May 06, 2008
COMPETITORS FOR THE 29TH ANNUAL NATIONAL
COMPETITION FOR FIGURATIVE SCULPTURE ANNOUNCED
Nationwide competition to be held in June at Lyme Academy
College of Fine Arts,
Old Lyme, CT
|
 |
Competition Co-sponsors:
BROOKGREEN GARDENS
LYME ACADEMY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS
NATIONAL SCULPTURE SOCIETY
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF ART
CONTACT: Joanne Donaghue
Phone: 860-434-3571 ext. 125
Email: jdonaghue@lymeacademy.edu |
Two students and two alumni from Lyme Academy College
selected
(Note to editors and reporters: The National Sculpture
Society has secured permission from 3 preeminent figurative
sculptors, Stanley Bleifeld, Neil Estern and Kirsten Kokkin,
former jurors for the National Competition for Figurative
Sculpture, to be interviewed in connection with the role of
representational art to art and culture).
Old Lyme, CT-
Competitors for the 29th Annual National
Competition for Figurative Sculpture, which will be held
from June 16 to 20, 2008 at Lyme Academy College of Fine
Arts in Old Lyme, CT, were announced today.
Thirteen competitors and one alternate were selected from a
nationwide applicant pool of emerging figurative sculptors.
Prominent sculptors Gwen Marcus, Aldo Casanova, Tuck
Langland and Dan Ostermiller made the selections. Note that
individuals directly connected with any of the applicants
are ineligible to serve as jurors.
Two students and two alumni from Lyme Academy College of
Fine Arts were selected as competitors and one student was
selected as an alternate. They are:
Darren Beistle
of Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Patrick
Stephenson
of Niantic, Connecticut.
Lisa
Nonken
of Hebron, Connecticut.
Casey
Cohoon
of Blackville, South Carolina.
Adam
Matano
of Exeter, Rhode Island, alternate.
Beistle, Stephenson and Matano are currently students of
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. Nonken and Cohoon are
alumni, Nonken with a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate and
Cohoon with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Joo Hee Bae
of San Francisco, California.
Matthew
Collins
of Oak Park, Illinois.
Karen
Cope
of Glendale, California.
Chad
Fisher
of Moorestown, New Jersey.
Madhu
Jalli
of San Francisco, California.
Remy
Jambor
of Seattle, Washington.
Julia
Levitina McGeehan
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Adam
Reeder
of San Ramon, California.
Melinda
Whitmore
of Oak Park, Illinois.
The competition has two parts: The first is the
Figure Modeling Competition
in which competitors must successfully model a full-length
figure from life, 30 to 36 inches tall. This competition is
time limited; sculpting must be completed in 28 hours over a
five-day period.
The late Walker Hancock, the distinguished sculptor, set the
criteria for the competition when it was established in
1978:
Each sculpture is judged on mastery of the human figure in
sculptural form as well as each competitor's comprehension
of the action, unity and rhythm of the pose. Emphasis is
placed on encouraging the analytic observation of the human
figure, including proportion, stance, solidity and
continuity of line. Of secondary importance is surface
finish and detail.
Three prizes will be awarded to the winners of the
Figure Modeling Competition:
The Walker Hancock prize for $1,000; the Walter & Michael
Lantz Prize for $750; and the Elisabeth Gordon Chandler
Prize, named for the founder of Lyme Academy College of Fine
Arts, for $300.
The Young Sculptors'
Awards Competition is sponsored by the National
Sculpture Society and dates back to 1959. Members of the
Education Committee of the National Sculpture Society serve
as the jury for the
Young Sculptors' Competition and base their
decisions solely on the images submitted.
Young Sculptors' Awards
include The Dexter Jones Award for $1,000 for a young
sculptor for the best work of sculpture in bas relief; the
Roger T. Williams Prize for $750 for a young sculptor who
reaches excellence in representational sculpture; the Edward
Fenno Hoffman Prize of $350 for young sculptor who strives
to uplift the human spirit through the medium of his or her
art; and the Gloria Medal, given in memory of C. Paul
Jennewein, for a meritorious body of work.
