Pursuing Curiosity

Joseph Goins ’86 grew up in literal “Mayberry.” His small hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina was also home to Andy Griffith and his aunt and uncle who owned the neighborhood store Goins walked to as a child, to buy penny candy and a Pepsi. Though Goins said there was no place better than “Mayberry” to grow up, he knew that this little town was not where he would stay. There was a world out there waiting for him. In 1980, Goins followed his sister, Stormie (Goins-Maneval ’81), to Berea College—his first step into the world he sought.

Goins majored in art and loved his art history courses in particular. The art studios and library allowed space to explore his skills and expressiveness and provided grounds for his mischievousness. Late-night “art happenings” like entangling the campus Quad with twine or distributing sugar gum balls soaked in paint across the campus before a snowfall, erupting the landscape in color by morning, were stealthy exploits that sometimes ran Goins afoul of the rules. He was brought back on track by supportive professors who saw his passion and potential.

“I had really caring instructors here, especially in the Art department,” Goins said. “I was truly formed here; it had a profound effect on me.”

In 1986 to complete his art degree, he undertook an independent study with Dr. Bob Boyce, Art department chair, on the history of photography and specifically Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer who dedicated his 50-year career to making photography an accepted art form. Goins also presented a senior lecture on Stieglitz’s groundbreaking and iconic series of photographs, “Equivalents.”

“It was at Berea that I was just allowed to be curious about the world, and to pursue anything,” Goins said. “And I’ve been really fortunate to be able to do that.”

After leaving Berea, Goins eventually pursued a career in hospitality and private service, a craft he began learning during his labor position at Historic Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant. He has worked and lived in Philadelphia, Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and now resides outside Boston. While in Chicago, Goins went to an auction with friends and purchased his first photograph—a nude torso entering a body of water by the French photographer Lucien Clergue.

“It felt amazing,” Goins recalls. That euphoric feeling led him to buy and collect black and white photographs from artists such as Steiglitz, Minor White, Herb Ritts and Judy Dater. 

Then in late 2019, while living in D.C., Goins got a new glimpse of that first Clergue photograph hanging in his home and thought, “That is so intimate.”

“And I looked around my living room like it was a flash,” Goins explained, “and I said, ‘My whole collection is about intimacy.’ And it was not intended, it was just a revelation to me. At the time, I had nine photographs, but the theme of intimacy was immediately clear to me.”

At that same point in his life, 33 years after graduating from Berea, Goins was looking to get reacquainted with the College. The idea struck that he could display his collection at the College for students to see and interact with.

“I thought, I’m just going to throw it out there,” Goins said. “If you don’t raise your hand, sometimes you don’t get what you’re asking for. So, I raised my hand to the Art department. They were excited by the theme, by the topic and by who I was, and it was given a preliminary ‘go’.”

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic struck shortly thereafter. But Goins, excited by the opportunity, continued to work toward his goal. He reached out to long-time mentor Boyce, then a retired art professor, who offered advice on rounding out his collection, writing a formal proposal and further developing his intimacy theme. This led Goins to lean into the meaning of intimacy and see it from not just a physical perspective, but also spiritual, emotional, intellectual and experiential perspectives. He purchased additional pieces, this time intentionally building on his theme.

In November 2023, at the start of Homecoming weekend, Goins’ photography exhibit opened to the Berea campus in the Doris Ulmann Galleries. The exhibit contained 21 photographs grouped to elicit certain feelings and to draw connections between similar emotions in completely different settings. Goins is the first alumnus to have a collection displayed at the College.

“It’s a realization of one of my dreams,” Goins said. “I am the first, I hope I’m not the last. We can all give back in our own way that can be really, really personal.”

For Goins, the highlight of the show came on the last day of the exhibition when he returned to Berea to remove his collection from the walls in the Upper Traylor Gallery.  A couple entered and slowly walked around the room, doubling back to see a previous work and moving forward to reexamine another, speaking quietly and intently.

“It was very moving to see others paying close attention to my collection,” Goins reflected.

As they went to leave, Goins introduced himself and learned that one friend had seen the show previously and knew this was the last day. He insisted his friend go with him to see the show before it was gone. It was her first time in the galleries.

“I want to encourage students to pursue what they love,” Goins added. “That’s what I’ve done, and I’ve been really fortunate to pursue the kind of life I wanted.”