Bard Graduate Center is devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through research, advanced degrees, exhibitions, publications, and events.

Bard Graduate Center advances the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through its object-centered approach to teaching, research, exhibitions, publications, and events.

At BGC, we study the human past and present through their material expressions. We focus on objects and other material forms—from those valued for their aesthetic elements to the ordinary things used in everyday life.

Our accomplished interdisciplinary faculty inspires and prepares students in our MA and PhD programs for successful careers in academia, museums, and the private sector. We bring equal intellectual rigor to our acclaimed exhibitions, award-winning catalogues and scholarly publications, and innovative public programs, and we view all of these integrated elements as vital to our curriculum.

BGC’s campus comprises a state-of-the-art academic programs building at 38 West 86th Street, a gallery at 18 West 86th Street, and a residence hall at 410 West 58th Street. A new collection study center will open at 8 West 86th Street in 2026.

Founded by Dr. Susan Weber in 1993, Bard Graduate Center has become the preeminent institute for academic research and exhibition of decorative arts, design history, and material culture. BGC is an accredited unit of Bard College and a member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH).

The BGC is pleased to announce the expansion of our Focus Gallery website for the exhibition Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast, that opened in January 2011. Conceived by BGC Professor Aaron Glass, who was the exhibition curator, the new Objects of Exchange site brings to public attention the on-going research Professor Glass has conducted with his graduate students on aspects of the Northwest Coast collections at the American Museum of Natural History that we were unable to include in the exhibition. These additions further enhance the already extensive multimedia documentation of the exhibition on the website. This is a unique source of knowledge and information about Objects of Exchange.

We would like to congratulate Professor Glass, and acknowledge the excellent work he has done with our graduate students. We would also like to thank Vanessa Rossi, Digital Content Developer, for her important contribution to making the new content available on the website.

In addition to this newly expanded gallery site, we are also using our website to keep you better informed about our academic and cultural activities by posting videos of lectures by prominent scholars and guests at the BGC. We encourage you to check the site for information about all of the BGC programs, weekly updates on news and events, and to go to our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Please visit the expanded Focus Gallery website.