All prizes will be presented at an Awards Ceremony on
Friday, June 20, 2008, at 2:30 pm at the Foundation Studio,
AdministrativeCenter, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old
Lyme, CT. The public is welcome to attend. The ceremony will
be preceded at 2:00 pm by the dedication of
Exuberance, a
sculpture donated to the College by noted American sculptor,
the late Richard McDermott Miller.
The National Competition for Figurative Sculpture was
established in 1978 by Barry Johnston in memory of his
father, James Wilbur Johnston, to reassert the importance
and value of figure study in contemporary Sculpture. It is
now co-sponsored by BrookgreenGardens, Lyme Academy College
of Fine Arts, The National Sculpture Society and the New
York Academy of Art.
Brookgreen Gardens.
In 1931, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington founded Brookgreen
Gardens, a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation, to preserve
the native flora and fauna and display objects of art within
that natural setting. BrookgreenGardens was America's first
public sculpture garden. In 2003, the sculpture garden was
named the Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington Sculpture Garden
in honor of the founders. The collection currently contains
over 900 works spanning the entire period of American
sculpture
-
from the early 1800s to the present. Its placement in more
than 50 acres of beautifully landscaped settings creates an
extraordinary blending of art and nature. In addition to the
sculpture collection in the gardens there are two indoor
sculpture exhibition galleries.
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.
Founded in 1976 by distinguished sculptor Elisabeth Gordon
Chandler, the College provides a four-year degree education
through a commitment to traditional concepts and
methodologies and develops both intellect and skill through
a strong emphasis on figuration. The sculpture curriculum of
the College includes portrait sculpture, relief, figure
sculpture and advanced sculpture concepts. The major
includes three years o f courses in anatomy including
scientific anatomy, sculptural écorché plus substantial life
drawing. Accredited by the National Association of Schools
of Art and Design (NASAD), the State of Connecticut and the
New England Association of College and Schools (NEASC), the
Lyme Academy offers a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
in Painting, Sculpture, and Illustration (to be introduced
Fall 2008), a three-year Certificate, and a one-year
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate.
The National Sculpture Society
(NSS). Founded in 1893, NSS is the oldest organization of
professional sculptors in the United States. The purpose of
the NSS is to promote excellence in figurative sculpture
throughout the United States, to which end its programs are
directed. Scholarships and youth awards help young aspiring
sculptors. NSS collects and maintains source materials of
America's most important sculptors, past and present.
Archives are open to art historians, students and other
interested researchers. Video cassettes on various topics
are available to universities and other organizations free
of charge. Sculpture
Review magazine, a quarterly publication, is
entirely devoted to sculpture. NSS holds exhibitions open to
all American sculptors which showcase the best in current
figurative sculpture in the nation, as well as being
represented in museum, corporate, and private collections
around the world.
New York Academy of Art.
Located in the heart of TriBeCa, the New York Academy of Art
is dedicated to the advancement of figurative painting,
sculpture and drawing. A not-for-profit educational and
cultural institution, the New York Academy is the only
graduate school in the United States devoted exclusively to
the study of the human figure, and fosters values and skills
intrinsic to the creation of significant contemporary art.
--30--
May 2, 2008
ROBERT STORR AND PHILIP PEARLSTEIN TO RECEIVE
HONORARY DEGREES AT GRADUATION FOR THE CLASS OF 2008
AT LYMEACADEMYCOLLEGE of fine arts
Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, to address graduates
Old Lyme, CT
-
Robert Storr, noted American curator, critic, academic,
painter and writer, will deliver the keynote address at the
graduation of the Class of 2008 at Lyme Academy College of
Fine Arts on Saturday, May 10, 2008.
Graduation exercises will take place at the Lyme Old Lyme
Middle School at 3:00 pm, followed by a reception and
opening of the 32nd Annual Juried All-Student Art
Show in the Sill House of Lyme Academy College. Fourteen
students will be awarded Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and
two will be awarded Post-Baccalauareate certificates.
