Trustees Tap Current Admininistration Director as Interim Leader, Promise No Interruption to $17.8 Million Expansion Plan
OLD LYME–The Florence Griswold Museum today announced Executive Director Joshua Campbell Torrance will step down on Nov. 26 of this year to move to a new position in Cooperstown, NY.
Torrance, who led the museum since February 2023 and oversaw the planning stages for a $17.8 million renovation and expansion project announced last month, has accepted a leadership role at Fenimore Art Museum and Fenimore Farm and Country Village.
The Florence Griswold Museum in a Thursday press release said its Board of Trustees has named Peter Steere, the current director of administration, as interim director. Steere held the position since 2024, following his retirement as chief operating officer for Yale Health.
Steere brings 40 years of senior executive experience in strategic planning, human resources management, and major expansion projects.
Board Chairwoman Barbara Harms identified Steere as a seasoned project manager.
“Our staff is exceptional, and devoted to the museum and its future,” she said. “There will be no interruption to our expansion plans.”
Torrance will serve as senior vice president overseeing the two Fenimore museum sites before taking over as president and CEO with the retirement of Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio.
Harms lauded Torrance for his role in the Florence Griswold Museum’s planned expansion, which she said included multiple in-depth studies, revised vision and mission statements, and an institutional rebrand to honor the museum’s history while preparing for its future.
“Joshua’s tenure was a time of study, planning, and clear strategic direction,” Harms said. “We appreciate his guidance and inspiration, and we look forward to advancing the plans developed under his leadership as scheduled.”
Torrance described himself as privileged to have worked with the museum’s board, staff members and volunteers.
“I am grateful to them for allowing me to be a small part of their distinguished history and impressive future,” he said.
The museum said the move is a homecoming for Torrance, who received a master’s degree in history museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta, and whose first job after graduation was at the Fenimore Art Museum in 1998 as curatorial assistant under then-Vice President D’Ambrosio.
“I am confident that under Joshua’s leadership the future of Fenimore Art Museum and Fenimore Farm are in good hands,” D’Ambrosio said. “There is no one I trust more with the stewardship of two places that have meant so much and been such a large part of my life, for forty-two years.”
On Saturday, Nov. 8, Chad Fisher, who is the Charlotte Colby Danly Sculpture Chair at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, will speak on “Once Upon a Pedestal: Figural Sculpture–Then, Now, Next.” His talk is the Annual Samuel Thorne Memorial Lecture and open to all at no charge with prior registration. Photo courtesy of Florence Griswold Museum.
Speaker is Chad Fisher—the Charlotte Colby Danly Sculpture Chair at Lyme Academy—with “Once Upon a Pedestal: Figural Sculpture–Then, Now, Next”
OLD LYME—On Saturday, Nov. 8, at 5 p.m., the Florence Griswold Museum will host the Annual Samuel Thorne Memorial Lecture at the Meeting House, First Congregational Church of Old Lyme at 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme, CT.
This year the speaker will be Chad Fisher, who is the Charlotte Colby Danly Sculpture Chair at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. His talk is titled, “Once Upon a Pedestal: Figural Sculpture–Then, Now, Next.” Fisher will present an exploration of the rich history of the figural sculpture beginning with the Egyptians and highlighting the French academic traditions with artists such as Duret, Rodin, and Carpeaux.
During his presentation, Fisher will explore the role of American sculptors including Charles Grafly, John Rogers, Paul Manship, and Lyme’s own Bessie Potter Vonnoh. As both a sculptor and sculpture instructor, Fisher shares his holistic approach to both the creation and exhibition of sculpture and its potential impact in both private and public spaces.
Thorne Lecture is an endowed lecture series that allows the Museum to invite distinguished speakers and thinkers to share their work with the FloGris family. It is named in memory of Samuel Thorne, who served as the Museum’s President in the 1950s. Mr. Thorne’s widow and son established this signature program in 1995.
Braiden Sunshine takes a cheerful break from recording in the studio. Photo courtesy of Braiden Sunshine.
LYME, CT — Braiden Sunshine, who first captured national attention as a contestant on NBC’s The Voice in 2015, will perform at Lyme Public Hall on Sunday, Oct. 26.
The performance will run from 4 to 6 p.m. A $10 donation is requested to support the Public Hall’s community concert series featuring local musicians.
In publicity materials for the event, organizers describe Braiden Sunshine as a passionate and dynamic artist, known for his soulful voice and captivating performances, who continues to hone his craft through live shows across the Northeast and a growing catalog of original music.
Sunshine is set to release several new tracks this year.
Spend Saturday afternoon at the Lyme Art Association’s Pumpkin Day. Photo courtesy of Lyme Art Association.
OLD LYME–Lyme Art Association invites the community to spend Saturday afternoon celebrating the season at Pumpkin Day.
Festivities run from 1 to 4 p.m. at the gallery on 90 Lyme St.
This year’s Pumpkin Day will once again include animals from Guilford’s Tripledale Farm. Photo courtesy of Lyme Art Association.
