In 2006-2007 Sarah Lawrence College and Dartington College of the Arts inaugurated an exchange program that offers Sarah Lawrence and Dartington students an opportunity to participate in a unique cross-cultural experience. Dartington College of the Arts, located near the picturesque town of Totnes in South Devon, on the South Coast of England, has an international reputation for its diverse and innovative programs and resources and the quality of its teaching and research. It is a unique arts environment in that all of its students and faculty work across subject boundaries and participate in a wide range of performance and creative arts disciplines: music, theater, choreography, visual arts, writing, and arts and cultural management. Its academic staff consists of resident artists and scholars who regularly collaborate with guest teachers, performers, and researchers. Its performing resources in music, for instance, include an eclectic range of contemporary, percussion, and world music ensembles. Its facilities include a major research and information and technology library, extensive computer-based music studios, a spectacular concert space in the original Dartington Hall, four dance studios, a costume shop, an art gallery, and a student union which includes an outside swimming pool. It is set in a landscape of farmland and moors and coastline that is a source of inspiration for its students, faculty and guests.

Sarah Lawrence students will take six components in their chosen discipline (music performance, music composition, or a creative synthesis of both), self-directed work related to a choice of topics, and supporting practical and musicological studies and/or work in another arts discipline. There is also the opportunity to participate in the five-week Dartington International Summer School. Students with a keen interest in experimental music and media are encouraged to explore this opportunity in greater detail. This is a competitive exchange. The Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Music Program will select the participating candidates from the U. S. side. Dartington students will experience the Sarah Lawrence system where music is taken as part of a broad liberal arts program.

Dartington Hall, founded in the late 14th century, is the centerpiece of a private estate of approximately 850 acres near Totnes in South Devon where Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst established a unique center for an “experiment in rural reconstruction” in 1925. The Elmhirst’s belief in the importance of the arts in everyday life allowed for a wide range of arts practitioners to be invited or attracted to Dartington in the early days, including Mark Tobey, Bernard Leach, Jooss-Leder School of Dance and the Ballet Jooss, Rudolph Laban, Michael Chekhov, Cecil Collins, Imogen Holst, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Michael Tippett, the Amadeus String Quartet, Ravi Shankar, Viyhat and Imrat Khan, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Francis Poulenc, Witold Lutoslawski, and John Cage.

Students should familiarize themselves with the differences in musical notation systems between the United States and Europe. There are numerous websites that compare musical terms in different languages. We recommend the following: http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/ and http://ninagilbert.googlepages.com/British.html

For further information about SLC Music Abroad Programs please contact:

For further information about and to apply to SLC Study Abroad Programs please contact: