September 14, 2026

This fall at Bennington College’s Usdan Gallery, visitors are invited to explore the exhibition VAPA at 50, which runs through December 5, 2026. Usdan Gallery is open to the public from Tuesday–Saturday, 1:00–5:00 pm.

A celebratory public reception will be held in Usdan on Tuesday, November 3 from 5:30–7:00 pm, followed by a panel discussion from 7:00–8:00 pm, with exhibition curators and guest architects held in the Kinoteca space located under the gallery.

VAPA at 50 considers the history and future of the College’s iconic Visual and Performing Arts Center, designed by architect Robertson Ward, Jr. The exhibition, curated by architecture faculty emeritus Donald Sherefkin and architect Garrick Jones ’94, features archival documents; a vast architectural model of VAPA; examples of work by former Bennington architecture students; and creative responses to VAPA by Bennington students on the occasion of the building's semicentennial.

Structured as an immersive physical timeline moving through the gallery, the exhibition maps four decades of intellectual cross-pollination among Ward, legendary architect Cedric Price, and other collaborators. Original drawings and documents on display come from Columbia University’s Avery Library as well as Bennington's Crossett Library. A slideshow highlighting a community of Bennington alumni features projects they developed within VAPA alongside representations of their professional work as artists, designers, and architects.

Crucially, VAPA at 50 contains an architecture classroom for a seminar in which Bennington students examine this history and respond with speculative assignments that gradually become part of the exhibition. This process- and teaching-centered curatorial approach echoes the flexible and evocative vision behind VAPA's design, presciently described in 1966 by architectural historian Betty Brown '39, who served on the committee that hired Ward:

“ ... all this not exactly one building, not exactly many, not exactly a building at all, simply a stream of energy rising and falling with areas of concentration and areas of expansion, each piece capable of having its own architectural identity ... . A structure like this doesn’t need to have any particular beginning or end - certainly no monumental center. It can be expanded almost indefinitely, and at almost any point ..."

Image: Robertson Ward, Jr., VAPA Complex Schematic East West Elevation (detail), colored pencil on paper, 1968.

About Usdan Gallery

Usdan Gallery at Bennington College presents exhibitions of contemporary artists and ideas, engaging and advancing the College’s history of innovation within the arts and beyond. The 4,000-square-foot space is located on the main level of the Helen Frankenthaler ’49 Visual Arts Center in VAPA. Anne Thompson is the Director and Curator. For more information, visit the Usdan Gallery website.