A fellow of the National Sculpture Society since 1981 and a participant in the Art in Embassies program for over a decade, Goodacre is also a member of the Allied Artists of America, Knickerbocker Artists, and the National Academy of Design. She received honorary doctorates from Colorado College, her alma mater, and Texas Tech University in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Goodacre divides her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her studio is located, and Dallas, Texas, where her husband, C.L. “Mike” Schmidt, has a law practice.
Goodacre is most celebrated for creating the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C., and is also widely recognized for the design of the U.S. millennium dollar coin with the image of Sacagawea and her infant son, Jean Baptiste. Goodacre has sculpted over forty bronze portraits including two larger than life-size standing bronze sculptures of President Ronald Reagan, one standing at the Reagan Library in California, and the other at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
Recently, Glenna Goodacre was selected from an international competition with over 100 entries to create the Irish Memorial for the city of Philadelphia. Located in a 1.71-acre park overlooking the Delaware River at historic Penn’s Landing, the memorial represents Goodacre’s most ambitious project to date. Out of this project have come 40 new bronzes, the largest group of new pieces since her landmark 1989 exhibition in Santa Fe.
Full of rich texture and emotion, these new works have unusual finishes and patinas and are presented on specially designed pedestals that give the 19th century figures a contemporary feel. The presentation is augmented with several mural sized photo panels that place individual pieces in context with the finished monument.
Biography courtesy of Morris & Whiteside Galleries