The International Film and Photographic Workshops (WWF Sept. 06) and Rockport College are up for sale. Workshops founder and owner David Lyman announced the sale on the school’s website this past month.
Since its inception 33 years ago in the basement of Rockport’s Union Hall, the organization has grown to include more than 300 annual summer classes and attract award-winning film and photography faculty. Rockport College, a spin-off of the Workshops, is a year-round film program.
Lyman said it was time for him to step away from the school’s helm and focus on creative and personal pursuits. After years of telling students to follow their creative passions, the 66-year old former photojournalist said it was time to take his own medicine.
“There are books to write, television and DVD series to produce, a boat to sail around the world and a family to raise,” he said.
The Workshops and college may be sold as a package deal or split into parts, with the Workshops being the more coveted piece of the deal. The film program could be sold separately and relocated, which might spell an end to the ever-present film crews in the small town of Rockport. The Workshops and college are being offered for $4 million.
The asking price for the campus in Rockport, being sold separately from the institutions, is $4.7 million.
— Craig Idlebrook