Remaking the Mailboxes

The Mailboxes

Bennington’s open mailboxes, a fixture in Commons, are almost like iconic objects. A backdrop to countless living room talks, admissions tour stops, a venue for untold numbers of student art pieces—they feel more important than their utility and were treated that way when moved to the Barn, where Associate Vice President for Building & Grounds, Andy Schlatter had them installed along the west arm of the Barn. After a shift in the way that faculty mail is delivered (all faculty members now have their mail distributed by coordinators), there was a block of extra mailboxes. They are now a new exhibition space for rotating artworks. The first pieces were paper cut-out animations made by students in Sue Rees’ animation course. The piece was based loosely on Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Students used the sequence of the boxes to create pieces and to think in frames of animation.