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Academics
 Curriculum and Areas of Study
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New children’s book features illustrations by Bennington student
When Victoria Pringle ’07 embarked on her first Field Work Term, she thought she had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen:
“Become a published children’s book illustrator” wasn’t on the to-do list. Field Work Term, an internship period that students complete every winter, has been part of the Bennington education since the College’s founding. Students find jobs in fields that intrigue them and complement their studies, and for seven weeks, they gain firsthand experience in the world of work. Sometimes this experience leads to a full-time job after graduation, and sometimes it leads to a change in direction. For Pringle, whose primary concentration at Bennington is painting, it led to something else. “I originally went to New Mexico to teach painting to a kindergarten class,” she says. “They were considered an ‘at-risk’ class, and I became really attached to them—not only from hearing their stories, having them tell me about their families, but because they were the first class I’d ever taught. I saw they looked up to me. “When I had to leave, I wanted to give them a parting gift. So I decided to make them a book.” Pringle mentioned the idea to LaDonna Harris, AIO’s founder and president. Harris thought it sounded like a great opportunity for Victoria to collaborate with a friend of hers—Emmett “Shkeme” Garcia, co-owner of Emergence Productions, a cultural exchange program for American Indian youth. When Pringle got together with Garcia, he told her the story of “Coyote and the Sky,” a Santa Ana Pueblo legend of how the sun, moon, and stars came to be. Within a few weeks of returning to Bennington, Pringle had illustrated a picture book of the story and sent a copy to the class. “The kids really liked it,” she says. So did Garcia and Harris, who were so impressed with the final product that they soon began to circulate the book to several different publishers in New Mexico. About a year later, Pringle heard the news: the University of New Mexico Press wanted to publish it. “When I heard it was going to be published, I re-did all the illustrations using a collage technique. After a long process of mailing the manuscript back and forth with the editor in New Mexico, it was published in October 2006. And in the fall, Shkeme came out to New York City and we did a book signing at The Strand bookstore.” The book was also named a Southwest Books of the Year Top Children's Pick. Although Pringle had taken an illustration course in her first year at Bennington, which she calls “one of the best classes I’ve taken,” she maintains that the primary inspiration for creating Coyote and the Sky was really the children she taught—and the encouragement she received from her own teachers at Bennington. “If it weren’t for the Field Work Term and Bennington’s way of teaching, I don’t think this ever would have happened. I never would have had the opportunity to work at that school and be inspired by those kids. And also, my painting teachers—Ann Pibal and Andy Spence—have really influenced me and pushed me as hard as they can to develop my work.” That work has developed into a combination of painting and printmaking, and has led to later FWT internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the October Gallery in London. But this year, Pringle has come full circle. “I’m starting a second book now, a collaboration with the same author. It’s another Native American story, called ‘Rabbit and her Tricks.’ My final Field Work Term has been an independent study to work on it.” More:
Click here to browse the archive of campus feature stories.
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