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Throughout the Ages, since the first artist ground his
colors and painted on ceilings and walls of the caves in
Spain
and
France
some 30,000 years ago, art has always had deep meaning and
has continued to represent the best of its era. To achieve
this continuum, students learned from the artists who went
before them. In ancient
Egypt
stones have been found with student’s first efforts at
drawing, painting and carving, work that would prepare them
for the tombs and temples along the
Nile.
The Greeks further perfected their art based on nature and
the human figure. Medieval monks spent long hours copying
manuscripts, adding small and exquisite miniature paintings
to the parchment pages, all done with a sense of reverence
and love. It was during the Middle Ages that the
rediscovery of the art of Ancient Greece and
Rome
sparked a great movement that became the Italian
Renaissance, spreading across all of Europe and eventually
reaching the shores of the
New
World
in the late seventeenth century.
During
these many hundreds of years young artists learned from
their predecessors, whether in the ateliers of their
masters or at the academies of Europe and this country. Each
age and each new movement in art followed its own morés but
still represented the best of its time. Each age, that is,
until the last half of the twentieth century when even the
sacred halls of the National Academy of Design in New York
City and the art departments of academia all over America
broke up their casts of the Antique (from which generations
of art students had learned to draw) or else left them to
the dust and dampness of the cellar. Art schools relegated
the study of anatomy to the medical profession and frowned
on anything having to do with the human figure; plus,
students were discouraged from drawing from life. To
create, students were taught, one must be free of all past
knowledge; one must become as a child again; learning from
the past was to stifle creativity. Students were told to
express themselves without being given the knowledge
necessary to produce good art when they did.
Unsurprisingly, then, an entire generation of artists
without technical knowledge became the “masters” of the
second half of this century; they were touted by the critics
and dependent upon the “Painted Word” in their critic’s
reviews to get their work into museums and private
collections. Anything that was different or had a
supposedly “hidden meaning” was suddenly called “art.” This
mistaken nomenclature has even been applied to temporary
acts or actions: the wrapping of an island in plastic, lying
down on the street with loaves of bread by each outstretched
arm, and shooting a dog tied to a stake, to mention only a
few. In this manner art, as such, reached the lowest and
most decadent level in the history of the human race. The
law of “anything goes” became the norm, and the critic’s
word ruled the art scene.
It was
into this void—and to overcome this deficiency—that The Lyme
Academy of Fine Arts was founded, in 1976, in the small town
of Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Since
the late 1800’s, the area around the towns of Lyme and Old
Lyme had been known for the landscape painters who settled
there around the turn of the century. First named the
“Barbizon School” after the part of France where they had
studied and painted, the group turned into a major art
colony now known as the Early Lyme Impressionists. Artists
such as Childe Hassam, Frank Vincent DuMond, Carlton Wiggins
and his son Guy, Henry Ward Ranger, Bruce Crane, Gregory
Smith, William Chadwick, Ivan Olinsky and others first
stayed in the boarding house of Miss Florence Griswold, now
the Florence Griswold Museum on Lyme Street. Eventually the
artists bought homes and built studios in the area, spending
their summers painting and developing a camaraderie that
helped them all perfect their art. In 1902 they formed the
Lyme Art Association. Twenty years later they built a large
art gallery on land donated by their, former boarding-house
keeper whom
they affectionately called Miss Florence. Architect Charles
Platt provided designs for the new gallery building as a
gift to his neighboring artists.
What
more natural place to start a school that returned to the
basic fundamentals of art in its teaching, those same
fundamentals that had provided the training for all the
great artist from time immemorial? It was in the unfinished
basement of the Lyme Art Association’s gallery building that
the newly formed Lyme Academy constructed a sky-lit
classroom, a library, a commons room and office space. The
Academy leased two of the upper galleries for use as
classrooms during winter months when the gallery was closed.
In these three classrooms
the new school offered its first sequential program for the
serious study of art in drawing, painting, sculpture,
anatomy and art history.
In its
debut year, eighteen students studied under a faculty of
seven older artists who boasted among them four National
Academicians and a Master of Fine Arts, all from the “old
school” who had learned from the study of nature in the
time-honored way. Included were Robert Brackman, newly
retired from teaching at the Art Students League, and Tosca
Olinsky, daughter-pupil of her father, Ivan Olinsky, one of
the Early Lyme Impressionists. Harold Goodwin, a graduate of
Tyler, became president of the new Academy and an instructor
in life drawing and art history.
