Glendale: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Being Present

Written By Susan Patrice
 
 

Glendale: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Being Present

Art and Writing by Goodall Visiting Fellows, Oct. 14-Dec. 12, 2025

Richardson Family Art Gallery, Wofford College, Spartunburg, South Carolina

Artist Reception: October 24th, 5 pm EDT

The village of Glendale, South Carolina has a human history extending back several thousand years. The area was used as a hunting grounds by Cherokee and Catawba peoples. Later, settled by Scots-Irish, it developed into a cotton mill community situated on Lawson’s Fork Creek, a tributary to the Pacolet River in the Broad River basin. After closure of the mill and a subsequent fire, the remaining property is now part of a 220 acre preserve that is operated in partnership with Wofford College, the Spartanburg Area Conservancy, and the Tyger River Foundation, and abutted by a new county park encompassing 850 wooded acres.

Glendale serves as the site for Wofford’s Long Term Environmental Reflection program, where they highlight six locations around the preserve and village that represent natural and cultural features: a seepy bog adjacent to a small creek, the Old Georgia Road and trolley line crossing site at the Upper Shoals, the textile mill site itself, a shaded bank that harks to the mountains in its cool-temperature vegetation, a wisteria-draped former home site that was occupied by Eugene Jay Robinson and his family in the 1930s and 1940s, and the cemetery that was part of the Methodist Church, now converted to a facility used for outdoor education by the Boy Scouts. These sites represent a long record of change here, encouraging us to reflect on the past and imagine the future.

The Goodall Visiting Fellows program encourages creative people from across disciplines to reflect on these six sites – to bring their own unique perspectives and see what emerges as they spend time there, whether for a couple weeks or a whole semester. Togehter, these artists are helping build a record of these disparate glimpses into this place to gain a deeper understanding of the history as well as the tangible and intangible ways that Glendale takes hold of the imagination. This exhibit, as a milestone along this journey in time, is a chance for our entire extended community to appreciate and reflect on this important and special place.

Featured artists & writers include:

Brent Martin

Elizabeth Claire Rose

Eric William Carroll

Frances Bukovsky

G.C. Waldrep

Jim Creal

John Hoppenthaler

Kari Varner

Kaye Savage

Laura Rudkin-Miniot

Megan Kaminski

Mildred Barya

Nancy Lowe

Susan Patrice

Taylor Cunningham

Yvonne Dalschen

 
Susan Patrice

As the founder and director of Makers Circle, Susan Patrice designs and implements arts-informed community initiatives in partnership with non-arts organizations who want to expand their reach and impact through innovative cross-sector collaboration. Makers Circle has a deep passion for the power of the creative process to encourage adaptive change, expand awareness, and open up new ways of seeing and relating. We believe that the arts and artists should play a major role in community regeneration and non-profit advancement. Web design and digital storytelling are foundational to the work we do with non-profits.

https://kinship.photography/
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