ADMITTED STUDENTS DAY


April 16, 2023 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM ET
Events & Sessions


Welcome to BenningtonWorks, Bennington's Admitted Students Day!
This year we're excited to hold two events. While we hope you can join us on campus in Vermont on Sunday, April 16th, for an event-filled day of all things Bennington, we are also hosting a remote event on Saturday, April 15 for those who can't join us on campus. If you are planning on attending BenningtonWorks on campus on April 16th, you can see the schedule and register here. If you plan to attend our remote event, you can learn more and register below.
Whether you join us on campus or remotely, you will be able to discover for yourself that Bennington College is a community of makers. BenningtonWorks will give you a chance to engage with students and faculty around their works-in-progress and join them in conversation as you envision the connections you will build. Here, you will be mentored by teacher-practitioners and collaborate with friends and peers to create meaningful work. As graduate Kieran Najita explained: "Bennington is the place where I caught the first glimpse of what the best version of myself might look like."
At Bennington, you will achieve things that you didn’t think were possible. We invite you to see how Bennington students discover and set a course for a most remarkable life’s work, and to imagine what that might look like for you, as you set out on your own, individualized path.
Join us.
Forbes ranks Bennington among the country’s Top 5 Most Entrepreneurial Colleges
SESSIONS
Keep an eye here for details on this event as it comes closer!
DID YOU KNOW?
Bennington College has more than 40 campus clubs and organizations.
HOW WE’RE MADE FOR MAKING
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 2023 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.

Animation and Film & Video
- Explore student works from animation classes, compiled by faculty member Sue Rees, alongside some projects in progress this semester.
- Check out these student projects from Intro to Video:
- Alexey Tarasov '24
- Azia Steben-Chenail '24
- Rafaella Binder-Gavito '23
- Tamar Giligashvili '21
Earth & Environmental 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.
- Check out this video on understanding the PFOA crisis.
- Watch this video of Lucy Royte '21's advanced work, "Mannhatta's Soggy Fringe: Perishing Water from Empire City"
STEM
- 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.
- Check out these projects by students:
Languages
Listen to a conversation with faculty member Noëlle Rouxel-Cubberly.
Learn more about French at Bennington!
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 first episode of The Lens, featuring an interview with musician and Music SEPC representative Maddy Wood '22.
Take a listen to a selection of the class of 2020's senior work: Senior MusicFest 2020 and Lorem Ipsum by Maeve Bustell '19.5 (program here).
Listen to some music by Bennington alumni: Sylvan Esso (Amelia Meath '10), Real Estate (Alex Bleeker '08), and Sir Chloe (Dana Foote '18, Teddy O'Mara '18.5, Pixel West '18, and Willy Giambalvo '20)
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.
Watch this class reel from a recent production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.
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
Listen to some student Radio Plays, including A Moment of Connection by Kiana Ortega, Love in the Dark by Tess Seaver, and Take Yo Shit by Ayana Sterling
Watch B E L O N G by JJ Langham.
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.
BENNINGTON BY THE NUMBERS
93% of Bennington graduates, 6 months out, are employed, enrolled in service programs or in grad school.
87% of graduates have published a piece of writing, produced an album, exhibited a piece of art, performed or directed for a public audience, or presented a scientific paper or poster.
ADMITTED STUDENT RESOURCES
Student Voices
Our students are the heart of the Bennington experience. Explore campus through their eyes, and hear them explain, in their own words, their self-designed academic Plans and Advanced Work.

Faculty Voices
Watch these interviews, lectures, and performances featuring the work of our talented and dedicated faculty members.

Campus Conversations
Get to know some of the staff that support on-campus life at Bennington.

Bennington Works 2023 Soundtrack
A soundtrack to your day featuring recent releases by Bennington alumni, including work by Mountain Men, who performed at Commencement 2019.
