Remembering Christine Goodale

 

At first planning to be a chemist, Goodale found a creative outlet in the arts, perhaps benefitting from the mid-life career of her mother, Carol Goodale, a fine sculptor who studied with Walter Midener at the Center for Creative Studies. A graduate of Syracuse University, Goodale earned her MFA from Northern Illinois University in de Kalb, where she studied with Ben Mahmoud. At the time, de Kalb was a center for screen printing, a technically demanding art form. For many years, her work was sold by galleries, and she was featured in the annual print exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1976. Two of her prints are in the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

During her tenure at Kingswood and then Cranbrook Kingswood, Goodale brought area artists to show their work in the Kingswood Lower Gallery (now the cafe), curating the shows and arranging artist's talks and public receptions. She was responsible, also, for supervising the school's commitment to the Scholastic Art Awards show, held each spring at the Center for Creative Studies. Student work from all the studios--Ceramics, Metal, Weaving, Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Photography--had to be tagged and transported downtown. She delighted in the process of selecting art for the yearly production of the Gallimaufry magazine. These sessions with the students on the Gallimaufry staff sharpened up their artistic judgment and brought great pleasure to their circle of friends. She was responsible for selling the magazine in the school, which required its own strategies of advertising and student salesmanship. Lastly, while department head, she supervised the two major student exhibitions during the school year, both extravaganzas turning Kingswood's corridors into spectacular galleries. The late spring show also involved a public reception. Some of the students will remember the extraordinary cupcakes at these receptions, once she had discovered Charlie's Bakery in Birmingham. One more thing she did was negotiate with Toast in Royal Oak to hang a show of student artwork there.

Goodale maintained cordial relations with faculty and staff at the art academy. She brought a number of art academy graduates to work in the Fine Arts Department. Later, when the docent program for students got underway, she became involved in chaperoning them at the art academy museum shows. Many of the student docents were her students, of course; it was another way for her to be with them. Goodale was an exacting teacher. She had high expectations of her students. Anyone taking the Advanced Drawing class could be expected to produce a full-scale drawing requiring at least 5 hours of work each week. And then the drawings went up on the wall, each artist required to explain the work and the other students expected to critique it. Many, many of her young artists will remember her profound warmth and candor, her readiness to advise and guide them, her wide knowledge of her field and her confidence in them when applying to the top art schools. She gave them honest appraisals of what they had done, and she brought them to an appreciation of both the cost and the delights of producing excellent work.

 

In 1982, after four years of quiet courtship, she married Jeffrey Welch, a member of the faculty at the Cranbook School for Boys. Very early on, they were put together as a committee of two to plan a schedule of Interim Evenings, the highlight of which was a candlelight dinner at the Kingswood dining hall with musical accompaniment. They lived a companionable Cranbrook life in the most stimulating and beautiful site in the United States, amidst remarkable students, faculty, staff and facilities personnel. After she retired in 2012, she stayed in touch with Jessica Sinclair, two great creative teachers who were also great friends.

We thank you for keeping Dr. Welch and Christine's family in your thoughts at this time. We will be remembering Christine at reunion 2026, this coming June 5-6-7.

If you wish to share memories or condolences, please email alumni@cranbrook.edu and we will pass them along.