The most important resource any college can offer is its faculty. All of the College's faculty members are professional artists and scholars who are dedicated to the development of each student as an artist and an educated member of society. United in their belief in the College's commitment to a contemporary focus on the traditions and history of the fine arts, they have dedicated themselves to proven methods of instruction that have been developed over the centuries. This focus enables students to develop a foundation of artistic skills and knowledge to last a lifetime and illuminate their creative future.

Shira Avidor

Assistant Chair of Painting
Part-time Instructor, Painting
BFA, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem; MFA from Boston University. She exhibits her paintings in Boston, New York, and Tel Aviv and currently lives in West Hartford

Roland Becerra

Assistant Professor - Painting
BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; MFA, Yale University, School of Art He has also studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Cleveland Institute of Art. Mr. Becerra has been awarded the Ralph Mayer Prize, Yale School of Art; the Schickle-Collingwood Prize, Yale School of Art and the Mable Wilson Woodrow Memorial Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fellowship Show Prize. Selected Exhibitions included at the Rodger Lapelle Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Norfolk, CT; Yellow Springs Art Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; Yale School of Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Fine Artist’s Workshop, Chicago, IL. He has work has been published in several publications including Artnet.com, and Philadelphia Style.

Roland’s short film, "DEAR BEAUTIFUL" recently won The Moving Pictures Magazine Short Film Contest – Spring 2007 Cannes Edition.   DEAR BEAUTIFUL was selected by the judges as the Animation Prize Winner. Winners in each category were flown to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month and their work was featured in the Moving pictures section of the Short Film Corner of the Festival.

Brian Craig-Wankiiri

Interim Chair, Sculpture
Brian Craig-Wankiiri studied at the New York Academy and received his BFA from Pennsylvania State University. One of his life-size bronze sculptures was represented in the 2004 Lyme Academy College exhibition, Artists Talk, in which he also participated in a panel discussion. He is represented by John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, CA.

Don Gale

Professor of Sculpture
BFA, MFA, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, California; Attended Art Center School of Design in Pasadena, where he studied under the direction of Lorser Feitelson, pioneer American post-surrealist.  He is a fellow, member, and former vice-president of the National Sculpture Society and a member and former member of the Board of Directors of the New York City Sculpture  Guild. Don was also appointed to serve as a delegate to the Fine Arts Federation of New York City. He is currently represented by the Cline Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona and at Gallery Henoch, Chelsea, New York, New York. His work has been widely selected for public collections and commissions, including the Mohegan Sun in Norwich, Connecticut.

Nancy Peel Gladwell

Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing, Chair of the Painting Department
MFA, Painting, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford. BFA, Painting, BA George Washington University, Washington, D.C.  Ms. Gladwell did her graduate work at George Washington University, Washington, DC; Accademia Delle Belle Arte, Florence, Italy and Studio de Nera Simi, Florence, Italy. She exhibits her paintings nationally and has work included in national museums and galleries. She has taught in Italy and at C.W. Post College, Long Island University, New York.

Randolphlee  McIver

Assistant Professor, Sculpture
B.A. in Art Education, University of Texas at El Paso, B.F.A. with honors in Painting from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena California, M.F.A. the New York Academy of Art where he graduated summa cum laude and was the first recipient of the Walter Erlbacher Award.  He has taught at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY the Guild Hall in East Hampton and is currently teaching at the New York Academy of Art, the Graduate School of Figurative Arts. A recipient of the New Jersey State Council of the Arts Fellowship, he has participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout the U.S., and is part of a summer exhibition at the New York Academy of Art, selected by Vincent Desiderio, Eric Fischl, and Jenny Saville.

