Alumn Goodloe Yancey Donates Space to Host MFA Thesis Exhibition

If you had seen Goodloe Yancey walking the hallways as a Lamar Dodd School of Art student in the early 2000s, you might have mistaken him as faculty. Yancey was in his fifties when he returned to the Lamar Dodd School of Art as a student. Yancey returned to academia after retiring from his family’s business. To him, he was returning to his first love. It was this love of art that led to the donation of space that held this year’s MFA Thesis Exhibition.

Goodloe Yancey came back to Athens when he sold his family’s business in the late 1990’s.  To stay busy, Yancey found the closest classes that would take him on as a student and landed at Piedmont College, a small liberal arts college near Athens. While these classes were fulfilling, he still desired to pursue a lifelong dream of studying art. A faculty member encouraged him and explained that if he was really serious about pursuing his studies, he needed to study at the University of Georgia, as the School had more resources to offer.  

Yancey found a kindred spirit in Rick Johnson, another non-traditional student who was continuing his arts education as an emeritus faculty.  Rick pointed him to classes that would best fit his interests and experience as a non-traditional student. Within his first year, he was hooked. His pursuit led him to Jewelry and Metalwork where he studied with one of the icons of the School of Art, Rob Jackson.

Looking back on his experiences as an art student, Yancey firmly believes that people should find their passion and pursue it. If he had only pursued business and “stayed defined that way”, continuing down that path, he states that “he wouldn’t have fulfilled all he could have been”. He has seen friends who have lifetimes invested in careers that are not their passion and they’re not fulfilled. At 60 years old his advice to students now is that students shouldn’t be afraid to fail – don’t be afraid to defy expectations. He says the biggest fear should be not trying and not pursuing a passion. 

Yancey’s family is a long-time pillar of the Athens community. The land on which Sanford Stadium sits was once owned by his family. The family donated the land, which was unfarmable at the time due to an ill-located creek bed. The family told the university that they would donate the land if UGA would build a football stadium on it. The university was reluctant to fund the stadium, citing that football was just a passing fad. In response, the Yancey cousins took up an offering plate to prominent Athenians, collecting about $50 per person, raising enough to build what was the original 5000 seat stadium. Its remnants still exist around the field today.

The Yancey family built the current Deupree building for a company called Maxwell Furniture. The building housed their expansive furniture showroom and offices.  In the 1980s the space was home to the famous Junkman’s Brother’s Daughter, beloved by many Athenians. After Junkman’s moved out, the building was renovated to create apartments and the retail space was left open and industrial, ready to be outfitted for a new tenant.
 David Matheny, a longtime support of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, knew of the School’s need for a space to help house the MFA Thesis Exhibition and had worked with Goodloe Yancey in the past. The Deupree Building presented to perfect alternative gallery space for installation and new media based works like video and photography.

The School of Art rented the space for the duration of the MFA exhibition as a temporary gallery space to house approximately half of the MFA Candidates’ work. The night of the MFA opening saw an influx of community support of the arts. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is grateful for the generosity of donors like Goodloe Yancey, it’s Board members, and the faculty, students, and staff who came together in order to make this exhibition a reality.