The Dr. James Golden collection was donated to Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College over several years beginning in 1995. The collection was created by Dr. James Golden, Jr. of Pineville, Kentucky. Dr. Golden was a well-known naturalist and artist as well as a surgeon at Pineville Community Hospital. Dr. Golden often used his artwork as therapy for a very stressful job. "My only way of living was to do something to forget all that for a few minutes," he said. Many of his pieces are what he calls "found art." "I pick up rocks and sticks, grapevines and things, pebbles… snail shells, bugs and grass and stuff. And I get to thinking, 'What can I make?'"

The Dr. James Golden Collection consists of almost 1500 sculptures, designs, cartoons, photographs, videos, and short stories. This exhibit is only a small sample of the wonders created by Dr. Golden. We hope you enjoy the exhibit. If you would like to know more about the collection or the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Appalachian Archive, please email the cataloger. All quotes by Dr. Golden are from "On the Face of It: the Transformative Art of Dr. James Golden, Jr." by Julie Ardery.