Randy Melick

Deane G. Keller Endowed Chair of Classical Drawing and Figurative Art. 
Associate Professor of Drawing and Anatomy, Chair of Drawing Department
BA, Princeton Universitry; MFA The New York Academy of Figurative Art. Taught at New York Academy of Figurative Art from 1990 to 2001 where he was MFA program and Faculty Chairman. Exhibitions include Hacket-Friedman Gallery, San Francisco; Hirschl and Adler Gallery, New York; Gallerie Benamou, Paris and the Arnot Museum, NY.

Patricia Miranda

Interim Chair, Foundation
Patricia Miranda received a BFA from SUNY Purchase, and a scholarship at the School of Sacred Arts in NYC. She has exhibited at Wave Hill, Bronx NY; Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont NY; Coleman Fine Arts in Charleston, SC; Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY; Sakai City Museum Gallery, Osaka, Japan and the Cape Museum of Fine Art in Dennis, MA, to name a few. She is Director of Miranda Fine Arts, a contemporary gallery in Port Chester, NY and co-founder of Loftarts, an affiliation of galleries, artists, curators and educators. She is on the Board of Trustees of The Society of Gilders; the Advisory Boards of the Katonah Museum Artist’s Association and the Concordia College Art Gallery in Bronxville, NY, as well as co-founder of The Gabriel Guild, an arts and education organization.

Susan Stephenson

Part-time Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing
BFA, Studio, Louisiana Tech University; MFA, Painting, Boston University. Stephenson was an artist-in-residence at the Association for Visual Arts in Chatanooga, TN, and at The Griffis Art Center in New London, CT. Past exhibitions include "Realism Now: Traditions and Departures" at Vose Gallery in Boston and "Color and Light," a solo exhibition at the Masur Museum in Louisiana. She recently received the Painting Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Her work is in private and corporate collections throughout New England and the South.

Murray Tinkelman

Part-time Instructor, Illustration
Educated at Cooper Union Art School and Brooklyn Museum Art School, Tinkelman is Director of the Limited Residency MFA program at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford; Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University where he taught in the undergraduate program and was senior advisor in the Independent Study MA Program in Illustration for over 25 years from 1979-2006; and has been  guest curator for The Discovery Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the Society of Illustrators, Museum of American Illustration in New York City.

An award-winning artist who has won gold medals from the Society of Illustrators, The New York Art Directors Club and the Society of Publications Designers, Tinkelman’s illustrations have appeared in publications such as Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has had a one-man exhibit of his baseball art at The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York in 1994 and The United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama in 1995. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, the International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Tinkelman has lectured extensively throughout the United States, acted as both panelist and moderator, and written and illustrated books and many articles. He has received over 150 major professional awards, over 75 of which have been conferred by the Society of Illustrations in New York City.

Jerry Weiss

Part-time Instructor, Painting and Drawing
Studied drawing with Roberto Martinez in Miami, Florida, painting at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York City. Mr. Weiss has had one-man exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and galleries in New York, Boston, New Jersey, and Maine. His paintings are represented in numerous public, private and corporate collections, including the New Britain Museum of American Art; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; Pfizer, Inc., in Groton, Connecticut; Debevoise and Plimpton, New York and the Harvard Club of New York. Mr. Weiss has taught workshops and lectured in Florida, New York state, Washington, Maine, and Colorado. He is listed in Who's Who in American Art and Who's Who in the East. He is currently represented by The Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut,and Portraits Inc., New York.   For more information please visit Jerry's website: http://www.jerrynweiss.com

Justin Wiest

Adjunct instructor, Drawing
Justin Wiest earned a BFA from the Schuler School of Fine Art and a MFA from the New York Academy. He is a Silvermine Art Guild member and teaches portrait and figure classes there. The 2007 Summer American Artist "Workshop" magazine had a feature article on his methods of figure painting. He is represented by Stricoff Gallery and Gallery Roca, where he will have a solo show in September 2008.

