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).

Alexandra Casser (MA 2014) is currently interning at the Museum of Arts and Design where she is in charge of their social media campaign for the exhibition, NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial.

Alison Kowalski’s (MA 2014) essay “Art in Everyday Life and the Do-it-Yourself Soviet Fashion of Nadezhda Lamanova” has been awarded the Design History Society postgraduate prize.

Shannon Bell Price (MPhil 2014, PhD candidate) is acting assistant dean and visiting associate professor of fashion at Pratt Institute School of Design.

Colin Fanning (MA 2013) has been selected as curatorial fellow in the department of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The two-year fellowship, starting this September, will culminate in an exhibition drawn from the PMA’s permanent collection in summer 2016.

Lauren McDaniel (MA 2011) will begin her second year in the American Civilization PhD program at the University of Delaware, where she continues her study of U.S. cultural history, specifically modernism in graphic design.

Leigh Wishner (MA 2004) will be giving a paper entitled “Exhibited by the Yard: Fuller Fabrics’ ‘Modern Master’ Textiles in the Museum Context” at the Textile Society of America’s 14th Biennial Symposium, in Los Angeles September 10-14, 2014. The inspiration for it comes from a group of mid-twentieth-century textiles in LACMA’s permanent collection that were manufactured by Fuller Fabrics and made in collaboration with “Modern Master” artists including Picasso, Miró, Chagall, Dufy, and Léger. She has been very pleased to research permanent collection objects, and to potentially provide future installation/exhibition ideas. Many of the examples from this series were purchased from Cora Ginsburg LLC, where she previously worked for over a decade (and where BGC faculty member Michele Majer also works). She reports that it was rewarding to find a research topic that bridges these two periods in her life. Leigh has also recently been elected to the board of the Western Region of the Costume Society of America, where she will be serving as Programs co-chair. She encourages alums and faculty with engaging program ideas for the West Coast relating to fashion, adornment, textiles, and costume to get in touch with her.