Lyme Academy College is hosting a reception and awards ceremony for the 32nd Annual National Competition for Figurative Sculpture. Fifteen competitors were selected from an applicant pool of the most talented emerging figurative sculptors throughout the United States. Two current students of the College, both juniors, Lucian Goff of Essex, Ct. and Alexander Rane of New Haven, Ct., plus two alumni, Emily Bedard of Milton, Vt., BFA, Class of 2009 and Damian Masanz of Riverside,Ct., BFA, Class of 2007, all sculpture majors, were chosen as finalists. Jurors for the competition are nationally- and internationally-known sculptors and were invited to serve by the National Sculpture Society (NSS.) They possess extensive knowledge and understanding of figure sculpture. Individuals directly connected with any of the host institutions are ineligible to serve as jurors. The 2011 Figure Modeling Competition will be judged by three distinguished sculptors, all of whom are Fellows of the NSS: Lee Hutt, Michel Langlais and Anthony Antonios. The National Competition for Figurative Sculpture was established in 1978 by Barry Johnston in memory of his father, James Wilbur Johnston, to reassert the importance and value of figure study in contemporary sculpture. It is now co-sponsored by Brookgreen Gardens, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, National Sculpture Society and New York Academy of Art.