Research at the BGC

The BGC sponsors a rich array of research activities, from our weekly seminar series to special symposia hosted throughout the year.

The Bard Graduate Center Library is a non-circulating research collection supporting advanced studies in the decorative arts, design, garden history, landscape studies, and culture. The Library's collection comprises approximately 40,000 volumes, including rare books, microforms, and videos.

About the BGC

The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute committed to studying the cultural history of the material world. Our degree program, research projects, and exhibition space together work to suggest a new field of questions at the crossroads where the decorative arts, design history, and material culture studies meet. 

Degree Programs

The BGC offers two programs of study, one leading to a master of arts degree and the other to a doctor of philosophy degree. Students in these programs can select from a wide array of courses dealing with various aspects of the cultural history of the material world.

For information about fall open houses, click here. 

Apply to the BGC

Main Gallery

Opening September 21, 2012

From September 21, 2012, to February 3, 2013, the Bard Graduate Center will present Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010, an exhibition that uses New York City as a lens through which to explore the extraordinary development and spectacular pageantry of the American circus.