Guests will have the opportunity to paint pumpkins, make seasonal art, get their faces painted and join a scavenger hunt around the gallery. Adding to the air of celebration, The Wandering Fiddlers will provide live music while farm animals from Guilford’s Tripledale Farm entertain visitors of all ages.
Each child who brings a nonperishable food donation to benefit Shoreline Soup Kitchen will receive a free pumpkin to paint. Additional pumpkins will be available for purchase, or participants may bring their own.
An entranceway currently prone to flooding and unfriendly to pedestrians will be reconfigured in the planned renovation to the Florence Griswold Museum with a focus on green space and a flatter, safer path to the open-air pavilion adjoining the new lobby and gift shop. All renderings provided by the Florence Griswold Museum.
OLD LYME–The Florence Griswold Museum is hoping construction can begin next year on a $17.8 million renovation and expansion project building on a priceless, 12-acre landscape that inspired an American art movement.
Museum Executive Director Joshua Campbell Torrance in a press briefing Wednesday said the museum is looking toward a capital campaign goal of $24.2 million to cover construction, fundraising costs and a $5 million increase to its $32 million endowment.
Renderings for the project, which is overseen by Massachusetts-based Oudens Ello Architecture and Stimson Studio landscape designers, show rooms that capitalize on open air designs and expansive windows to bring the outside in. An open air pavilion turns into an enclosed lobby and gift shop described by Torrance as an observation deck with views of the Lieutenant River, apple orchards and the remnants of Childe Hassam’s studio.
“The landscape is why we’re here,” he said.
The expansion includes 3,000 square feet of new and reconfigured gallery space. Torrance said designers brought the open air concept into the exhibition space with north-facing skylights to introduce natural light without damaging sensitive pieces in the museum’s collection.
Matt Strekel, the museum’s development director, said the silent phase of a capital campaign instituted in 2022 has brought in $10.8 million to date. The success of fundraising efforts going forward will determine if the project can be completed in one 17-month project or in two separate phases spread out over a longer period.
“We will continue to fundraise, certainly as we move forward through the planning process and as our plans come into sharper view,” Strekel said.
Torrance was hopeful shovels could be in the ground this coming spring for at least the first phase of the project.
The museum, with a $3.7 million annual budget and 22 full-time employees, sees about 36,500 guests per year and has 3,000 members.
The proposed lobby and gift shop is characterized by Executive Director Joshua Campbell Torrance as a welcoming space and an “observation deck.”
According to Torrance, the museum in the years leading up to 2020 had achieved “a strong record of excellence” through well-received exhibitions, preservation efforts and programs.
Then the world changed.
“Post-pandemic, we recognized the need to adapt and to grow,” he said. “Like many museums, Flo Gris needed to evolve and refine our offerings to remain relevant to today’s audiences, and also to grow revenues to fulfill our mission.”
Expenses, according to Torrance, are currently outpacing revenue. He said costs associated with curating the collections and preserving the Florence Griswold House, a national historic landmark that anchors the Lyme Street museum, continue to rise.
Strekel and Torrance recounted the past four years spent analyzing data from membership surveys, studies of the physical site and the broader economic factors, and a long-range master plan. The result is the blueprint for a renovated and expanded 17,385 square foot facility where views of the picturesque landscape are as valuable to the design as any piece of art in the new and reconfigured galleries.
A vision for the back of the museum includes a veranda in the renovated area and new flexible education space as well as a bathroom.
The project, which relies heavily on the renovation and reconfiguration of the existing 12,177 square foot Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery and Marshfield House, represents a net gain of 5,208 square feet. Torrance said the museum is proposing the relocation of the Huntley-Brown House off site to allow for a streamlined entryway. The 1795 house was initially moved to the property from Boston Post Road.
“We’ve really been careful to think through a project that didn’t substantially increase the size of what we have,” Torrance said. “We call it an expansion, but it’s really a renovation of the current building as well as a modest expansion.”
He said the plan builds on “the sense of place and community” created by a woman whose hospitality turned one house into a storied Impressionist art colony. It also remains heavily influenced by the site’s unique natural attributes.
“We are inspired by the story of the art colony she helped nurture and create, a story of coming together, of the sharing of the magic of this bend in the river, and the creative energy that is ignited by the movement of water, the play of light, the verdant landscape, and by human curiosity,” Torrance said.
Torrance detailed a redesigned entranceway and buildings they hope will draw new and repeat visitors, including those in a one-hour radius where more than 2.7 million residents are predicted to move by 2027.
He credited the demographic forecast to Elevated LLC, an economic and management consulting firm from Boston hired by the museum in 2023. The same group estimated the planned improvements could drive up attendance at least 26%.
“Their findings showed that our corner of Connecticut is an exceptionally competitive area for arts and cultural institutions, yet Flo Gris remains one of this region’s cultural front runner,” he said.
He said the museum will continue to refine the designs as they seek state and local permitting approvals beginning this fall amid continued fundraising efforts.
Museum Communications Director Tammi Flynn emphasized the importance of the visitor experience in the new vision for more exhibition space, new programs and a research center.
“This will really give people something to come back for, which is what we hope for them to do,” she said.
