Greetings from West 86th Street! Much has happened since our last newsletter.

On Wednesday, April 29, leaders in the world of decorative arts, design history, and material culture came together at the annual Iris Foundation Awards Luncheon to celebrate those who have advanced our field in meaningful ways. As we showed our appreciation for William and Ellen Taubman (outstanding patrons), John Guy (outstanding lifetime achievement), and Matthew Yokobosky (outstanding mid-career scholar), and Sylvie Lhermite-King (outstanding dealer), we also raised more than $255,000 to support Bard Graduate Center student scholarships.

On May 1, Bard Graduate Center hosted a graduate student research symposium entitled “Sensing Matters: Bodies, Experiences, and Objects.” I am very proud of the second-year MA students who organized it with the goal of bringing together New York City–based graduate students and scholars from a range of institutions to share cross-disciplinary research.

Students completed their final exams by Friday, May 8, and the very next day, the first-year MA students departed for summer research and travel. Faculty members led study trips to Barbados, Paris, and Venice. Since their return on May 25, many first-year students have begun their internship experiences at institutions as diverse as the Benaki Museum in Athens, the Petit Palais in Paris, Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Arts and Design here in New York, Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts, and Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. Many are also doing craft workshops and training to deepen their research interests and gain professional experience outside the traditional internship format.

On Thursday, May 21, the graduating MA students presented their Qualifying Papers and Digital Projects to the BGC community and to their loved ones. It is my favorite day of the year because it represents the culmination of the students’ hard work and demonstrates the diverse topics that spark their scholarly interest. Two days later, twenty-two MA students and one PhD student received their degrees at Bard College. In this issue you can learn more about these outstanding emerging scholars.

As the Viollet-le-Duc Drawing Worlds exhibition came to a close on May 24, visitor numbers soared to more than 200 per day. It was a remarkable exhibition. If you were unable to attend, I urge you to peruse the online companion site created by BGC’s outstanding Digital Humanities / Digital Exhibitions program.

This summer, BGC’s staff is hard at work preparing for the fall semester. Like me, many faculty members are pursuing research projects and readying their fall courses. In addition to my ongoing work on the fall 2027 exhibition, Philip Webb: Truth in Beauty, I am eagerly preparing to return to the classroom; this fall I will teach Western Furniture from Antiquity to 1830.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer. I look forward to seeing you on 86th Street this fall for the opening of Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film in the BGC Gallery.



Susan Weber
Founder and Director