Visual Arts

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Off The Chart — DRW4104.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Annette Lawrence
Credits: 4
Athletes accumulate statistics. Musicians write scores. Sailors keep logs. Courts keep records. Artists turn quantitative observations into qualitative experiences. We will look at the works of Charles Gaines, Mark Lombardi, Howardena Pindell, Guillermo Kuitca, Sofie Calle, On Kawara, Alfred Jensen, and Alighiero Boetti as examples for discussion. Students will engage in the
Visual Arts

On Collecting: Writings of Walter Benjamin — VA4209.01

Fall 2024
Instructor: Anne Thompson
Credits: 4
This course examines major themes in the writings of German philosopher and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) including history, politics, aesthetics, technology, urban life, archives, and collections. Our goal is to gain a greater understanding of Benjamin’s significance for cultural producers across disciplines, in particular artists, critics, and curators. Texts
Visual Arts

Open Call — CUR2208.02

Fall 2025
Instructor: Anne Thompson
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 2

Join a public dialogue about global contemporary art and ideas! Each year the New York nonprofit apexart holds an open call for curatorial proposals. Out of hundreds of submissions from around the world, three are chosen to become apexart exhibitions through an online jury process. Students in this class will be part of the jury. Initial readings and

Curatorial Studies

Our Curated World: Seeing a Trend Through the Lens of Tradition — VA2243.01

Fall 2019
Instructor: Anne Thompson
Credits: 4
From bookstore shelves to restaurant menus, a widening swath of contemporary life seems to involve, even require, the hand of a curator. So what exactly does it mean to BE a curator? Where did the profession of curator originate and how has it evolved? This introductory class considers historical examples of acquisition and display from the sixteenth century to today;
Visual Arts

Our Curated World: Seeing a Trend through the Lens of Tradition — VA2243.01

Fall 2017
Instructor: Anne Thompson
Credits: 4
From art biennials to restaurant menus, a widening swath of contemporary culture seems to involve, even require, the hand of a curator. So what exactly does it mean to BE a curator? How and why did this activity develop into a profession and from a profession into a trend? Where did the role of curator originate and how has it evolved over time? To answer these questions, this
Visual Arts

Paint to Motions — MA2108.01

Fall 2021
Instructor: Sue Rees
Credits: 4
Paint to motions an introductory course that explores animation with as little digital, technical involvement as possible. It is catered to those who are curious about the medium but put off by the technicalities. Working with the most immediate methods of giving movement to still images. We will focus mostly on traditional animation, namely hand-drawn animation, stop motion
Visual Arts

Painterly Painters Portraiture — AH4122.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Vanessa Lyon
Credits: 2
According to art historical tradition, “painterly painters” are those whose work exhibits a gestural, often loose, facture that makes the viewer conscious of its painted quality through visible brushwork, inchoate, haptic, blotches and sometimes, heavy impasto. Portraits, like painterly painting, are thought to be largely concerned with fixing or situating individuality,
Visual Arts

Painting in Context — PAI2110.01

Spring 2014
Instructor: Andrew Spence
Credits: 4
There are many reasons Painting continues to be relevant over the long course of its history. This history and its consequential styles are the focus for art making and discussion in this class. Students develop their own visual thinking in the context of specific periods in Painting. Weekly projects and reading assignments, group critiques and other art related discussions
Visual Arts

Painting Practice — PAI4214.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Ann Pibal
Credits: 4
This course will provide the student a broad platform from which to continue investigations in painting. Emphasis will be placed on cultivating research and conceptual concerns as well as the continued development of an understanding of materials, color, form, and space. Students will look to examples of twentieth and twenty-first century artists and their studio practices to
Visual Arts

Painting Studio — PAI4204.01

Fall 2015
Instructor: Ann Pibal
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
This course will provide the student a broad platform from which to continue investigations in painting. Emphasis will be placed on cultivating individual research and conceptual concerns as well as the continued development of an understanding of color, form, and space. The daily experience of looking, along with the history of art will provide a base from which investigations
Visual Arts

Painting Studio — PAI4204.01

Fall 2013
Instructor: Ann Pibal
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
This course will provide the student a broad platform from which to continue investigations in painting. Emphasis will be placed on cultivating individual research and conceptual concerns as well as the continued development of an understanding of color, form, and space. The daily experience of looking, along with the history of art will provide a base from which investigations
Visual Arts

Painting Studio: Visual Inquiry in Context — PAI4220.01

Fall 2025
Instructor: Ann Pibal
Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 4

This intermediate level painting course will take as its platform the investigation of writing by artists about art and artists. While developing their own self-defined studio practices, students will engage with primary documents of art history - artists' essays, letters and sketchbooks. Students will work to establish a sense

Painting

Painting the Extended Field — PAI4303.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: Melissa Thorne
Credits: 4
This course takes its name from a pivotal painting exhibition held in Sweden in 1997.  In this show, the curators attempted to question the parameters of Painting, and to track “Painterly” qualities in other media.  Since at least the mid-20th Century, artists have experimented with an elastic definition of painting -- as a form that can be sculptural,
Visual Arts

