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10/06/2021 08:30 AMIt was serendipity. Joshua Janson saw the story in the back of a magazine, a real estate feature called Steal of the Week; it was a house in Middletown. It turned out not to be the steal for him, but that house led, as is often the case, to a different house in a different town and, along with it, a new volunteer position for someone who admits to a talent for organizing fundraisers.
Joshua, whose house search landed him as a part-time resident in Essex, is now co-chair of the upcoming benefit on Saturday, Oct. 16 at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme. The fundraiser will feature works from more than 20 artists that board chairman Michael Duffy describes as painters of international reputation. Among the artists represented are portraitist Ann Gale and Paul Fenniak, whose paintings have been praised for psychological realism. The paintings will be on public exhibition from Sunday, Oct. 17 to Friday, Dec. 10.
The paintings are priced from $350 to $46,000, with 40 percent of all sales going to support the academy.
The academy has reorganized itself after a five-year association with the University of New Haven ended during the 2018-’19 academic year. Duffy explained that the new philosophy of the school will not be to grant four-year degrees but rather to equip students with the skills they need to make a living in the art world. The name of the upcoming show, Memento Vivere, Latin for remember to live, itself celebrates the rebirth of the academy.
The academic year will be divided into trimesters, and Duffy expects it will take a student at least two years—six trimesters—of study to gain the needed skills. The first class, 11 students in all, has just started. According to Duffy, they come from all over the United States, and one from France. The school envisions not more than 20 students per class.
Joshua is a veteran at organizing benefits.
“I have a fabulous network for friends,” he explains, “and I am fearless about asking them for money.”
In Boston, he has organized a series of benefits for the Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit, most recently at a new social club The ‘Quin, site of the former Algonquin Club.
“It was sold out in two weeks,” he says.
Joshua and his husband Ben McGuire, a lawyer, now divide their time between Boston and Essex. During most of the pandemic they stayed in Essex, where they had just moved.
They have been together for 20 years and married for 16. David Cicillene, the first openly gay mayor of Providence who is now a U.S. representative, was best man at their wedding. Joshua has campaigned and raised funds for Cicillene both in his mayoral campaign and subsequent successful runs for Congress.
Joshua and Ben met in Providence, when Ben was a student at Brown. Joshua, who was born in Acushnet, Massachusetts, attended but did not graduate from Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. He jokes that he spent so much time at Brown that when it came time for graduation, students couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t wearing a cap and gown.
“I’m not a college graduate but my husband is, so I can see both sides of the coin,” Joshua says.
He adds that their different styles complement each other.
“I am not tall, calm, and staid,” he explains. “I am not going to blend in; I’m doing it my way.”
Still, he says he has moderated over time. Some years ago, he says, he came back from a trip to Spain with a blond mohawk.
He admits that frenetic is an adjective that can sometimes describe him, but he tries to take an hour or two every evening without his cell phone. He unplugs it. Otherwise, he is active social media user with some 3,800 followers on Instagram.
After devoting his energies to volunteer work, for the last five years Joshua has had his own interior decorating business. He got started when a friend who had hired architects and designers nonetheless needed help with a project that had gone awry.
Joshua says he doesn’t think that a lack of a formal interior design degree makes any difference in his professional life.
“I have lots of friends who are in the interior design business who don’t have degrees. It takes all kinds,” he says. “If you have chutzpah, you don’t need a degree.”
At the moment, Joshua says he is “as busy as he can be” with projects in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Joshua admits he doesn’t necessarily hold his tongue when working with clients.
“I’m not shy about hiding an opinion, even if it is not what the client wants to hear. Not everyone has the same taste,” he says. “Of course, if people are dead wrong, they don’t like to hear it.”
He encourages clients to start an idea board as way of expressing their own taste.
He is looking forward to the upcoming Memento Vivere cocktail benefit. All attendees, he adds, need to be vaccinated though masks are optional. Joshua adds that special attention will be paid to ventilation and CDC guidelines will be followed.
“I’m excited about this,” he says. “This is the first fundraiser in a long time. People need to get out. It is an opportunity to see people and have a grand old time.”
Memento Vivere: A Cocktail Fundraiser to benefit the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 4 to 6 p.m. at 84 Lyme Street, Old Lyme. Tickets can be purchased online at lymeacademy.edu.
The exhibition open to the public from Sunday, Oct. 17 to Friday, Dec. 10, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.