SCENE + SEEN
Stillpoint
A Place Where the Mandate is to Care for Each Other, Learn From Each Other, and Lift Each Other Up
By Abby Remer
Open for just under a year, Stillpoint Martha’s Vineyard has already made a meaningful connection to and impact on the Island community. Dedicated to education, Stillpoint distinguishes itself by inviting people from diverse backgrounds to suggest ideas and lead programming. The guidelines are simple–come to Stillpoint with ideas, and they will collaborate with you to bring them to fruition.
Executive director and founder Thomas Bena formed the nonprofit in 2021. The following year, Bena’s good friend and patron, Claudia Miller, who had transformed her 52-acre, 13-lot West Tisbury subdivision into a magical place to walk, be quiet, and enjoy nature, offered to sell 14 acres of it to Stillpoint and 26 acres to the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank at a significantly discounted price. Within a year, Bena was able to raise the necessary funds from private donors, and Stillpoint was underway.
Bena’s goal was to unite people with different perspectives, facilitating conversations, listening to one another, and exchanging ideas. In its first six months, over 4,000 people came through its doors. Bena says, “There have been 60 different programs, many of them ongoing, and 50 of those ideas came from the public. That was the whole thesis: What if we had an affordable community center that everyone could program as long as it aimed to uplift people and educate them?”
Assistant director Allison Simon says, “One of the things that’s special about Stillpoint is that we’ve given it a lot of breathing room to define itself organically.
This is for the community, and it’s up to the community to define what it will be.” Whether it be individuals or one of the nonprofits running programs here, I think we are getting a really unique plate of offerings and special events that is different from what you might see somewhere else.”
The breadth of Stillpoint’s programming is intriguing. Just a few examples include Naptime with David Stanwood (above), Healing Hour, and Financial Wellness on the Vineyard. An ongoing signature program is the Friday Night Forums, which take place in a public square-style setting, where participants discuss topics that affect us all.
They are specifically designed to hear different perspectives. Topics include How the Media Divides Us, How Wealth Inequality Changes the Vineyard, and What is the Deer’s Role in the Island Ecosystem? Stillpoint offers an affordable platform for experienced teachers and those seeking assistance in developing their ideas. You can rent the space for a program you want to provide, collaborate on an idea you are unsure about how to move forward with, or sponsor a program or series that Stillpoint would produce.
Bena hopes people ultimately walk away from their experience at Stillpoint with a sense of connection, joy, hope, and inspiration. Simon adds, “And maybe even just seeing something a little differently through something they heard or a connection with somebody.”
For more information, make a donation or Sponsor a Program, please visit: stillpointmv.org, Check out their on-going Event Calendar. Physical Location: 20 Stillpoint Meadows Road, West Tisbury