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Mirror, mirror on the wall, how can we improve this conference call?

When Brian Vu ’16 was a student at Bennington, he studied Dance and Ceramics, two complementary fields that appealed to him in physical and tangible ways.

Ariel Herwitz ’06, Floryn Honnet ’13, Rainer Hunt ’13, and Georgia Lassner ’09 are the inaugural class of a new residency for young alumni artists that was established at Bennington this year. Funded by a grant from an anonymous donor made in honor of faculty members Barry Bartlett and Jon Isherwood, the program invites recent graduates in sculpture and ceramics to live and work on campus for two- to four-week stints. In “studios” in Usdan Gallery, these four artists have had a chance to dive into their practice mostly uninterrupted, and current students have had the opportunity to interact with them in a variety of ways. Says Jon Isherwood, one of the designers of the residency, “It’s a very exciting moment for us in the Visual Arts to be able to bring back alumni and have them develop new work in the gallery. The premise of the residency has been to encourage experimentation. Complimenting this, the VA faculty have invited our alumni guests to visit classes and meet with students one on one.”

The fruits of the artists’ labors will be on view at Usdan Gallery from November 29 through December 8. They spoke with Aruna D’Souza about their student experiences, their approach to art making, and their experience being back on campus.

Philosophy faculty member and art critic Karen Gover's review of Barry Bartlett's new work appeared in a recent issue of Ceramics: Art and Perception, a leading international magazine in the field of ceramic arts.