Storr and Philip Pearlstein, one of the most important and
innovative artists of the contemporary Realist school, will
receive honorary degrees, the Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris
causa, at the College's graduation. William Allik, art
teacher with the Lyme Old Lyme High School, will receive the
Distinguished Service Award in Art Education.
Storr was
educated as an artist -
he received his MFA from the Art institute of Chicago-
from which he launched a stunning career in the arts that
embraces painting, curating, writing and education. He has
been described as a "natural link between the museum world
and the world of academic." If demonstrations of that close
relationship were needed, Robert Storr was appointed as Dean
of the Yale School of Art and Director of the Venice
Biennale at virtually the same time, in 2006.
From 1990 to 2002 Storr was curator in the Department of
Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
where he organized major exhibitions on such artists as
Elizabeth Murray and Gerhard Richter in addition to
coordinating the successful
Projects series
from 1990 to 2000.
Storr has taught at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Bard
Center for Curatorial Studies as well as at the Rhode Island
School of Design, Tyler School of Art, New York Studio
School, and Harvard University. A frequent lecturer in this
country and abroad, he has been contributing editor at
Art in America
since 1981 and writes many catalogues, articles, and books,
including the forthcoming
Intimate Geometries: the
Work and Life of Louise Bourgeois and Philip Pearlstein
since 1983.
Among his many honors, Robert Storr has received a Penny
McCall Foundation Grant for painting, a Norton Family
Foundation Curator Grant, awards from the American Chapter
of the International Association of Art Critics, and the
Lawrence A. Flesichman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the
Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian
Institution's Archives of American Art. In 2000 the French
Ministry of Culture presented him with the medal of
Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is
currently Consulting Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and commissioner of the
2007 Venice Biennale, the first American invited to assume
that position.
Philip Pearlstein is one of the most important and
innovative artists working within the figurative tradition.
He was hard at this work when the art world's rejection of
the figure was most vehement.
Pearlstein studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology and
received his Master's Degree in art history at New York
University. As a painter, Pearlstein retained much of the
modernist perspective -
a detached, unsentimental eye not drawn to story-telling but
combined with a passion for observation, form and paint. It
has been argued that this special combination of modernist
vision and figurative enthusiasm stimulated Mr. Pearlstein
to reinvent the terms by which a new and vital figuration
could be launched.
Pearlstein's human body, placed in a corner of a floodlit
studio -
the bald painting of models
as models, not
stand-ins for grander ideals, assumed a whole new range of
plastic realities: the relationship of limbs to torso; the
continuity of skin and muscle. The mass and weight of the
body, the unstudied character of the pose are both dramatic
and normal: life.
At the beginning of his career Pearlstein painted many
landscapes, usually rock-strewn hillsides in which every
angle, shadow, and shape were seen with a clinical clarity.
In a sense, his nudes are also landscapes, another natural
phenomenon, and he has elevated their importance as subjects
in our modern world. His persistence, talent, and the
quality of his work and its impact on viewing audiences
internationally, have opened the eyes of thousands of
artists to the value, history and opportunity of the human
figure in art and as art.
Pearlstein's robust career flourishes with US and
international exhibitions, and his reputation as an artist
has never been more vigorous. The MilwaukeeArt Museum
honored him with a retrospective exhibition and accompanied
the exhibition with a monograph on his complete paintings.
In 1976 the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts was founded with the
goal of reinventing the art college and the education of
artists. Elisabeth Gordon Chandler established the school
with accomplished artists as faculty. They shared her vision
of advancing traditional techniques and skills based on
fundamentals of representational drawing, sculpture and
painting.
Today, as a BFA-granting institution, Lyme Academy College
of Fine Arts has become a preeminent destination for
emerging artists, and is exclusively devoted to teaching
representational fine arts.
Visit Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts on the Web at
www.lymeacademy.edu.