The
enrollment quickly doubled, showing promise of future
success. By the third year, however, the Lyme Art
Association, (the school’s landlord) decided not to renew
the lease on the two upper galleries. With only the original
sky-lit studio-classroom remaining the new Academy would not
be able to offer its full program. A patron agreed to
purchase a nearby garage building and remodel it to the Lyme
Academy’s classroom specifications, adding also a
fully-equipped graphics room as that was the patron’s major
interest. In autumn of 1981 the school opened its new
quarters with an enrollment of 180. In those early days of
the Lyme Academy the administration consisted of retired
executives assisted by one, paid employee and the faculty.
Soon, with full-time enrollment increasing each year, a
strong curriculum, active community support and a promising
future, the Board moved forward to strengthen the
administration by engaging a full-time, paid director.
Students were applying from many states across the country,
and the 1981-82 school year drew to a very successful close,
with students, faculty and the Board enthusiastic about its
future.
Then
the patron raised the $200 monthly rent to $2,000 a month in
the very same week that a 100-year record flood hit
Connecticut, causing five and a half feet of water to surge
through the entire lower floor of the Lyme Art Gallery
building, washing out the school’s small library, and
leaving havoc in the rest of the Academy’s original space.
With the school unable to remain in the remodeled garage and
the one remaining classroom plus the balance of the original
school now filled with mud and debris, the Executive
Committee seriously considered closing the
Lyme
Academy.
But both faulty and students offered to go out and raise
funds so their Academy could continue; that devotion, along
with the deep need for this exceptional and unique school,
convinced the Board to find some way to keep it going.
There was, after all, still a fourteen-year lease on the
original space in the gallery building.
It
became obvious, however, that the school could no longer
rely on leased space and should acquire a permanent home.
Dr. Wayne O. Southwick, an orthopedic surgeon known for his
tremendous drive and efforts on behalf of good causes,
agreed to take over the chairmanship. He knew the school,
having taken classes in sculpture there; he also knew how
the students felt about the Academy and what its methods of
teaching could mean to the future of art. He engaged Nancy
Hileman as Director, and she took over the running of the
school with enthusiasm. In this summer of hardship, there
was to be one more tragedy. Robert Brackman, who had taught
advanced figure and portrait painting from the very
beginning, died suddenly after a minor operation.
Fortunately the son of Dean Keller of Yale joined the
faculty; having good training from his father, young Deane
was able to step in and take Brackman’s place very ably.
In
order to keep most of the curriculum going for the 1982-1983
school year, two class-rooms were rented eight miles away in
the town’s Elementary school and a search for permanent
head-quarters for the school began. The John Sill House, an
1817 landmark building well-suited to the needs of the
Academy as an administration building, with ample space for
classrooms, a small gallery, and student library on its four
acres came on the market. Arrangements for its purchase
were promptly made, and an active “Landmark Campaign”
undertaken to raise funds to build north-light studio
classrooms. By the autumn of 1984 the school was able to
open with a full curriculum once more, with painting,
drawing and art history classes in the new studios and an
enlarged sculpture department now using the entire lower
floor of the art gallery. This brought the school closer
together once more, but the gallery building and the John
Sill House are divided by the
Interstate Highway
that bisects Old Lyme. The situation was not ideal but
workable.
A
series of excellent chairman and a supportive Board started
the school back on its upward course. Soon students from
nearly every state in the country were applying for
admission; this new influx of out-of-state students made it
obvious that student housing would be needed eventually. A
small ad in the local paper about 13.8 acres being sold by
the Town for back taxes caught the eye of a member of the
Board. The land was ideal for student housing and was
already zoned for multi-family use. In the ten short days
before the tax sale a scenario worthy of Hollywood unfolded:
The owner of the adjoining land with frontage on Lyme Street
was a patron and member of the Board; a telephone call
served to obtain agreement to a right of way for a driveway
to the land. A Quit-Claim deed to the 13.8 acres was
obtained and registered at the Town Hall and the back taxes
paid the day before the Tax Auction, effectively removing
the property from the sale. In those few days the Academy
acquired clear title to property worth many times the $3,400
it cost. Next, it became apparent that the school must
become a degree-granting institution to satisfy the needs of
the talented young men and women who were leaving other
schools in order to attend the Lyme Academy. No one
realized this more than the Director, Nancy Hileman, so in
1991 she stepped down, and another president and an academic
dean were engaged to move the school ahead with
accreditation. Henry Putsch and Sharon Hunter worked
diligently; by 1994 the
Lyme
Academy
was not only accredited by NASAD (National Association of
Schools of Art and Design) in the State of
Connecticut but also handed out its first three-year
Certificates. In the fall of 1995 a full, four-year program
leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree began being
offered.
Currently, during the Freshman year all students receive
basic, fundamental training in drawing, painting and
sculpture on which to build the four-year BFA program.
