The Discovering Community Long Table is a day-long retreat hosted at The Refuge at Knoll Farm, a working farm in the heart of the Mad River Valley. The Vermont Folklife Center invites alumni of the Summer Institute, curious educators, educational stakeholders, community-based artists, media makers, locals, and movers and shakers across the state to join us at the table for the whole day or just for dinner!
Day Retreat: 10 am - 4 pm
Dinner Event: 6 pm - 9 pm
A long table is an open forum that combines interactive activities, round table discussions, and a dinner party to bring people together to exchange dialogue about the changing landscape of Vermont's education. After a series of workshops and think tanks on our themes, the day will close with a long table dinner serving a family-style, farm-to-plate meal from on-site sources.
The Discovering Community Long Table will explore how The Vermont Folklife Center can best collaborate with educators, students, schools, and communities at this critical moment in education. The intent is to facilitate dialogue based on the diverse needs of Vermont communities to inform our current practice and to create an inspired environment to bring these parties to the table for both formal and informal discussions, planning, community-building, visioneering, and creative design.
The Long Table will serve as a reunion for Summer Institute alumni; expansion of our network of practitioners and media makers in an effort to recruit educational ambassadors of our program across the state; a community of like-minded educators and practitioners who can offer advice, support, and inspiration for each other’s professional practice. Attendees can expect to find meaningful new approaches to place-based programming in a proficiency-based system.