Gund Institute Ateliers

Traditionally, the word "atelier" has referred to an artisan's workshop. At the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, we've adapted the term to describe problem-solving workshops conducted in local communities. This method of workshop-based teaching focuses a combination of guest lectures, interdisciplinary case study, and student design work on a specific socio-environmental issue being faced by a particular locality or region.

Gund ateliers take students out of the classroom and place them in the field where they're able to study a developmental dilemma firsthand and create the measurements, tools, and strategies necessary to resolve it. In addition to providing students with invaluable real-world experience, ateliers provide needful communities with working solutions to previously vexing challenges.

Ateliers are conducted around the world at all levels: local, national and international. In order to bring the expertise of Gund Institute fellows and students to bear on the maximum number of issues and provide our students with the widest possible range of learning experiences, there are no strict guidelines that qualify an issue or a community for an atelier.

Instead, ateliers are highly flexible exercises unencumbered by preconceived notions of applicability. They are applied to the resolution of all kinds of issues and to virtually any conflict between ecological and economic or other developmental interests. From a one-day examination of a highly localized issue to an intensive two week-long field study of a regional or global challenge, Gund ateliers occur wherever there is a need for the solutions they provide. Working in intimate collaboration with local institutions and other stakeholders, each atelier leaves a behind a vital legacy of hope even as it provides a wholly unique learning experience for all involved.

For more details on Gund Institute ateliers, please see How Ateliers Work.

To explore Gund ateliers currently underway around the world, please see Current Ateliers.

To review completed ateliers, please click here to visit our Atelier Report Archive