Anatomy is a lecture course, one that can be awe-inspiring
to a young student who, from birth, has taken the body for
granted. Introduction to composition and design is also
included in the Freshman year, and introductions to oil
painting and sculpture, (as well as color theory) complete
the studio classes.
The
first-year sculpture course starts students looking at
things in a new way, seeing them in depth (three
dimensionally) often for the first time. Even a landscape
painting begins to stand out to them as if viewed through a
stereoscope. Students learn to use their hands and tools to
create form, knowledge they will then translate into their
drawings and paintings. Often students intent on becoming
painters find themselves drawn to sculpture instead. A
survey of art history over two semesters gives students a
preview of the great world of art from early times to now, a
world into which he or she is about to enter, carrying on
fine traditions while moving ahead to the greater challenges
of the future.
As
important as it is for artists to be able to express
themselves in their chosen discipline, it is also important
for them to express their ideas clearly and literally in
writing, so English composition in the first semester and
Literature and Composition in the second help students learn
the necessary skills.
With
the start of the Sophomore year the student must decide on a
major. Although all sophomores take the same drawing,
anatomy, and general studies, the painting and sculpture
majors begin to follow different programs in their studio
classes. Plus, a full semester each of Elementary and
Business Math prepares the Sophomore for this additional but
necessary part of an artist’s education, and a course in the
Humanities provides the necessary studies and credits for a
BFA degree. Anatomy is again a requirement of all
Sophomores. They will attend lectures geared to more
advanced study of the subject, drawing and learning to see
live models in various positions.
Juniors continue their studio classes, developing
progressively more advanced work and exploring all media of
painting in portrait and figure as well as landscape and
still life. The sculpture majors, having had a year
studying the figure are now ready to enter the Creative
Sculpture Class, where they will be shown how to follow
through on works of their own creation. During this year,
too, Juniors will complete their required academic classes
by taking a semester each of General Psychology and an
Introduction to Sociology. Art criticism will help them
analyze and critique their own work, something every painter
or sculptor must do throughout his career if he is to become
a serious artist. The Business of Art, again, is important
for the young artist. He may have learned to paint the most
exquisite canvases or is able to create fine works of
sculpture but unless he learns how to market them, they
remain, unseen and unappreciated by the general public.
Most
of the required academic classes are held at the Avery Point
Campus of the University of Connecticut in nearby Groton.
With all necessary academic courses for the BFA degree now
behind them, the students are able to concentrate
exclusively on their art for their Senior year. At this
point, they are mature enough as artists to understand and
appreciate art more fully: They will undertake and
in-depth study of a specific period in the History of Art
throughout the entire year; an advanced class in anatomy
for seniors in which they actually build up the muscles on
a skeleton in various positions, learning the forms they
take and their points of insertion, is valuable to all
students but especially for sculptors; further, students
prepare their portfolios of work for the Senior Exhibition
in the spring semester.
Many
students come to the
Lyme
Academy with sufficient credits in General Academic studies
that can be transferred, in which case their curricula can
be tailored to provide more time in Studio, Anatomy, Art
History and Electives. The latter include such courses as
Chinese Brush Painting, Pastel Drawing, Drawing from Nature,
Life Size Figure Painting, and study of Italian (useful to
those who wish to travel in Italy to see the great work of
art there); other electives can change yearly. In all,
during a full four years at the Lyme Academy, the student
will earn 77 credits in Studio and related courses, 15
credits in Art History, 30 credits in General Studies and 6
in electives for a total of 128 credits in all.
And
the school itself? Ever planning for its future, two of
the painting studios have been doubled in size, and a new
and larger north-light classroom was added as Phase I of a
campaign that will bring the entire school together on one
campus by autumn, 1996 when the twenty-year lease on the
gallery building space runs out. Phase II is under
construction for new, larger sculpture studios, a
10,000-book Fine Arts Library and a Commons Room joining
the Painting and Sculpture Departments on opposite sides of
a Sculpture Garden. These will be ready to receive students
for the beginning of the 1996-1997 school year.
But
with all this expansion, the Lyme Academy must remain
small. Studio classes are limited to fifteen students,
enrollment to between 200 and 250, with up to 60 enrolled
full time in the BFA program. A Master of Fine Arts is on
the agenda for early in the next century. The caliber of
serious, talented and dedicated students who choose the Lyme
Academy for its strong program deserve no less. They will
become the painters and sculptors of the twenty-first
century; they will be the positive force in the art world of
tomorrow. It is they who will have the knowledge and the
training in the traditions of the past needed to celebrate
and to teach as we enter the hoped-for Renaissance in the
Fine Arts of the third millennium.
Ms.
Chandler is Founder and Chairman of the Sculpture Department
at LAFA.
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