--30--
May 6, 2008
LYME
ACADEMY
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS STUDENT
WINS FIRST PLACE AT THE
CONNECTICUT WOMEN ARTISTS’
JURIED SHOW
Sherrie Parenteau, BFA Class of 2009, Wins Top Prize for the
Second Year
Untitled
,
oil on canvas, Sherrie Parenteau, artist
Old Lyme,
CT
─ Sherrie Parenteau, a Bachelor of Fine Arts
student entering her senior year at Lyme Academy College of
Fine Arts, has taken first prize in the 79th
Annual Open Juried Show sponsored by Connecticut Women
Artists, Inc. More than 200 women from around the country
submitted nearly 400 entries to the contest; 82 were
accepted by the jury.
Parenteau’s
prize-winning painting is an untitled 6’ by 4’ canvas that
is a contemporary commentary on and interpretation of John
Singer Sargent’s noted portrait, The Daughters of Edward
Darley Boit. Three of Parenteau’s nieces are pictured
with subtle references to societal influences on children,
particularly young girls.
Parenteau will receive her
award, which carries a cash prize of $400.00, at an opening
reception and ceremony at the John Slade Ely House, 51
Trumbull Street in New Haven on Sunday, May 4, 2008. The
show will run at the Ely House until May 25th.
This is the
second consecutive year that Parenteau has taken top honors
in this competition. In 2007, Parenteau won first place for
an oil painting titled Measuring Up, a reflection on the
pressures of idealism in female body politics.
Connecticut Women Artists has been providing a forum for
women’s art work since 1929, and has more than 200 active
members today. On an annual basis, they sponsor a juried
show which is open to women artists throughout the United
States. Original works in oil, watercolor, pastel, acrylic,
mixed media, collage, graphics, photography and sculpture
are eligible.
In 1976 the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts was founded with
the goal of reinventing the art college and the education of
artists. Elisabeth Gordon Chandler established the school
with accomplished artists as faculty. They shared her vision
of advancing traditional techniques and skills based on
fundamentals of representational drawing, sculpture and
painting.
Today, as a BFA-granting institution, Lyme Academy College
of Fine Arts has become a preeminent destination for
emerging artists, and is exclusively devoted to teaching
representational fine arts.
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is located at 84 Lyme
Street in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Visit the College on the Web at
www.lymeacademy.edu.
--30--
March
28, 2008
CLASS OF 2008 SENIOR
EXHIBITION TO OPEN
AT
LYME
ACADEMY
COLLEGE of fine arts
Private Opening for the Press Will Precede Public Reception
Lyme/Old Lyme K-12 School District Exhibition Opens March 28th
Old
Lyme, CT –
An
exhibition of the artwork of the Bachelor of Fine Arts’
graduating class of 2008 of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
will open at a reception on Friday, April 11, 2008 from 5:00 to
7:00 pm in the Chauncey Stillman Gallery at the College’s
Administrative Center. The exhibit, which is free and open to
the public Monday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, will
run from April 11 to May 17, 2008. Most artwork is available for
sale.
Members of the press are invited to attend a private opening of
this exhibition for media only at 4:00 pm on Friday, April 11,
2008, where they can interview members of the Class of 2008
about their artistic vision and challenges in executing their
first independent work for public exhibition.
In
the summer before their last year of Bachelor of Fine Arts
study, seniors begin their transition from student to
independent artist. They first write a description of their own
artistic idea. In their last year of undergraduate study,
seniors meet weekly with the Senior Project Team
─
faculty members representing a cross section of College
disciplines ─
and with their peers to receive feedback and critiques of
technical and conceptual issues about their body of work. This
ultimately results in the creation of art work reflecting the
interests, passions, skills, and knowledge by each senior. The
final step before public exhibition is an oral defense and
presentation by each senior of their art work.
The 2008 Senior Project Team is made up of the
Chairs of the departments of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.
