Today Rick and I spent the afternoon at the Centennial celebration on Main Street in Amherst. Here’s Rick, with Suny Monk (Director of the VCCA and spouse of Professor Joe Monk, some of whose work you can see here): look closely and you’ll see that Suny artfully fashioned a dress appropriate for the occasion from several of the souvenir T-shirts! 
I was struck by the fact that the College was founded before the town was. Generally, in the early 19th century, towns newly settled by people migrating west actively encouraged the founding of colleges. The thinking was that a college would draw educated citizens to the new community and create cultural resources from which all residents would benefit. I’m not sure I’m personally familiar with another situation in which a college was founded before the nearest town, so I had just assumed Amherst was older than Sweet Briar. . .
Whichever came first, however, it’s clear that healthy towns and healthy colleges are good for one another. Recently I spoke to the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, which was having its annual awards dinner on our campus. To prepare for that occasion, I did a little research and learned some interesting things:
- More than 70% of Sweet Briar’s employees live in Amherst County.
- This year, 76 Sweet Briar students were doing student teaching, internships, volunteer work, or were in some other way involved in the Amherst public schools.
- On average, about a dozen students from Amherst are admitted to Sweet Briar each year.
- Last year, 124 programs or events were open to residents of Amherst. Some of these were art or library exhibits, some were lectures, some were professional dance or theater events, some were student performances. Most were free of charge.
The original 1906 Sweet Briar Institute charter states that the object of the school is to “impart to its students such education . . . as shall be best fit them to be useful members of society.” It’s important to me that the College itself also be a useful member of society; I hope our Amherst neighbors are as glad to have us as we are to be here.
One of the Centennial celebrations was a street art project, a joint effort of the town and VCCA. Artists painted the parking meters with local scenes. Here’s “ours” — 
painted by local artist Brooke Irwin.
