Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts Summer 2016 Pre-College Academy Courses

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts of the University of New Haven announced a series of arts programming for both experienced and beginning students led by a stable of esteemed artists.

April 01, 2016

High school students with beginning-to-advanced-level art training are welcome to enroll in a series of courses to further explore and expand their technical skills and abilities. All pre-college courses and workshops aim to foster creativity, build artistic skill and mentor personal vision in young artists.

Lyme Pre-College Academy runs an intensive series of weeklong, daytime classes during summer months, as well as Saturday and evening classes and workshops that are flexibly scheduled to complement work and school schedules throughout the academic year. Lyme Pre-College Academy also offers free portfolio preparation workshops for high school seniors during the summer and in the fall semester.

Lyme Academy College is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016. The year will be marked with a series of classes, lectures, exhibitions and residencies that will feature Lyme alumni and faculty as well as other nationally and internationally recognized artists.

Classes offered for high school students include:

Drawing with Kimberly Monson, June 27-July 1, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost of the course is $300. Tuition includes all art materials and supplies. This foundation course focuses on observational drawing skills, teaching students how to accurately depict the subjects in front of them. Emphasis will be placed on tactics to measure, plot and interpret what they see. The class will be taught by Kimberly Monson, who holds a B.F.A. from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and M.F.A. from New York Academy of Figurative Art. She taught with Lyme Academy Founder Elisabeth Gordon Chandler 2001-2003 and is an instructor of sculpture and drawing at Lyme. She was responsible for launching the sculpture program at Amagansett Applied Arts in Long Island, N.Y., and created a teaching program through the Golden Eagle in East Hampton, N.Y.

Oil Painting with Michael Viera, July 11-15, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. The cost of the program is $300. Tuition includes all art materials and supplies. This foundation course focuses on direct and indirect oil painting methods. Emphasis will be placed on developing skills to paint the subject in terms of form, color, light, tone and texture. The instructor will demonstrate techniques in layering paint and use of mediums. This class will be taught by Michael Viera, who has a B.F.A. from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art. His paintings have been described as "reserved intensity, unique in style that incorporates haunting light and depth of texture with clean geometric compositions."

Illustration and Concept Art, July 18-22, from 9 a.m. - 3p.m. The cost of the session is $325. Tuition includes all art materials, supplies and software licensing fees. Now, more than ever, concept artists for television, films and video games are in high demand. Covering the concept art process from start to finish, this class will provide students with the skills to create original characters and settings of their own. Topics include silhouettes, thumbnail drawings, character design, composition, environment design, imaginary architecture, digital painting, basic archetypes and visual storytelling. Students will have painted two original characters and an environment by the end of the course. This class will be taught by Jon Sideriadis, who has been an active freelance illustrator, writer, and production designer for more than a decade. He was the co-writer and production designer of the science fiction short film Blue Lollipop and production designer of the feature film Space Pirates. Sideriadis also worked on monster make-up and costumes for feature length horror films, including Godzilla, Silent Hill and Underworld 2. He is writing and illustrating an original mythology series called Astromythos.

Animation with Roland Becerra, July 25-29, from 9 a.m. -3p.m. The cost of session is $325. Tuition includes all art supplies, materials and software licensing fees. Learn to animate using Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Photoshop. Instruction will emphasize artistic creativity, timing, motion and combing sound or music. This class will be taught by Roland Becerra, who has a B.F.A. from The School of the Art institute of Chicago and an M.F.A. from Yale Univeristy School of Art. He has been awarded the Ralph Mayer Prize, Yale School of Art; the Schickle-Collingwood Prize, Yale School of Art; and the Mable Wilson Woodrow Memorial Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fellowship Show Prize. Becerra’s short film Dear Beautiful won The Moving Pictures Magazine Short Film Contest – spring 2007 Cannes Edition.  Dear Beautiful was selected by the judges as the Animation Prize Winner.

Sculpture with Kimberly Monson, August 1-5, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost of the course is $300. Tuition includes all art materials and supplies. This foundation course will explore three-dimensional concepts, skills and process. Students will work in clay and construct an armature and sculptural form from direct observation. Emphasis will be placed on learning anatomical, structural and proportional strategies necessary for building the sculpture. The class will be taught by Kimberly Monson, who holds a B.F.A. from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from New York Academy of Figurative Art. She taught with Lyme Academy Founder Elisabeth Gordon Chandler 2001-2003 and is an instructor of sculpture and drawing at Lyme. She was responsible for launching the sculpture program at Amagansett Applied Arts in Long Island, N.Y., and created a teaching program through the Golden Eagle in East Hampton, N.Y.

Portfolio Preparation Workshop, August 8-12, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost of the course is $350. Tuition includes all art materials and supplies. This workshop is designed to prepare freshmen, sophomores and juniors in high school for their senior year of art making. This is a chance to receive in-depth feedback on what work they feel is ready for college applications and guidance on what to focus on in the future regarding methods and materials, portfolio organization and artistic collegiate goals. Classes will consist of a lecture, demonstration and art-making in different subject matter including Perspective Drawing, Figure Drawing and Figure Painting. Participants will also choose to focus on other open-ended projects, allowing the instructor to address unique occurrences in each student’s individual work and portfolio. The class will be taught by Adam Nowakowski, who holds a B.F.A. from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Nowakowski is the senior assistant director of admissions at Lyme.

For questions and more information about the courses and programs, including fees and supplies needed, go online at newhaven.edu/lyme.

About Lyme Academy of Fine Arts

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is a college of the University of New Haven. Its mission is to educate aspiring artists through a rigorous studio curriculum rooted in figurative and representational art. The college offers a comprehensive liberal arts education essential for advanced critical and creative thought. For more information, visit: newhaven.edu/lyme.

About the University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a private, top-tier comprehensive institution recognized as a national leader in experiential education. Founded in 1920, the university enrolls approximately 1,800 graduate students and more than 5,000 undergraduates. For more information, visit newhaven.edu.