About
Upcoming Exhibitions
BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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About

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).


Christian Larsen (MA 2011, PhD candidate) is the recipient of a 2014 Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation Exhibition Award. The grant of $150,000 will be used toward realizing his first exhibition as curator at The Wolfsonian, Florida International University. Entitled Philodendron: From Pan-Latin Exotic to American Modern, the project evolved from his BGC coursework and dissertation. Through the award, the Foundation seeks to give life to thematic exhibitions of contemporary art that are fresh and experimental in nature.

Kristina Preussner (MA 2009) was married at the New York Botanical Garden on May 31. Fellow alums Adam Brandow (MA 2010), Elleanor Dew (PhD 2014), Keelin Burrows (MA 2009), Maggie MacTiernan (MA 2009), and Sarah Choi (MA 2009) joined in the celebration.

Haneen Rabie (MA 2009) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Her current research addresses a category of objects, introduced in the early 1990s, that incorporate existing (waste) objects. Reuse Design carries broad implications as well as potentialities for design-historical and social critique. In February Haneen presented aspects of this work at the College Art Association annual conference and at the Savannah College of Art and Design biannual Art History Symposium. Later in the spring Haneen traveled to Paris, London, and sites in the Netherlands to interview designers and view objects in situ. Haneen lives with her family in Princeton. Her daughter, Liberty, turns four in August.

Allison Stielau (MA 2009), a PhD candidate in the History of Art Department at Yale currently doing research work in Germany for her dissertation, has been named a Predoctoral Fellow in Residence at the Getty Research Institute for the 2014-15 academic year.

Michelle Hargrave (MA 2004) has been named a board member of the American Friends of Attingham and the Association of Art Museum Curators. For the second year in row she was a member of AAM’s China Connect Program, which brings together US and Chinese museum professionals.

Jennifer Scanlan (MA 2004) curated Back to Eden: Contemporary Artists Wander the Garden, which is opening on June 26 at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City.

Regine Stone (MA 2004) launched her first distinctive, handmade jewelry collection in May 2011. Just like lipstick and ballet flats, a necklace always defines her personal style. One particular necklace, she says, garnered so many compliments that she designed variations on the theme. Her creative mantra is: “Make a go-to accessory that would be artisanal, curated and unexpected. “

Marlyn Musicant (MA 2003) is the curator of No Further West: The Story of Los Angeles Union Station on view through August 10, 2014 at the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library. The related publication, Los Angles Union Station, featuring original research and beautiful architectural drawings from the archive of the Getty Research Institute, is available from amazon.com and other retailers.

Marianna Poutasse (MA 1996) has written a short book entitled Power of Place: Herman Melville in the Berkshires which was published in early June by the Berkshire Historical Society.