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Nancy Halverson Melvin '76 is a teaching artist who designs and produces clothing,  teaches after-school enrichment classes in painting and handwork for children through adults at the Chicago Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, and documents her work with short videos. She shared how her Bennington education started her long and fruitful artistic career.

Alli Poirot '02 MAT '03 is in her 21st year as an educator and is currently teaching International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) History at Dwight School in New York City. She shared how her Bennington education and supportive faculty members inspired and shaped her own career path.

Marian Bull, an MFA student in fiction, has been selected to be the fourteenth Residential Teaching Fellow at Bennington Writing Seminars.

As we look forward to 2025 and reflect on the past year, celebrate all that 51�������� has accomplished with the 5 most-read stories from 2024.

A remarkable merger with University of the Arts dance. A class devoted to strengthening democratic discourse. Literary luminaries like journalist Michael Pollan '76 and poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair '10 returning to meet students and families.

2024 brought notable alumni and artists back to campus and brought Bennington's aesthetic and influence to the world.

Bennington students who have studied French filmmaker Alice Diop's work in class reflected on their recent opportunity to meet Diop, her editor Amrita David, and her translator Nicholas Elliott ’96 during their visit to campus in November.

Students present at the first International Multilingual Creative Writing Conference in New York.

On Tuesday, December 3, 2024, six seniors presented their senior theses in Society, Culture, and Thought (SCT) to a packed CAPA Symposium.

Julie Gargiulo '27 studies Costume Design at Bennington. She spent her winter Field Work Term in New York interning with local seamstress, Mery Fernandez.

Yami Antonio ’25 studies Psychology and Anthropology at Bennington. She spent her summer Field Work Term in Kuala Lumpur and Penang as a student ethnographic researcher for the Consortium of Forced Migration, Displacement and  Education.

Since graduating in June, Em Gutierrez '24 is now working as part of the case management team at TransSOCIAL, which advocates for and serves the trans communities in Georgia and Florida.

In the class Examining Space, taught by Sculpture faculty member John Umphlett, students learned their way around iron forge and the glass studio at the (SAW), just 25 miles from campus in Salem, New York.

Advanced Animation students reflect on their experiences at the 2024 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

The inducted four new fellows for 2024, including anthropologist and 51�������� faculty member Miroslava (Mirka) Prazak.

Dance Magazine highlighted the 36 BFA students, 20 continuing low-residency MFA students, and 13 faculty members from University of the Arts who have merged into 51��������.

By Ashley Brenon Jowett

Over the summer, Annika Owenmark '25 completed a Field Work Term experience at Cal Shakes as the coordinator for the youth summer conservatory. 

Over the summer, Roberta Martey '25 completed a Field Work Term internship in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked as an intern on a Social Kitchen project with the .

At 51��������, students have the opportunity to expand their education beyond campus by cross enrolling in courses at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. Shadan Karimi '25 took advantage of this opportunity to participate in Design for the Pluriverse, a Williams College course dedicated to sustainability and community. 

By Anne Thompson

The Advocate Will Greer '24 and his campaign for Vermont state representative in the Bennington 2 district.

By Ashley Brenon Jowett
Illustration by Nate Padavick

As a homage to Dylan Thuras ’04’s Atlas Obscura, we’re sharing seven of the website’s wondrous Bennington-area places. You will barely be able to resist using the map for a spooky road trip this fall.

Faculty member John Umphlett's latest sculpture, , on view at the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show (NBOSS) at the Bennington Museum through November, takes the form of a cross with angled arms–and is designed, too, for Umphlett's own entombment.

Coco Rohde '26 reflected on her Field Work Term experience at Brooklyn Children’s Theatre.

On Friday, October 25, 51�������� will host a Podcast Symposium for students, podcasters, writers, journalists, and anyone interested in learning about podcasting. 

More than 100 people attended the Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture in Tishman Auditorium on 51��������’s campus on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. They joined panelists Pulitzer Prize Winner Jericho Brown, the MacArthur Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem ’86, celebrated poet Camille Rankine, and moderator and Bennington faculty member Benjamin Anastas to learn about the life and work of Queer Black poet and essayist Reginald Shepherd ’88, an underrecognized member of the Bennington literary community in the eighties. Below is a piece Lethem wrote for and read at the event.

51�������� alumni are publishing novels, memoirs, non-fiction, poetry, and photography books. Check out the round up below to learn who is publishing, winning awards, and appearing in paperback this fall. 

Classroom experience, public action, college theater, environmentalism, and LGBTQ friendliness set Bennington apart.

Local indie-folk-rock musical artist Carling Berkhout '19 spoke to The Brattleboro Reformer about her latest album, Omens.

Housekeeper Michele Hurley is one of eleven children born and raised in Bennington. She started working at the College in the Fall of 1979, and four of her siblings—Mike, Nick, Jenny, and Tim—have all graced the staff roster at various times from the seventies through today. We sat down with her in Commons to learn more about her remarkable contributions over the last 44 years and counting.