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).

Jeanne Gutierrez (MA 2012) will present a paper “Brilliant Currencies: The Jewelry Collections of Isabella Stewart Gardner” at the 2015 NCSA conference in Boston.

Susie Silbert’s (MA 2012) exhibition, Material Location, which investigates the current state of glassmaking and glass thinking in New York, opens at UrbanGlass in downtown Brooklyn on January 21. She is also a finalist for the American Craft Council Emerging Voices award, a 2014 - 2015 Fellow of the Emerging Leaders in the New York Arts, and new board member for the Furniture Society, a national organization committed to advancing the art of furniture.

In October, Emily Zilber (MA 2007) celebrated four years as Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This January, she will open the exhibition Nature, Sculpture, Abstraction and Clay: 100 Years of American Ceramics. An exciting look at this rich area of the MFA’s collection, it celebrates several recent gifts representing the Arts and Crafts movement, mid-century modernism, and studio craft ceramics.