The mission of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is to teach the foundational skills of drawing, painting, and sculpture in the figurative tradition. By its commitment to training students in these skills and an engagement with contemporary discourse, the Academy will empower a new generation of artists. Through its programs, the Academy is committed to enriching the cultural life of the community.
We are an Academy of professional artists that encourages individuality and innovation through skills-based training.
With a faculty of internationally-recognized artists and scholars, we offer a comprehensive, multi-year program of disciplined study, integrating rigorous studio instruction in drawing and painting with anatomy, sculpture, and twenty-first century approaches to the histories of art. Our geography, located along the Connecticut River and in the heart of the celebrated Lyme Art Colony, and between the metropolitan centers of Boston and New York, is imbued with history, and remains an active site of progressive artists’ congregation and camaraderie. Students at our Academy participate in this community, continuing an unbroken tradition of art education and practice while finding their own creative voice. From this unique vantage point and through their evolution, our legacy and future unites.
Welcome to the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.
The Lyme Academy’s greatest resource is its cadre of leaders, volunteers, and instructors. These committed individuals provide the organization with the highest level of governance, expertise, and creativity.
Mr. Duffy is the President of GO, which provides tutors to students in public schools throughout the Northeast; he is an adjunct professor at NYU on leadership and public sector & non-profit management.
Ms. Hansen was an English teacher, Department Head, and Division Head at Kingswood Oxford, Greenwich Academy, and Collegiate School; she is currently a search consultant at DRG Talent Advisory specializing in recruiting and coaching senior administrators for independent and charter schools.
Ms. Miller is a consultant on intellectual property and branding for Fortune 500 companies and was a small business owner on the Shoreline.
Judge Knierim is a trust and estates lawyer at Daly Perri Arnold & Knierim, a former state representative, a retired probate court judge and the former head of the probate court system for the state of Connecticut.
Mr. Allik is a painter and teacher who leads the Art Department at the Lyme/Old Lyme High School and trained at Wesleyan University and the New York Academy of Art.
Mr. Bachman is the retired COO of an international law firm based in Boston, former Army COL, and past adjunct professor in the business school of Boston University.
Ms. Barbieri is a representational painter who creates large scale, contemporary, naturalist art, and paints out of her studios in both Essex Connecticut, as well as Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Lincoln Chan is a native of Hong Kong where he studied and received a degree in design from that city’s highly selective Polytechnic University. While living in Essex and commuting to NYC for his design practice, he also takes on restoration project of historic homes for his private clients along the Eastern Shoreline.
Ms. Eder is a still life and plein air painter who trained at the New York Academy of Art and has been an instructor at Yale, the Lyme Art Association and Lyme Academy.
Mr. Grimaldi is a visual artist whose work primarily focuses on monochrome paintings and drawings. He has exhibited extensively throughout the US and abroad and has taught drawing, painting and anatomy for over twenty years at various institutions including the School of Visual Arts, National Academy, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Art Students League of New York. Currently, Grimaldi is the Director of the Departments of Drawing and Anatomy at the New York Academy of Art.
Joshua Janson is an interior designer whose work can be found in homes throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. He is active in many philanthropic causes including the Boston Ballet, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and The Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit.
Mr. Kelsey is the co-founder and managing principal of a real estate investment company, Hamilton Point Investments, and the Chair of the Finance Committee for the Town of Old Lyme.
Mr. Rosenshine is retired from marketing communications, having been CEO of BBDO Worldwide and a founder and first CEO of Omnicom Group, now serving on five philanthropic boards in CT and NYC.
Ms. Skelsey is an architect who trained at Tulane University.
Ms. Wilson is a registered architect and a former dancer with American Ballet Theatre. She is currently pursuing the study of classical figurative drawing and sculpture.
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker joined the Lyme Academy Board of Trustees in December 2023.
Jordan Sokol, Artistic Director
jordan@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232
Amaya Gurpide, Co-Artistic Director
amaya@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232
Wendy Bury, Managing Director
wendy@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232, ext. 203
Chad Fisher, Sculpture Director
chad@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232
Rick Lacey, Youth Program Director
rick@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232
Edmond Rochat, Continuing Education Director
edmond@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232
Cameron Paynter, Store Manager de Gerenday’s Fine Art Materials and Curiosities
cameron@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232, ext 208
Caitlin Perkins, Director of Academic Affairs
caitlin@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232, ext 202
Emerson Crowley, Director of Student Engagement
emerson@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232, ext 211
Dave Dombroski, Facilities & Security Manager
dave@lymeacademy.edu
860.434.5232, ext 207
Bradley Mettin, Custodian
brad@lymeacademy.edu
Lyme Academy is a nonprofit, 501(c) (3) organization.
Lyme Academy of Fine Arts has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) since May 19, 2025.
