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).

Jeffrey Collins was the keynote speaker at the fifteenth David Nichol Smith Conference in Eighteenth-Century Studies, held at the University of Sydney from December 10 through 12 and devoted to “Ideas and Enlightenment in Long Eighteenth Century.” His address, “From Ditch to Nitch: Making the Hall of the Muses,” was sponsored by the research group devoted to “Undoing the Ancient” and drew on material explored in his fall seminar at BGC.

From January 6 through 10, Aaron Glass is presenting screenings of Edward S. Curtis’s 1914 film, In the Land of the Headhunters at events in Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the editor, with Brad Evans, of Return to the Land of the Head Hunters: Edward S. Curtis, the Kwakwaka’wakw, and the Making of Modern Cinema (University of Washington Press, 2014).

Hanna Hölling presented the keynote address, “The Aesthetics of Change: On the Relative Durations of the Impermanent,” and organized a panel discussion at the conference, “Authenticity in Transition: Changing Practices in Contemporary Art Making and Conservation,” organized by the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Arts, Scotland, on December 2.

Deborah L. Krohn is giving a presentation in Paris on January 8, “From Kitchen to Table in Early Modern Europe: Cookbooks as Mediators.” This is a session of the seminar, Pour une histoire de l’art et de la table, at the Institut national d’histoire de l’art.

Peter N. Miller chaired a roundtable discussion at the 129th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (January 2-6) on “Interdisciplinary Institutes and Humanities Research: Europe and the United States.” The panel consisted of Robert Dijkgraaf, director of the Institute for Advanced Study; Thomas Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute; Gerhard Wolf, director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence; and Simon Goldhill, director of the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities.