilkerson’s work explores the external, physical realms of landscape while Condon’s work is known for exploring the internal, psychological landscape.” This show is strategically timed as the college is making announcements about its upcoming 2015-2016 year where it will celebrate the 100th year since Georgia O’Keeffe taught at Columbia College. “We wanted to mark the occasion with an exhibit of some of our own local, contemporary female landscape painters.”

When not at the Goodall Gallery, Adams loves cooking with her husband and son in Restaurant Adamsarego (her kitchen). Her favorite spot for a burger in town is The Whig. Her favorite artist is British designer Alexander McQueen for his transcendence beyond the category of fashion. “I can see McQueen’s work far beyond the category of fashion – manifesting into sculpture, craft, storytelling, performance, installation, figurative— these are all elements that I personally work with in my own work.”