Local Impact: Related Content

The College debuted a new campus radio station, B-Rad, in Spring 2017. The station offers a microphone to the voices of the Bennington. 

The inaugural Taconic Mountain Student Water Conference: PFOA took place in CAPA on Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20. Co-organized by David Bond (Bennington) and Ken Facin (Hoosick Falls Central School Distrct), Friday's events were geared towards educating local high students, while Saturday's were open to the public. The second day of the conference provided an opportunity for residents of both the Bennington area and Hoosick Falls to receive updated information and the results from recent tests. Robert Bilott, who spearheaded efforts to expose PFOA contamination of drinking water supplies, gave the keynote speech. 

The town of Bennington was named the third most arts-vibrant small community in the country by the National Center for Arts Research. 

Hydropower developer Bill Scully ’94 is working with Bennington students on two new power generation projects in the village of North Bennington.

When acclaimed chef, restaurant owner, and Bennington parent Josiah Citrin visited Bennington, he checked out some of the local hot spots and shared his impressions in Food & Wine magazine. “I expected it to be charming but it exceeded my expectations, especially with how friendly everyone is,” Citrin said. “It definitely helped put me at ease over sending my oldest son off to college.”

The Mellon Foundation recently awarded $135,000 to the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education—a group comprised of Bennington, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and Bard colleges—to explore innovative ways to engage with urgent issues of displacement and forced migration.

The Bennington Banner this week featured a story on Sam Clement ’08, a Maine native who stayed local to Bennington after graduating and has since been volunteering his time and music to the community.

Four Bennington College students participated in an intensive EMT training course over the College's annual Field Work Term (FWT), a seven-week period during which students take on jobs, internships, and entrepreneurial endeavors related to their studies and professional ambitions.

David Bond, associate director of Bennington's Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), co-authored an Op-Ed in the Bennington Banner against the Trump Administration's blanket freeze on all EPA grants and contracts. 

David Bond was quoted in a VPR article about the recent law suits filed by Saint Gobain against Vermont residents. 

The Bennington Banner published an op-ed by Michael Thomson '15 about the impact of walls on national identity and the relationships between nations. 

In her role as Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival, faculty member Dina Janis received an award from the State of Vermont earlier this month. 

Bennington is the home of individualized education, but it is also a shared endeavor. We are a community of creative thinkers who are constantly generating new ideas and ways of working—together—on campus and out in the wider world. Every single day, we make the decisions, clear the spaces, and extend the invitations that allow us to build the College, collectively and collaboratively, according to our most deeply-felt principles, ideals, and aspirations.

On Saturday, November 12, 21 Bennington students and 3 Bennington staff weatherized five homes in North Bennington and the Town of Bennington as part of Winter Blitz.

A group of students is starting a public seed-sharing library at Crossett Library, Bennington College that is free and open to the community. 

In a partnership with the Vermont Arts Exchange (VAE), In Short, the Minor opens at the North Bennington Train Depot and runs through the weekend.

The Manchester Journal reported this week on U.S. Representative Peter Welch's visit to Bennington and his support of the downtown revitalization project.

Representatives from a class gave a report to the Village Board of Trustees on Tuesday about their ongoing research to generate a feasibility study on local dams and waterway privileges. 

Roi Karlinsky '17 and Ben Simpson '12 researched alternatives to Vermont's current DUI laws, and testified based on that research for bill H.560, which proposes alternatives Vermont's current DUI policies. 

Yoko Inoue's class addresses issues of hunger in the town of Bennington through public action, and fosters a new environment in which community between residents and students can develop. 

Following an article about Bennington’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI), the Glens Falls Post-Star published an editorial calling the program “a model for inmate education.” The editorial cited US incarceration rates and argued “We cannot afford to write off that many people.”

Bennington's Prison Education Initiative (PEI) was the subject of a recent article in the Post Star. The article spoke highly of the initiative's positive results on the lives and prospects of the inmates that participate in the program.

Bennington is animated by a spirit of regeneration and renewal. With every new season there is a freshness in our faculty, students, and curriculum, enlivening our essential work of teaching and learning, working and doing, bringing new ideas, projects, programs, and voices to the world. It’s my pleasure to share with you just a few of the highlights of what’s new at Bennington.

A consortium of local business leaders, institutions, and civic-minded investors, including Bennington College, announced a plan to transform the block of historic buildings at the Four Corners of Bennington, VT into a vibrant, mixed use downtown space with offices, in-town living, restaurants and retail.  

On Wednesday, June 29, the Vermont state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hosted a community meeting at Bennington College to discuss the ongoing PFOA issue in the region. David Bond, associate director of CAPA and principal investigator of the College's research on PFOA, provided an update on the work thus far.

Two students were recently awarded the first two Fund for North Bennington College and Community Collaboration grants, which are intended to increase community benefits between the College and the Village of North Bennington.

The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont has selected Bennington as home to its newest Institute. The Young Writers Institute at Bennington College, to be held June 19-25 in conjunction with the Bennington Masters of Fine Art in writing, will host 20-25 writers of high school age who will hone their craft, develop critical and collaborative skills, and be inspired by writers teaching at one of the country’s most prestigious low-residency MFA programs.

There will be an exhibition of student work on view, "Connecting Through Place: The Future of a New England Mill Town," at the Left Bank Gallery in North Bennington. Bennington faculty and students used the town and landscape of Bennington as a vehicle to understand connections between the biophysical world, societal issues, and history. The College was awarded a National Science Foundation grant in 2012 in support of a three-year curricular project aimed at exploring sustainable futures for former mill towns in New England.

A collection of updates to the community regarding North Bennington water supply.

Co-organized by faculty member Jon Isherwood and Bennington Museum curator Jamie Franklin, 3D Digital: Here and Now is a collaboration between Bennington College and the Bennington Museum that highlights artists, designers, and manufacturers whose work exploits the potential of new technologies to push material practice. The exhibition runs through June 15.