Papermaking with Plants — SCU2304.01

Fall 2023
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 2
Papermaking is an ancient, traditional craft with a history that reflects our fundamental humanity. It is a process that simultaneously relies on and reveals the nature of plants and place. Papermaking With Plants engages with the materiality of both paper and plants through observation, hands-on making, inquiry, research, and design. Through this exploration, we will acquire
Visual Arts

Papermaking With Plants — SCU2304.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Lily Carone
Credits: 4
Papermaking is an ancient, traditional craft with a history that reflects our fundamental humanity. It is a process that simultaneously relies on and reveals the nature of plants and place. Papermaking With Plants engages with the materiality of both paper and plants through observation, hands-on making, inquiry, research, and design. Through this exploration, we will acquire
Visual Arts

People/ Place — PHO4219.01

Spring 2015
Instructor: Jonathan Kline
Credits: 4
This course offers students the opportunity to explore the historical and social landscape of the region surrounding Bennington College. Our goal will be to make compelling, insightful images that reflect the diversity of the people and the complexity of social issues they face. We will be experimenting with both digital and analog cameras and location lighting to explore
Visual Arts

Performance Art: Histories and Legacies — AH4307.01

Fall 2014
Instructor: carol stakenas
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
This course will explore performance art in the 1970's, emphasizing the evolution of performance within a broader drive toward artistic experimentation that cut across many spheres of cultural production. Celebrating the ways that performance art has grown organically – and in varied directions – this seminar will highlight connections between performance art and other
Visual Arts

Performance Project: Liminality Portal; Dancing Within and Beyond the Frame — DAN4421.01

Fall 2023
Instructor: Erin Ellen Kelly, MFA Teaching Fellow
Credits: 2
In this creative process lab, we will be developing dance and site responsive movement scores to be performed live and in relation to video. During the first seven weeks, we will be cultivating/creating these scores based on rigorous somatic investigation and dance practice, both within the studio and within specific predetermined locations. Throughout this process, students
Dance Visual Arts

Personal Narrative, The Photograph and Psychoanalysis — PHO4254.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: Rachelle Mozman
Credits: 4
The course will explore making and using photographs, created or found, that develop our personal stories as a platform to address social, political or public dialogues. The unconscious mind is revealed through narrative and symbols. We will be thinking about our unconscious as housing memories that structure our stories and this relationship to imagery, collective memory and
Visual Arts

Phenomenology of the Strange — FV4243.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Laura Sofía Pérez
Credits: 4
This seminar is a textual and cinematic study of specific categories of ineffable experiences. We will study altered states of consciousness, unexplainable phenomena, and unfathomable human experiences and analyze their representation in cinema. Grounded in film analysis and psychological, philosophical, and historical readings, we will address screenwriting, genre, lighting,
Visual Arts

Phenomenology of the Strange — FV4243.01

Fall 2024
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
This seminar is a textual and cinematic study of specific categories of ineffable experiences. We will study altered states of consciousness, unexplainable phenomena, and unfathomable human experience, and analyze their representation in cinema. Grounded in film analysis and psychological, philosophical, and historical readings, we will address screenwriting, genre, lighting,
Visual Arts

Philosophies and Formal Elements of Animation and the Moving Image — MA4104.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Robby Gilbert
Credits: 4
Zoetropes, phenakistascopes, pepper’s ghosts, puppets, VR, film, projection, games, music, dance, and animation are just a few examples of ways to explore the elements of movement in time-based media. In this course, we delve into the formal elements of the illusion of motion and apply these concepts to the creation of kinetic works in a variety of formats. Emphasis will be
Visual Arts

Philosophies and Formal Elements of Animation and the Moving Image — MA4104.02) (canceled

Fall 2020
Instructor: Sue Rees
Credits: 4
Zoetropes, phenakistascopes, pepper’s ghosts, puppets, VR, film, projection, games, music, dance, and animation are just a few examples of ways to explore the elements of movement in time-based media. In this course, we delve into the formal elements of the illusion of motion and apply these concepts to the creation of kinetic works in a variety of formats. Emphasis will be
Drama Visual Arts

Photo Documentation for Artists — PHO2203.01

Fall 2017
Instructor: Jon Barber
Credits: 1
his course is intended for upper level VA students who work primarily in non-photographic media. No previous experience with photographic technique is required. The course will demonstrate and provide practice in techniques used in effective documentation of art pieces using digital still photography. Students will have access to camera equipment and our lighting studio,
Visual Arts

Photo Now — PHO2141.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Jonathan Kline
Credits: 2
This course explores the evolution of contemporary photography from the late 20th century to the present day. We will be looking at a wide range of influences from identity politics, TV and film, social media, and the move from analog to digital technologies. The class format will be weekly faculty lectures accompanied by student research and presentations. Students will keep a
Visual Arts