Exhibition: October 16 - November 21, 2026

Opening Reception: Friday, October 16 from 6-8 PM

Admission: FREE

The James Library & Center for the Arts is pleased to present Knowing a Place, a solo exhibition of travel sketches by Jim Kelliher, on view from October 16 through November 21, 2026.

For architect and avid traveler Jim Kelliher, a camera lens can never truly capture the soul of a destination. To truly know a place, you have to slow down and see it with a pencil in hand.

Knowing a Place brings together a vibrant collection of ink and watercolor sketches that serve as visual journals of Kelliher’s journeys across the globe. As the founder of Axiom Architecture, his artistic style is uniquely informed by a brain that naturally thinks in 3-D and decades of architectural drawing. Yet, these pieces are far from rigid technical drafts; they are alive with movement, culture, and the spontaneous energy of the moments they capture.

Kelliher’s passion for immersion began as a student in Rome, where he developed a love for the open road by hitchhiking to remote Italian villages armed with nothing but curiosity and a few words of local vocabulary. In the decades since—whether traveling on his own or alongside groups like the Sierra Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), and Rick Steves—sketching became an absolute necessity of travel.

Seeking quiet, out-of-the-way spots within otherwise bustling, popular destinations, Kelliher discovered that his sketchbook was a bridge between cultures. While working, locals and fellow travelers would invariably approach, sparking conversations and connections that a typical tourist might miss.

Every sketch in this exhibition was completed on-site in an hour or less. Kelliher captures his subject with a rapid pencil layout, locks it in with ink, and breathes life into it with watercolor—a technique he refined through classes at the South Shore Art Center. His entire mobile studio relies on just five pen sizes and a watercolor palette no larger than a wallet. It is a setup so compact that it has even made it into his backpacking gear—an addition he insists is well worth the weight.

"By seeing with a pencil in hand," Kelliher notes, "I learned more than I ever would have otherwise. It was true immersion."

Knowing a Place invites you to experience travel not as a checklist of sights, but as an intimate, deeply felt encounter with the world.