Fall Weekend 2024
Friday, October 4–Sunday, October 6 2024
Come spend some time in your student's new home and share the Bennington experience together.
Questions?
Contact fallweekend@bennington.edu or call 802-440-4330.
Schedule of Events
Friday, October 4
1:00–5:00 pm - Registration and information
Location: Flagpole
1:00–5:00 pm - Exhibition: Collective Affinities: Personal collections from the Bennington College community at Usdan Gallery
Location: Usdan Gallery | Collective Affinities presents personal collections created and held by Bennington College faculty, staff, and alums, with contents ranging from leather luggage to Paris Metro tickets, cat whiskers to nutcrackers, and belly-dancing records to pulp-fiction paperbacks. Beyond celebrating the pleasures of collecting, the exhibit examines the different ways that collections happen—through circumstance as well as intention—and considers what collections say about how we move through a world of objects and engage with our surroundings. Inspired by the writings of German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)—himself a passionate collector—Collective Affinities has a direct link with the curriculum: students in a seminar about Benjamin, taught by Usdan Gallery director and exhibition curator Anne Thompson, will study the exhibition, interview participating collectors, and write exhibition texts.
1:00–6:00 pm - Exhibit: A Glimpse into the Bennington College Archives
Location: Crossett Library
2:00–5:00 pm - Open Office Hours
Locations: Academic Services (Barn 106 and Barn 120), Career Development and Field Work Term Office, Financial Aid, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Student Life.
5:00–5:15 pm - Welcome
Location: Tishman Auditorium | President Laura Walker offers welcome remarks with an introduction by Vice President and Dean of Student Life Dr. Li-Chen Chin.
5:15–6:00 pm - Field Work Term 101: A Guide for Parents, Families, and Support Networks
Location: Tishman Auditorium | This session provides an overview of how the Career Development and Field Work Term Office assists students in discovering Field Work Term (FWT) opportunities that align with their personal interests and support their exploration of various career paths. The discussion will cover how FWT experiences are integral to students' professional growth and how parents, families, and support networks can play a role in this process. Dr. John Link, Associate Dean of Career Development and Field Work Term, and Sarah Krinsky, Associate Director of Career Development and Field Work Term, will lead the session, offering valuable insights and practical guidance for supporting students through their first Field Work Term experience.
6:00–7:00 pm - Dinner
Location: Commons Dining Hall | Dine with your student and enjoy flavorful dishes featuring sustainably sourced products from local farmers and producers provided by the Dining Services team. $20 per person; 4-12 years old $10; may pre-register or pay at the door.
Saturday, October 5
9:00 am–4:00 pm - Registration and Information
Location: Flagpole
8:00 am–6:00 pm - Exhibit: A Glimpse into the Bennington College Archives
Location: Crossett Library
11:00 am–1:00 pm - Brunch
Location: Commons Dining Hall | Dine with your student and enjoy flavorful dishes featuring sustainably sourced products from local farmers and producers provided by the Dining Services team. $14 per guest; 4-12 years old $7; may pre-register or pay at the door.
1:00–2:00 pm - Campus Tour with Admissions Interns
Location: Meet at Andrew Schwartz Parlor, Barn
1:00–5:00 pm - Exhibition: Collective Affinities: Personal collections from the Bennington College community at Usdan Gallery
Location: Usdan Gallery | Collective Affinities presents personal collections created and held by Bennington College faculty, staff, and alums, with contents ranging from leather luggage to Paris Metro tickets, cat whiskers to nutcrackers, and belly-dancing records to pulp-fiction paperbacks. Beyond celebrating the pleasures of collecting, the exhibit examines the different ways that collections happen—through circumstance as well as intention—and considers what collections say about how we move through a world of objects and engage with our surroundings. Inspired by the writings of German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)—himself a passionate collector—Collective Affinities has a direct link with the curriculum: students in a seminar about Benjamin, taught by Usdan Gallery director and exhibition curator Anne Thompson, will study the exhibition, interview participating collectors, and write exhibition texts.
2:00–5:00 pm - Lawn Games for Students
Location: Commons Lawn | Enjoy outdoor games amid the stunning autumn backdrop of the Green Mountains.
2:00–5:00 pm - Craft Fair
Location: Commons Lawn (Rain site: Student Center) | The fair features handmade craft by students.
2:00–3:30 pm - Faculty Workshops
Location: TBD, more information to come
5:00–7:00 pm - Harvest Dinner
Location: Commons Dining Hall | Dine with your student and enjoy flavorful dishes featuring sustainably sourced products from Purple Carrot Farm as well as other local farmers and producers provided by the Dining Services team. $20 per person; 4-12 years old $10; may pre-register or pay at the door.
7:00–9:00 pm - A Life of Letters: Conversation with Michael Pollan ‘76 and Mark Wunderlich, Executive Director, Bennington Writing Seminars
Location: Tishman Auditorium | A Life of Letters: Conversation with Michael Pollan ‘76 and Mark Wunderlich, Executive Director, Bennington Writing Seminars, with an Introduction by President Laura Walker.
For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan '76 has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. Pollan is the award-winning author of eight books, six of which have been New York Times bestsellers; three of them (including his latest, How to Change Your Mind) were immediate #1 New York Times bestsellers. Previous books include Cooked (2013), Food Rules (2009), In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008), The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001). Pollan is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. In 2017, he was appointed Professor of the Practice of Non-fiction at Harvard and the university’s first Lewis Chan Lecturer in the Arts. Michael Pollan graduated from Bennington in 1976, and also studied at Oxford University, and Columbia University, from which he received a Master’s in English. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer '78. A book signing will follow the conversation.
Sunday, October 6
11:00 am–1:00 pm - Brunch
Location: Commons Dining Hall | Dine with your student and enjoy flavorful dishes featuring sustainably sourced products from local farmers and producers provided by the Dining Services team. $14 per guest; 4-12 years old $7; may pre-register or pay at the door.
1:00–3:00 pm - James Crews and Friends Poetry Reading and Cider Pressing
Location: Robert Frost Stone House Museum | Join us at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum for a fall afternoon with Vermont poet James Crews and friends reading from his three anthologies of contemporary poems that celebrate hope, wonder, kindness, and connection. Celebrate the season with fresh apple cider pressing on the grounds of the Museum after the reading.