Author Archives: Elizabeth Regan

Witness Stones of Old Lyme, FloGris Museum Celebrate Juneteenth with Jazz & Poetry, June 22

Posted on by

Witness Stones Poets (left to right) Antoinette Brim-Bell, Rhonda Ward, Marilyn Nelson and Kate Rushin will read tributes in verse to enslaved people remembered on Witness Stones plaques. Photo courtesy of Witness Stones Old Lyme.

Free Admission to ‘Their Kindred Earth’ Photography Exhibit on African-American History to Follow

OLD LYME–Witness Stones of Old Lyme will celebrate Juneteenth with jazz music and poetry at the Florence Griswold Museum from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 22. 

The museum will offer free admission from 3 to 5 p.m. to view the closing day of Their Kindred Earth: Photographs by William Earle Williams, an exhibition that seeks to deepen understanding of sites of enslavement in Old Lyme and beyond. 

The museum will be closed on the federal holiday, which falls each June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. 

Sunday’s event on the museum’s north lawn will feature music by the Avery Sharpe Quartet and readings by Witness Stones Poets Marilyn Nelson, Kate Rushin, Rhonda Ward, and Antoinette Brim-Bell, according to the event listing on the museum’s website. The poets will present tributes in verse to those remembered with Witness Stones plaques. 

Witness Stones Old Lyme for five years has been marking local sites of enslavement with brass plaques. The group during that time brought in the four poets and several successive classes of middle school students from Lyme and Old Lyme to help tell the stories behind the plaques.

Three of the markers are located on the Florence Griswold Museum’s front lawn to honor those who labored in a house that once stood where the Griswold House is now located, according to the museum. 

William Earle Williams, the museum’s artist in residence, will be on hand to sign copies of the newly released exhibition catalogue, Their Kindred Earth. Copies will be on sale at the event and in the museum shop. 

Seating for the music performance and poetry readings will be provided under a tent and additional lawn chairs are welcome and encouraged.

The museum is located on 96 Lyme St. In the event of rain, the celebration will be held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 2 Ferry Road.

Salt Marsh Opera Brings Back ‘Music at the Lighthouse’ in Stonington Tonight, 6pm

Posted on by
Audience members at a previous Music at the Lighthouse performance enjoy operatic sounds from the Long Island Sound. Photo courtesy of Salt Marsh Opera.

STONINGTON–Salt Marsh Opera invites you to an evening of beloved opera arias and timeless Broadway melodies with the return of Music at the Lighthouse. 

The performance will be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 at the Old Lighthouse Museum in Stonington Borough, 7 Water St. The lawn opens at 5 p.m. 

The Salt Marsh Opera will welcome mezzo-soprano Sarah Nordin and and bass-baritone Tyler Putnam. 

This is an open-air concert by the sea on the lawn of the lighthouse museum. Families are welcome to bring their blankets and lawn chairs. 

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the concert. Tickets will be available at the Salt Marsh Opera box office at (860) 535-0753 or at Tom’s Newstand in the borough.

Phoebe’s BookCellar in Old Lyme Hosts Half Price Sale, Wednesday

Posted on by
The BookCellar at the Phoebe. File photo.

OLD LYME–There’s a sale going on in the BookCellar at the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library this Saturday. 

All items will be sold at half price from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on June 21. Can’t make it? The sale continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25. 

Every dollar earned at the BookCellar directly supports the library.

The BookCellar, on the library’s lower level, is managed by the volunteer Friends of the Library. The inventory includes thousands of fiction and nonfiction books as well as DVDs, CDs and audiobooks. 

The BookCellar accepts gently used books, but respectfully requests no damaged, mildewed, moldy or musty books. 

TOP STORY: Lyme Academy Gains National College Accreditation

Posted on by
Reply
Artistic Director and Director of Painting, Jordan Sokol and Painting -Drawing Instructor, Hollis Dunlap working in the Southwick-Keller Studio at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. File photo courtesy of Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

OLD LYME–Students at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts can once again earn college credit for their coursework. 

The Academy last week announced it has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the only accrediting agency for higher education programs in art and design that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Academy Artistic Director Jordan Sokol in an email said the development marks a significant milestone for the school. 

“It validates the strength of our curriculum, faculty, and facilities, and further establishes the Academy as the premier destination for figurative art education in the United States,” he said. 

The Academy was first accredited when it became a college in 1996. It lost its accreditation after the University of New Haven, which took over the program in 2014, withdrew five years later. 

The Academy opened its doors again in 2021, promoting comparisons to its early years when sculptor Elisabeth Gordon Chandler in 1976 founded the academy to teach the fundamentals of drawing, painting and sculpture rather than to grant academic degrees. 

Now, Sokol said accreditation affirms “the integrity and excellence of the Academy’s program on a national level.”

Credits are transferable to more than 300 NASAD-accredited institutions for students pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies elsewhere.

Renovation Project Spurs Summer-Long Closures at Several Old Lyme Schools

Posted on by
Reply
While the Lyme-Old Lyme school district’s elementary and middle school properties will be closed this summer, the playground, tennis courts and playing field at Lyme Consolidated School will remain available. File photo.

LYME-OLD LYME—Region 18 Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser today announced the renovation project affecting four of the district’s five schools will result in widespread closures for two months this summer. 

In a letter to parents, Neviaser said Center School, Mile Creek School and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School will be closed and inaccessible from June 23 to August 22, 2025, including the playgrounds and fields. Staff from those schools will be moved to the high school. 

At Lyme Consolidated School, the playground, tennis courts, and playing field will remain open. Staff will be relocated within the building. 

Neviaser in a Tuesday email said the decision was made to ensure the district remains on schedule to finish heating and ventilation projects by Dec. 25. 

He said officials anticipated some sort of closure during the summer, but decided within the last two months exactly how it would be structured. 

He said alternatives, including remaining in the buildings while working around construction, were considered but were “far more costly, complicated, and time consuming.”

Administrators, office staff, and custodial and maintenance employees will continue working this summer, according to Neviaser. They will be available at the high school and all phone numbers and emails will remain the same.

“Although this is highly inconvenient, it is essential to keep the PK-8 projects on schedule and ensure a safe and enhanced learning environment for the upcoming school year,” Neviaser told parents. 

Parks and Recreation Department Director Don Bugbee said the town’s day camp program will operate out of the high school as it has for the past several years.

The program’s 280 campers will continue to use the gym and fields, according to Bugbee. He said the auditorium might not be available to them.

“It’s going to be crowded in the building with everything being there,” he said.

He said basketball and volleyball camps typically held in the middle school gym were put on pause this summer.

The renovation project involves HVAC and security upgrades in the four buildings, plus the addition of new classrooms at Mile Creek School. Voters in late 2022 authorized spending up to $57.5 million on the project, though the district will save about $17 million due to grant funding and lower than expected interest rates.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated with information from Bugbee.