Daniel Michaelson

Visiting Faculty

Daniel Michaelson was co-creator of Bennington College’s mediation curriculum, cofounder of a program to re-engage Bennington-area youth with their education, and a professional costume/set designer. He was one of a team of international collaborators in the creation of a play for peace building.

Biography

With faculty member Susan Sgorbati, Michaelson created Bennington’s mediation curriculum and is a certified mediation trainer. He mediated for the Vermont Department of Education, Bennington Small Claims Court, and multiparty disputes. He was co-director (with Sgorbati) of Quantum Leap, a program for truants and at-risk students in Bennington County; both were named “Vermont Heroes” for their work.

Michaelson was resident costume designer at The Juilliard School and created sets and costumes for theatre, dance, and opera in regional theaters and off Broadway. He designed for the American premieres of several operas, including The Goose of Cairo (Mozart) and L’Etoile (Chabrier). His theatre and conflict resolution work came together as the set designer in an Iran/Israel/United States collaboration that resulted in Benedictus, a play with productions and readings in multiple United States venues. He is the author of Oz Revisited, a short play that was a winner in an international competition to call attention to the country of Belarus, and subsequently produced at Bennington College. Along with two Bennington alumnae, Michaelson was a mermaid in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

Future projects included using the arts for international peace building and in prisons and writing a children’s book and a memoir. He was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and the City University of New York. BA, Queens College; Harvard Graduate School of Design; MFA, Columbia University School of the Arts. Michaelson taught costume design at Bennington from 1981 to 2011, was dean of studies from 1991 to 1994, and began teaching conflict resolution in 2000. From 2011 to 2016, he was a visiting faculty member at Bennington in conflict resolution.