They
are, respectively, Randy Melick, the Deane G. Keller Endowed
Chair of Classical Drawing and Figurative Art and Chair of the
Drawing Department; Nancy Gladwell, Full-time Associate
Professor of Painting and Drawing and Chair of the Painting
Department; and Don Gale, Full-Time Professor of Sculpture and
Chair of the Sculpture Department.
In
addition, the annual exhibit of student artwork in grades
Kindergarten through 12 will be exhibited at Lyme Academy
College of Fine Arts’ Sill House gallery from March 28 through
April 5, 2008.
In
1976 the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts was founded with the goal of
reinventing the art college and the education of artists.
Elisabeth Gordon Chandler established the school with
accomplished artists as faculty. They shared her vision of
advancing traditional techniques and skills based on
fundamentals of representational drawing, sculpture and
painting.
Today, as a BFA-granting institution, Lyme Academy College of
Fine Arts has become a preeminent destination for emerging
artists, and is exclusively devoted to teaching representational
fine arts.
Contact: Joanne
Donaghue
860-434-3571 x 125
Email:
jdonaghue@lymeacademy.edu
________________________________________________________
March
31, 2008
LYME
ACADEMY
COLLEGE of fine arts
ESTABLISHES NEW SCHOLARSHIP FUND WITH GIFT from prominent artist
Dale Meyers Cooper, President Emeritus of American Watercolor
Society, Makes Gift
Old Lyme, CT --
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts has received a
six-figure gift from Dale Meyers Cooper to establish the
Mario Cooper and Dale Meyers Cooper Scholarship Endowment Fund.
“We are honored to receive Mrs. Cooper’s generous
and far-sighted gift. It is so fitting to remember her late
husband, the noted illustrator and watercolorist Mario Cooper,
with a scholarship fund for the education of fine arts
students,” said President Debra Petke.
Dale Meyers Cooper is
President Emeritus of the American Watercolor Society, a member
of the
National Academy and a teacher at the Art
Students League. A published author, Mrs. Cooper has received
many awards and has exhibited widely.
Mario Cooper was an illustrator, watercolorist,
sculptor and author on books about watercolor techniques and
president of the American Watercolor Society. The College looks
forward to exhibiting the work of Mario and Dale Meyers Cooper
in the future.
In 1976 the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts was founded
with the goal of reinventing the art college and the education
of artists. Elisabeth Gordon Chandler established the school
with accomplished artists as faculty. They shared her vision of
advancing traditional techniques and skills based on
fundamentals of representational drawing, sculpture and
painting.
Today, as a BFA-granting institution, Lyme
Academy College of Fine Arts has become a preeminent destination
for emerging artists, and is exclusively devoted to teaching
representational fine arts.
_______________________________________________________
FULBRIGHT FELLOW BRAD
GUARINO,
Lyme
Academy
College of Fine Arts’
ALUMNUS,
to lecture AT
THE COLLEGE
on his
experience in
bulgaria
The Persistent Echo of Earlier Assumptions,
acrylic on canvas, by Brad Guarino
Old Lyme, CT ─ Brad
Guarino, the first graduate of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
to win a Fulbright Fellowship, will speak about his experience
pursuing post-graduate studies at the Bulgarian National Academy
of Art in Sofia last year. The lecture
will take place in the Lecture Hall of the College’s
Administrative Center, 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT on Friday,
March 7, 2008 at 6:00 pm.
Guarino
will speak about his path to the Fulbright, his experience in
Bulgaria, and the body of work he produced while there. Fee is
$10 and will be accepted at the door. Due to limited seating,
pre-registration is required by calling 860-434-3571, ext. 117
or by email at
adeselding@lymeacademy.edu.
Guarino and his wife traveled
throughout the small Balkan country and experienced a culture
far removed from their own. Bulgaria’s long history includes
five hundred years of Ottoman domination, centuries of disputes
with its Balkan neighbors, and forty-five years of Communist
rule.
