About

The Lyons Arts Lab was established in Fall 2023 thanks to a $5-million endowed gift from Colby Trustee John Lyons ’85, P’22 and Susannah Gray P’22, who currently serves on the Board of Governors at the Colby College Museum of Art.  The Lyons Arts Lab joins the Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation, the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment, and the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship as the fourth major lab that the College has created in the last six years. Colby labs bring together multidisciplinary approaches and partnerships to offer students and faculty hands-on opportunities to identify and test solutions to the world’s most important challenges.

“At a time when Colby is opening three new art centers and our arts programs are evolving in exciting ways, the establishment of the Lyons Arts Lab opens the door for thrilling new possibilities,” said President David A. Greene. “Providing students with the resources to create original films, plays, compositions, and more will fuel the creative spirit of this community and prepare students for careers as artists and arts leaders. John Lyons knows this well. The films he made as a student at Colby led to a lifetime of filmmaking and award-winning visual storytelling. John and Susannah have been innovators throughout their careers, and their generous and visionary gift will ensure generations of Colby students will follow that path.”

John Lyons says, “This gift is meant to help students have their dreams take shape in the real world and transform their ideas into something that they produce, see, touch, and that other people can experience. It will provide a sort of scaffolding and infrastructure for creative growth and realizing creative ideas—whether it’s having a professional reading of a play, going down to New York to have a hands-on experience with a working artist, or mashing music, dance, science, and math all together for a one-of-a-kind performance piece.” Lyons added that he also hopes the lab will help students be braver and bolder and act on ideas that they wouldn’t have otherwise if the lab didn’t exist.

“The arts are such a critical part of a liberal arts education for so many reasons, not the least of which is that they offer a unique way and language for looking at and analyzing the world,” Susannah Gray asserts. “Regardless of one’s major or career path, you can learn so much by understanding how to interpret the world through the different mediums of the arts.” She also noted that as a society we need to regain the courage to support the arts. “My hope is that the amazing work that will be produced by the new lab will inspire others to step up and really support and appreciate those who are active creators.”