SPOTLIGHT
Alan Goolman, Creative Director at 68 Prince St. Gallery (#3 on UAW Map)
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do? And how long you’ve been in your current position. 68 Prince Street Gallery Kingston celebrated its opening and inaugural exhibition on April 26, 2025. When UPAW opens July 17th, I’ll have been creative director/curator at “68” for about four months…give or take.
My responsibilities as curator include everything from creating a show calendar to identifying an artist or artists, depending on whether we are building a one-person or group show. I create the primary installation plan, but ultimately, we work as a team to achieve the best possible exhibition.
It’s no secret that I have a thing for color and narrative-driven shows. This is because of my transition to curating, which stems from years of working in the world of prestige cosmetics, including color development, product development, creative marketing, and brand development, which inform every aspect of how I approach curation.
Use three words to describe yourself: Creative, intuitive, committed … and exhausted. That’s four, sorry!
What brought you to the Hudson Valley/Catskill Mountains? 3-day weekends! We purchased our home 32 years ago. I was traveling 40 weeks a year, having a getaway, a home, and a community that I love was absolutely essential. We moved to Upstate NY in 2012.
What do you love about your job? “68” is a spectacular space/gallery, and being part of this team of exceptionally talented people is everything. Add to that, there is a vibrant, continually growing and evolving art community in the Hudson Valley. Kingston and “68” are right at the heart of it.
What exciting things do you have planned for UAW? 68 Prince Street Gallery, Kingston, NY, is excited to present “Elusive Thresholds,” the second major exhibition in our main gallery. Conceived and curated with UAW in mind, “Elusive Thresholds” beautifully fulfills our mission to bring together perfect pairings of painters and sculptors in a space designed and built precisely for that purpose. A two-person show, “Elusive Thresholds,” features the work of painter Jeanette Fintz in concert with the work of sculptor Monika Zarzeczna.
Jeanette Fintz is a well-established abstract painter with exquisite skills. Jeanette’s painting emerges from the collision of overlapping grid systems, using a choreographic process to intuitively edit and transform geometric fragments into expressive, unstable constructs.
Monika Zarzeczena, an exciting multidisciplinary artist whose international recognition grows with every exhibition, works in a space where intuition overrides control, embracing coincidence to reveal new possibilities through her abstract sculptures and installations, often resembling architectural remnants. These pieces explore themes of incompleteness and loss, suggesting disruptive logic and the passage of time.
NOTE: Weather permitting, a new outdoor patio will be in full swing!
What is your favorite local store? Adams Fairacres Farms, Lake Katrine
What is your favorite art/creative space to visit? Dia Beacon: John Chamberlain, Richard Serra, Robert Ryman.
What is one tip for people experiencing UAW for the first time? Try to map your plan of action every day. Wear comfortable shoes. Hydrate. For instance, the Lockwood Gallery > is less than a ten-minute drive to Headstone Gallery > which is less than ten minutes from 68 Prince Street Gallery.
What is a fun fact about you that might surprise people? I danced professionally from 16 to 22 years old.
Now for the Speed Round! Pick one or the other.
Valley or Mountains? Mountains
Car or Train? Car in the States, Train in Europe
Walk or Hike? Walk
Sun or Snow? Sun
Indoors or Outdoors? Both
Diner or Restaurant? Diner
Market or Shop? Market
Clear or Clouds? Clear
Sunglasses or hat? Sunglasses
Abstract or Realist? Abstract
Contemporary or Modern? Both
Sculpture or Painting? Both
IRL or digital? IRL
Look or listen? Both
See or feel? Both