
Explore snapshots of work-in-progress, performance, assignments, and other snippets of the classroom experience at Bennington. This section represents a sampling of areas of study and courses, for a bigger picture, you can delve into the full range of Areas of Study and the Curriculum from Spring 2022 and beyond.
If you are interested in learning more about a particular area of study, our students would love to meet with you to share their work, answer your questions, and help you envision how your passions might fit into the Bennington curriculum. Request a conversation with our current students here!
Animation and Video
- Explore student works from animation classes, compiled by faculty member Sue Rees, alongside some projects in progress this semester.
- Moving Image at Bennington College: watch a trailer of film/video and animation works from 2018-2019.
Earth Science
Go on a virtual field trip with faculty member Tim Schroeder.
Listen in on an outcomes-focused conversation with faculty and recent alumni from our Fall for Bennington event.
Science and Math
- Explore student work across the sciences at Bennington. “Discover the Unknown,” or check out this field course in Coral Reef Biology, taught by Betsy Sherman. To learn more about our science and math courses, please take a look at the curriculum.
- Watch an interview with Naima Starkloff '15 about her science studies at Bennington.
- Listen in on this conversation between faculty and alumni.
- Watch this video of Blake Jones' Ornithology class.
Society, Culture, and Thought (SCT)
Explore student work in the social sciences through these examples of senior work and theses.
- An English Town's Pilgrimage to Brexit: Coal Mining, New Labour, and White Working-Class Decay
Thesis by Francesca Edwards '18 -
Black Ain’t Lack, but Education Ain’t Black: A look at Black American undergraduate students and alumni of Bennington College
Thesis by Mardryka Adzick '18 -
Bulleh ki jaana main kaun: Politicisation of Sufi Shrines in Pakistan
Thesis-novel by Syeda Rumana Mehdi '18
Music
Watch the Sing class, taught by Kerry Ryer-Parke, in action.
Take a listen to a selection of the class of 2020's senior work: Senior MusicFest 2020 and Lorem Ipsum by Maeve Bustell.
Watch the first episode of The Lens, featuring an interview with musician and Music SEPC representative Maddy Wood '22.
Theater
In the course The History of Directing, taught by Jean Randich, students work semi-chronologically from the late 19th to the early 21st century, examining how culture and theater interact and change each other. These are examples of the oral slide show presentations students prepare when they report on individual directors.
- Jacob Sanders | F. T. Marinetti presentation
- Biborka Beres | Alfred Jarry presentation
- George Li | Bertolt Brecht presentation
Take a look at this costume design project by Taz Meyers '19.
In this class assignment from Directing I: The Director’s Vision, taught by Jean Randich, students respond to the exercise: Take one minute and find something in your room to create a tableau of a character you either play or direct in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Assume an expressive gestural pose for that character and hold it in stillness for 30 seconds while maintaining active thought and emotion inside. Watch now.
The course Bennington Plays: Playwrights, taught by Sherry Kramer, supports playwrights engaged in the process and techniques of rewriting and staging their plays. Here are two examples of works in progress:
- "Uprooted, A Dark Comedy" by Evan Grey Caldwell
- "Grandpa Dave" by Edie Salas-Miller
Dance
Selections from Advanced Projects in Dance, taught by David Thomson:
- Lou Brownlee, Railroad #3
- Anna Demchenko, Breath in/Breath out
- Anna Demchenko, Isolation Sketches Series (#1) Climbing the Walls
- Nora Littell, I'm not Gene Kelly
- Kari Ostensen, Lexicon of Movement
In an assignment for Finding Form: Dance, taught by Dana Reitz, students find a passage of literature or music, find aspects of form within it, and use something of the form to make a short movement study.
- Veda Carmine-Ritchie, Inspired by We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches feat. Blood Orange
- Sophia Grimani, Inspired by Dirge by Death in Vegas
- Hanna Stebbins, Inspired by Liver Room, passage by Carolee Schneemann
- Triston Walker, Inspired by This Is All I Have For You by Makoto Matushita
- Emma Williams, Inspired by “Cello Concerto in E Minor, RV 409: (III. Allegro)” by Antonio Vivaldi
In the course Introduction To Phrasemaking & Performing taught by Dana Reitz, students find a specific location to use as a stimulus for making a movement study, all phrasing influenced by the environment. Here are a few examples:
In Dance Making: The Ephemeral Artifact taught by Hilary Clark, students compose using percussive and sustained qualities as source material. Here is a sample of work from this course: Isabel San Millan.
Visual Art
In the course Delights of Ephemera, taught by faculty member and Director and Curator of the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery Anne Thompson, the class wrote a blog that was compiled by students Charlotte Zinsser and Alex Terjak Wall.
Connection details pertaining to Bennington Bound are forthcoming. Here’s what we have in store for you:
A Welcome from the Bennington Community
12:00-12:30 pm EDT
Bennington Leadership and Admissions Interns welcome you to Bennington Bound!
Planning Your Path
12:30-1:00 pm EDT
This session is designed to dive deeper into Bennington’s academic structure, the Plan Process. Led by faculty member Liz White, it will focus on how the Plan works to enable Bennington students in realizing their unique interests and goals through an individually tailored experience.
Field Work Term Realized
1:00-1:30 pm EDT
Engage with an expert to discuss how, and to what extent, our students take advantage of Bennington’s experiential learning model.
Let’s Talk!
1:30-2:00 pm EDT
Use this time to stretch your legs, grab a snack and engage in informal conversations on our interactive platform which highlights students: their lives, their experiences, their plans, their goals, and how all of those things can help inform your own path.
Take a Walk With Us!
2:00-3:00 pm EDT
Experience a live campus tour as our student guides showcase some of the most iconic features our community has to offer!
Meet, Greet, and Discuss Bennington With Enrollment Staff!
12:15-3:30 pm EDT
Connect with us before and throughout the event! Our students, admissions and financial aid counselors will be available if you have any questions or want to pop by and say hi!