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MISSION

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Our Mission

Located in southern Vermont, the Field Center is an educational center for arts practices that serves as a resource for working artists at all stages of their career to focus on their work, develop their teaching and performance practices and build stronger collaborative relationships with one another. Through working together we help to create and curate structures, solutions and events that inspire equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable practices, interrogate systems, drive creativity and encourage courageous exploration.

We work towards cultivating the arts ecology in the United States while bridging gaps between differing ages, human identities, and borders between people and practices in both the local, national and international communities. We work to create a place that appreciates difference and is rigorous, improvisational, intuitive, healthy and original.

Image from PANDA 2, 2023: closeup shot of many people gathered, setting down a dancer from a lift.
A photo of the front entrance of the Field Center facilities in high summer. Green grass and tall wildflowers grow in front of the building.

What exactly do we do?

The primary aim of our programs is to provide an alternative and supplemental avenue to academic models in performance, dance and interdisciplinary arts education.

For many working artists or for those interested in learning opportunities in the arts, going to college is the only option outside of one-off 2 hour classes at local studios.
We strive to cultivate accessible and open long-form programs that reduce competition within the arts and exist
as a counterpoint to application-based programs.
As an ‘incubator’ space we offer time for artists of all identities, time to experiment, connect and train with one another. What we offer at the Field Center:

 

  • A ‘hub’ for contemporary dance and performance artists in Vermont and New England
     

  • Year round residential master classes and long form workshop opportunities that are open to all.

 

  • Affordable, accessible pricing opportunities for particpants, and innovative teaching opportunities for emerging and established teachers in the fields of dance, performance and the somatic arts.

 

  • A dedicated year-round scholarship program that keeps our programs diverse and inclusive and a commitment to diversity within our faculty.

 

  • Invitiation based residencies for artists in the field, centering process over product and dedicated studio time to develop new works.

 

  • Publicly accessible showings and performances featuring emerging and established artists.
     

  • 'Summits' or symposiums of people within the performing arts fields to gather and discuss aspects of their work and practices as a means of fostering community. These have included gatherings for Vermont-based dance artists, Indigenous-centered gatherings, panels of scholars and academics within the field, and conferences for dance artists with disabilities.

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