Old Lyme Creates Arts and Culture Liaison

OLD LYME, CT – Old Lyme’s reputation as an arts destination is getting a new advocate at Town Hall, where selectmen have unanimously approved a volunteer Arts and Culture Liaison position. 

The liaison, who will be appointed by selectmen for a three-year term, will serve as the primary municipal contact for local artists, cultural organizations and the Old Lyme Arts District. 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker introduced the draft volunteer job description at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting. 

“We have to agree that the arts community brings to this town a great number of tourists, as well as revenue for our businesses,” she said. “So we need to support them in every way.” 

The job includes coordinating and supporting arts programming, representing the town’s cultural interests in planning and partnership efforts and advising municipal leaders on arts and cultural matters.

The liaison also will periodically report to the Board of Selectmen and other town boards and commissions, including the Economic Development Commission.

Shoemaker said the role would help the town better understand the activities of local arts organizations and strengthen communication between the town and the arts community.

Cheryl Poirier, an executive committee member of the Old Lyme Arts District, described the arts as central to Old Lyme’s identity. 

Poirier helped establish the Arts District, an informal partnership of cultural organizations along Lyme Street, while working at the Florence Griswold Museum. The partnership produces the Midsummer Festival and Make Music Old Lyme events, which draw crowds to Lyme Street each year.

She said the area’s distinctive landscape, from woodlands and marshlands to rivers and the shoreline of Long Island Sound, has long attracted artists. The tradition helped give rise to such institutions as the Florence Griswold Museum, the Lyme Art Association and the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

“Artists have come here since at least the early 20th century to capture the landscape with en plein air painting, and still do,” she said. 

Poirier, who also sits on the Old Lyme Economic Development Commission, said visitors to the arts organizations also stop in local shops and restaurants. The connection between the landscape, the arts and local businesses distinguishes Old Lyme from other shoreline towns, according to Poirier.

A Sustaining Partnership

Shoemaker also said the liaison position would help the town qualify for recognition by Sustainable CT, a statewide initiative that recognizes municipalities for taking steps to be more resilient, inclusive and connected. 

The town last earned a Silver certification, the program’s second-highest designation, in 2021. Poirier, the former chair of the Sustainable Old Lyme team, said the town plans to reapply for certification this summer. 

There are currently 41 communities in the state with Bronze certifications, 18 with Silver and 14 with Gold, according to the organization’s website. 

The certification process typically covers about a dozen action areas communities can choose to address. 

“We see everything – from the Zoning rewrite’s inclusive process, to sustainable forest management planning, to improved collaboration with the arts organizations – as helping us meet the requirements for Silver certification in the coming year,” Poirier said.

Applications for the new position are available online.