Last year, Bulgaria joined the
European Union — a short seventeen years after Bulgaria’s change
from a Communist government. The dizzying changes occurring in
Bulgaria are creating conditions and behaviors that are at once
bizarre and poetic. Abandoned Communist-era building projects
stand unfinished alongside active modern construction sites;
cell phones and satellite dishes are often found in the same
households as horse carts and scythes; people who send email and
surf the Internet still insist on driving across town to pay
their bills in person. Many Bulgarians are still unclear of
their place in this new society.
In 1976 the Lyme Academy of
Fine Arts was founded with the goal of reinventing the art
college and the education of artists. Elisabeth Gordon Chandler
established the school with accomplished artists as faculty.
They shared her vision of advancing traditional techniques and
skills based on fundamentals of representational drawing,
sculpture and painting. Today, as a BFA-granting institution,
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts has become a preeminent
destination for emerging artists, and is exclusively devoted to
teaching representational fine arts.
______________________________________________________
Sculptor/Teacher at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts Wins
Nationwide Competition
Bronze statue to commemorate Cesar Chavez at
University of Texas at Austin
October 26, 2007
 Old Lyme, CT –
Pablo Eduardo, a member of the sculpture faculty of the
Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, was
selected in a national competition to create a bronze statue for The
University of Texas at Austin. The statute depicts the late César
Chávez, a civil rights and labor leader who became a
nationally-recognized champion of civil rights. The statue was
dedicated on October 9, 2007 at the West Mall of The University of
Texas at Austin campus, a gateway to the university and gathering
space for students and others.
Some
of Pablo Eduardo’s most prominent works are installed in
colleges, the Rhode Island State House, and the Republic of
Bolivia. At Boston College, Eduardo installed a 15 foot bronze
statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola in
2004. He also sculpted two portrait busts in 2002 for the State
of Rhode Island, and a life-size bronze and stone angel from
John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. In the Republic of
Bolivia, Eduardo has made statues for the National Congress,
House of Representatives, and Ministry of Foreign Service, in
bronze, stone and silver.
Eduardo was educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art in
Baltimore, the Studio Arts Center International in Florence
Italy, and Tufts University, where he received a Bachelor of
Fine Arts in 1994. He has also attended the School of the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston, Tomcyn
Atelier in Evergreen, Colorado,
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the
Rhode Island School of Design.
Eduardo has a strong spiritual connection to César Chávez and an
incredibly diverse educational background that lends to his
style and technique. Eduardo recalls that Cesar Chavez was a
prominent hero in his home when he was growing up. Eduardo
creates his art work in a way that portrays people from within,
and for him, sculpture conveys a force and poetry that echoes a
sense of permanence.
Photos of the artist and the winning sculpture can be seen on
the Internet at
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/cesarchavez/selectedArtist.php
The
idea to erect a statue in tribute to a
Latino or Latino at the University of Texas at Austin (UT
Austin) campus was one that students had for some time. With
this purpose in mind, a group of Latino and
Latina
students formed a group called “We are Texas Too” in the Fall
semester of 2000. “We are Texas Too,” in conjunction with the
Latino Leadership Council, conducted a student referendum in the
fall of 2002 semester and selected César Chávez as the leader to
be honored with a bronze statue at the university.
Chávez,
who died in
1993, was a
Mexican American farm worker,
labor leader, and
civil rights
activist who co-founded the
National Farm Workers Association, the
United Farm Workers. He is viewed by many as one of the
greatest American
civil rights leaders
During the Spring 2003 semester, “We
are Texas Too” worked with the UT Austin Student Government and
one of the oldest student organizations on the campus, the
Orange Jackets, to have two statues erected. The Orange Jackets
saw the need to honor a female with a statue at UT Austin, and
selected former Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan as their
honoree. Because of the hard work of these three groups and the
support of the student body, a referendum was passed to collect
a fee increase of $2.00 per student to
fund both statues. It was the vision and effort of students
that made the César Chávez and Barbara Jordan statues a reality.
