Nowhere else on the Dartmouth College campus are resources so uniquely suited to providing all of Dartmouth's students with the opportunity for a rewarding personal creative experience as in the Student Workshops. They provide an environment in which to investigate the design and making of objects as a synthesis of multiple factors: use of materials, process of manufacture, relationships of form and function, esthetics and human needs. Here students of all levels of interest and experience find resources and opportunities to work directly with processes and materials in an intimate, unpressured environment in which students' ideas and initiatives are taken seriously.

Students learn and are often humbled by the realization that common everyday objects are not necessarily simple. They learn the value of precision, the rewards of craftsmanship, the necessity of understanding one's material. They also discover that flexible thinking and courage are essential to invention and creative action.

The workshops provide a supportive environment which nurtures creativity and encourages exploration of personal expression. Excellence is achieved not from requirement, but from the students' own interest and passion.