Peter Zallinger

Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing, Chair of Post-Baccalaureate Program, Faculty Chair
BA, Fine Arts, Yale University; post-graduate work in drawing and painting at Boston University. Mr. Zallinger wrote and illustrated three natural history books for Random House; in 1999, he updated the most recent of these, Dinosaurs and Other Archosaurs, to reflect new discoveries and the shift in taxonomy to Phylogenetic Systematics. His books have been published in America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Zallinger has three portraits in Yale University's permanent collection. His work has been displayed worldwide and resides in private collections in the United States and Japan.

Liberal Arts Faculty

Intellectual development is as necessary to the emerging artist as work in the studio and a stimulating and challenging Liberal Arts program is an integral part of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While classes in art history form the core of the program, students also study environmental science, anthropology, philosophy, English, mathematics, career development, perspective, and anatomy. An Art History Minor was launched in the Fall of 2005.

All faculty members of the Liberal Arts program have been selected for their excellence as scholars and practitioners and for their passion for teaching.

Educational Goals for the Liberal Arts Program  

The Liberal Arts program supports the Painting and Sculpture majors by developing in students a rich understanding of the cultural, social, historical, and scientific context of the world they will enter as arts practitioners. Courses in Liberal Arts are taught in a logical and effective sequence that supports each student’s intellectual development. They are designed to meet the General Education requirements of NEASC and other relevant accreditation agencies and to be pertinent and intellectually engaging to the developing artist. The Liberal Arts curriculum emphasizes competency in communication skills through assignments that encompass both written work and oral presentations.

The Liberal Arts program also offers an opportunity for students to acquire further art historical knowledge by taking additional courses to fulfill the Art History Minor.

Jennifer M. Burke

Instructor, English
MLS, Wesleyan University, CT;  B.A. Wesleyan University, CT.  Jennifer has taught at the Williams School in New London, CT and the Old Lyme High School where she currently teaches a variety of courses at all levels including Honors and Advanced placement English.  She has won several awards for her teaching.

Claire Davis

Instructor, Cognitive Development
Dr. Davis teaches cognitive development and experimental psychology, and specializes in the field of developmental psychology dealing with literacy instruction and intervention research. She has been Assistant Professor at Central Connecticut State University, has taught at Sacred Heart University, and has been a fellow at Haskins Laboratories. Dr. Davis has published a number of articles on literacy and childhood cognitive development. From Sarah Lawrence College she received a BA in Psychology and an MA in Child Development. From the University of Oxford she holds a PhD in experimental psychology.

Michael Kirby

Instructor, Natural Science
Michael Xavier Kirby received a Ph.D. in geology from the University of California, Davis. His research interests include the paleoecology of marine life and the historical ecology of oyster reefs. Past professional accomplishments include three postdoctoral fellowships, 14 peer-reviewed publications, and three U.S. National Science Foundation research grants.

Matthew Landrus

Assistant Professor of Art History, Chair of Liberal Arts
Dr. Landrus holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Oxford, and received MA and BA degrees in art history from the University of Louisville.  He specializes in the history of medieval through early eighteenth century art, architecture, technology, and natural philosophy, with a specific interest in the Italian Renaissance. Mostly at issue in his research is the artist's intent, education, and general knowledge. This work addresses the role of the investigative and inventive processes in the works of artists, architects, engineers, and art theorists. 

Dr. Landrus has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Open University, and the University of Oxford. A frequent author, he has published a number of articles, as well as 'The Treasures of Leonardo da Vinci' (2006, London: Carlton and HarperCollins). His work in progress includes a book on Leonardo's 'Giant Crossbow', and research on Leonardo's treatise program, as well as early modern proportion theories, the art academy, Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, Francesco Vanni, and Guido Reni.

John Pfeiffer

Instructor, Anthropology
Dr. Pfeiffer holds a BA from the University of Connecticut, an MA from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the State University of New York.  He was on the faculty of graduate studies at Wesleyan University and has worked as a consultant for the State Historic Preservation Office and for the Mohegan Tribe an Nation.  Dr. Pfeiffer currently teaches at Old Lyme High School.