From The President

“I have never felt so a part of something as I have here at Bennington” our senior speaker, Lauren Omokheoa ’18, told us at Commencement this spring.

Many who work and study here would echo those words. Bennington is a community of fiercely individual people, each in bold pursuit of a belief held in common: that we can direct our energies toward self-fulfillment and constructive social purposes at one and the same time. This shared belief alone sets us apart; but what truly distinguishes us is that the pursuit is carried out together, in shared spaces.

Something extraordinary happens because we are all here, together, at Bennington. Bennington asks us to be fully engaged, together: to be attentive to what is happening in front of us, willing to listen, to be vulnerable, to learn, to be changed. Here we learn to become ourselves, and we learn how to be ourselves together. In this way we enact an ethos that we carry with us into the wider world.

This profound quality of engagement is manifest in the campus itself, almost as if inscribed by our actions year after year in the houses, the classrooms, the landscape—in Stokes, in the Barn, in Crossett, in Jennings, in Dickinson, at the End of the World. Visitors to the College feel this, often powerfully, when they arrive on campus for the first time. There is a remarkable liveliness and thoughtfulness palpable in buildings and spaces all across the campus. The spirit and beauty of Bennington exist in its people and its places, each informing, inspiring, and challenging the other. Our campus spaces reflect and inform the community we are. This is, of course, by design.

Open spaces and blank walls become opportunities for us to show our work: performances enliven the gardens; empty mailboxes become frames for animation (see page 32); and the dining hall is a crucible, serving hard questions and inspiration with a side of sweet potato fries. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors to Bennington learn how to imagine, together; how to create, together; how to understand and push boundaries, together; and how to be, together. This is as true for students now (see Sundara’s story, page 24) as it has been in years past (see more about history page 26). Like these spaces, we must be flexible, able to adapt, willing to move freely from one moment on to the next.

This issue of the Bennington magazine is therefore about Commons, both as a building and as an ideal. It is about what Commons has held, enabled, and created, and about what it will be next year and in the years ahead as it again becomes the hub of our community and our work. But, crucially, this issue is also about how the Bennington ethos lives and breathes in all of its buildings.

I am deeply grateful to the people who design, maintain, and otherwise take care of our extraordinary spaces (you can learn more about B&G staff on page 30); I am also deeply grateful to those whose vision and support allow us to carry the College forward into the next era. The world needs more Bennington.

I hope to see you back on campus soon.

Sincerely,

Mariko Silver

President