In 1976
Lyme Academy
of Fine Arts was founded with the goal of reinventing the art
college and the education of artists. Elisabeth Gordon Chandler
established the school with accomplished artists as faculty.
They shared her vision to advance traditional techniques and
skills based on fundamentals of representational drawing,
sculpture and painting.
Today, as an
accredited, BFA-granting institution,
Lyme
Academy College of Fine Arts has become a preeminent destination
for emerging artists, and is exclusively devoted to teaching of
representational fine art.
Visit
www.lymeacademy.edu to visit more work of Pablo Eduardo
under faculty artists.
August 3, 2007
Lyme
Academy
College of Fine Arts Appoints New President
Debra Petke to Assume Leadership Role November 1, 2007
Old
Lyme, CT ─
The Board of Trustees of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts has
appointed Debra Petke President, the third in the 30-year
history of the Institution.
 Petke
is currently Executive Director of the Mark Twain House & Museum
in Hartford, Connecticut, and has been affiliated with that
museum for 14 years. She will assume her new leadership role at
the College on November 1, 2007. Formal investiture will take
place after the new year.
Alan
Proctor, Ph.D., Chairman of the
Board of Trustees of Lyme Academy College of Fine
Arts said “After a comprehensive national search, the
Board
of Trustees has unanimously selected Debra Petke to lead our
College. Debra brings energy, extensive management and external
affairs’ experience in the non-profit arena, and strong artistic
sensibility from her training and teaching in art history.
Debra’s vision, leadership depth, devotion to the arts and
personal strengths make her the right leader to guide the
College’s future as an emerging national institution.”
“I am
honored by the confidence placed in me by the Board of Trustees,
faculty, staff, alumni and students, and look forward with
enthusiasm to meeting more of the family of supporters of this
fine arts institution, a jewel in Connecticut’s cultural crown.
Together, we can envision a future where the College will
grow and assume a well-deserved and more prominent role on the
national scene” said Petke.
Debra
Petke joined the Mark Twain House & Museum in 1993 as Director
of Education and was promoted steadily through her career
there. Prior to the Mark Twain House, Debra was Curator of
Education at the Wadsworth Atheneum for three years, and before
that was an Instructor in Art History at Hartford College for
Women. She also was an Adjunct Professor of Art History at
Central Connecticut State University and at the University of
Hartford. Debra has a B.A. in art history from Providence
College and an M.A. with honors in art history from UMass
Amherst, with a concentration in American art and architecture.
She has been a frequent lecturer, writer, and exhibit curator on
a variety of art history topics, and has been a Visiting Scholar
at the New Britain Museum of American Art and a Visiting
Lecturer at
Lyman
Allyn
Art Museum in New London.
Frederick S. Osborne, current President of Lyme Academy College,
announced his retirement in 2006 and will step down at the end
of October 2007. He reflected
“The
greatest privilege of my five years at Lyme Academy College of
Fine Arts has been working with so many exceptional people to
transform our original academy into a college of fine arts with
a growing national presence. Together, we have created a
distinctive culture for fine arts education based on creativity,
inspiration and discipline. I have been privileged to lead this
great institution, and am delighted that Debra Petke will be my
successor. She is an outstanding choice to lead
Lyme
Academy College into the future.
Alan
Proctor said “All of us in our College community join in
thanking Fred Osborne for his service. During his five years of
stewardship, he guided the College toward successful completion
of strategic goals, including growth in enrollment and
endowment; oversaw the completion of the new Administrative
Center; strengthened our administrative capacity; and now is
overseeing a smooth transition in leadership.”
In
1976 the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts was founded with the goal
of reinventing the art college and the education of artists.
Elisabeth Gordon Chandler established the school with
accomplished artists as faculty. They shared her vision to
advance traditional techniques and skills based on fundamentals
of representational drawing, sculpture and painting.
Today, as a BFA granting institution, Lyme Academy College has
become a pre-eminent destination for emerging artists, and is
exclusively devoted to representational teaching of the fine
arts. |
