Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts will be hosting an international art exhibition at its Chauncey Stillman Gallery this summer as part of its collaboration with the Illumination Arts Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the "transformative power" of art.

The foundation’s primary initiative, “Cities of Peace,” seeks to honor the culture and history of cities that have suffered through conflict and trauma. The exhibition will showcase works of art, specifically 10 gold and platinum paintings and a film honoring and representing these cities, which include Baghdad, Beijing, Hiroshima, Jerusalem, New York and Kabul. The exhibition will be on display in the gallery from June 22 through Sept. 8.

In the meantime, kicking off that collaboration and the academy’s spring 2018 lecture series (which features five lectures) will be Ellen Frank, founding and artistic director of the Illumination Arts Foundation. Her presentation, titled “Sparking Light from Darkness: Transforming Anguish into Beauty,” will follow a reception on Thursday at the academy. Frank, aside from receiving numerous awards in painting and design, which include a Fullbright Fellowship and a Pollock Krasner Award in Painting, has also studied art history and connoisseurship at Yale University and at the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes and holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in English literature and visual arts from Stanford University.

The evening begins at 5 p.m. Thursday with a reception in the gallery and will be followed by the lecture at 6 p.m. at the academy’s Chandler building lecture hall. The reception is $15 and open to the public. Seating is limited, and online reservations are required in advance. The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is located at 84 Lyme St., Old Lyme; (860) 434-5232, www.lymeacademy.edu.