Studios in visual art at Bennington

This is my studio space in Swan Garage on campus this term! It’s called Swan Garage because it is a garage-like space behind Swan House (one of the colonials).

One of the best things about studying art at Bennington is that in your junior or senior year, after you’ve demonstrated a lot of work in one particular art, you get a studio space on campus. They are located in lots of small buildings spread around the campus in more secluded parts of it, and because of this the studios become these really wonderful secrets to visual arts students. We are encouraged to decorate our spaces, be in them a lot, visit each other…lots of classes will even spend a day going from studio to studio to see how one another work.

Here I am in front of Swan Garage, which I share with other visual arts students. I concentrate in photography and mixed media work but the other artists in the garage work in many different mediums, from print making to painting.

For me, having a space all to myself to just think and work in is awesome. I can be in it whenever I want and use it in any way I want. This is a way in which I feel I really benefit from the size of the campus. At a bigger school, I probably never would have been able to have a studio as an undergraduate. Instead, I can paint and put together my work in a space that is entirely dictated by me.

-India K, ‘12