Location: Bennington County

Taught by successful, current professionals in their fields, Bennington’s visual arts program provides students with a strong background in the creative process. As students move through their courses, they develop their own techniques, methods of investigation, conceptual thinking, and understanding of what it means to be a creative practitioner. They are encouraged to explore opportunities across a broad range of media, while examining contemporary creative practice and its connections to the history of art.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

Students immerse themselves in the collaborative spirit of the dramatic arts. Closely integrating course work with production opportunities, Bennington drama trains students as creative and versatile theater artists. Bennington College offers students a deep understanding of all different types of theater-making: acting, directing, playwriting, devising, theatre history, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, stage management, and design (set, costume, lights, projection, and sound). Taught by professionals accomplished in their fields, Bennington drama provides students an outstanding combination of small-class settings, centered on the inclusion of all the programs within the discipline.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

We practice video at Bennington in the framework of visual art, building a varied program that includes analog and digital, experimental and documentary, critical and poetic approaches to the medium. Students make films, videos, and installations in a dynamic studio environment that includes production facilities, editing and screening rooms, and the breathtaking landscape of the campus itself. We emphasize formal innovation, conceptual rigor, historical consciousness and the capacity to collaborate as hallmark of a vibrant moving image practice. Students analyze works from film history alongside contemporary art in order to build a vocabulary to explain their own perspectives and critique one another’s work. Students learn the basics of form (composition, mise-en-scène, lighting, editing, sound) in together with thematic inquiry (politics, race, gender, social justice, the environment) before pursuing advanced independent work.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

In our painting and drawing classes, we create an environment where you can explore the meaning of art and how it represents the world. We focus on the connection between what we see and how we create images. The work will challenge you to think deeply and ask important questions. We don’t tell you exactly how to make your art; instead, we encourage you to find your own unique approach. We believe that learning technical skills is important, but that it is equally important to think about the meaning behind your art and how it relates to the world we live in today.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

Contemporary sculpture in practice and research, now more than ever before, embraces a full range of exploration from the historic traditions of figuration to innovative content in the areas of functional and non-functional object-making, installation, performance, site-specific work, and digital forms. As they progress to advanced classes, students are challenged to use their skills to make work that is more self-directed and research-driven to contribute to the ever-extending visual dialogue that interprets our personal and public lives.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

We believe that when you make things with your hands, like working with clay and firing it in a kiln, it helps your mind and creativity grow. In our classes, you’ll learn all the skills needed to create beautiful and meaningful art. You’ll learn how to shape clay on a wheel or by hand, make molds, apply glazes, and fire your creations in a kiln. We also teach you how to use digital tools and different materials to make art. We believe that researching and practicing different techniques will help you understand the history of ceramics and how it fits into modern art.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

Animation combines the visual and performing arts. Students learn the basics of making an animation: from using stop motion and single cell drawings, to creating models and objects and erasing drawings, to using CGI and other techniques to create a world. The software and hardware covered includes DragonFrame, MAYA, Adobe After Effects, Premier, Photoshop, laser cutting for silhouettes and forms, green screen areas, multi-plane set ups, copy stands, and motion tracks. Subjects used as catalysts for the animations range from current affairs, narratives, to poems, short stories, or visual stimuli. Students are encouraged to consider their work in a wide historical context as they work to master technical developments.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.

In their coursework, students are introduced to basic anthropological skills and tools, which they are able to practice in research they do on campus or during their yearly off-campus Field Work Term. Students whose academic plans include anthropology are encouraged to do advanced work in the field. Theses provide students the opportunity to improve their skills in data collection, critical thinking, and communication. Just as interests and academic plans range widely, so do research topics: recent examples include China’s one-child policy to community arts in Philadelphia to spoken language and group identity in a Lebanese village.

At Bennington, you design your own course of study and work, taking full advantage of the College’s resources both inside and outside the classroom. This process goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major. You identify one or more areas of interest that spark your intellectual curiosity and provide a foundation for your academic work and fieldwork, and you pursue that work with ongoing guidance from your faculty. This is your Plan.