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).

In late October, Visiting Professor Georgios Boudalis led a field trip to the Morgan Library as part of his course “In Focus: The Making of the Early Codex and the Crafts of Late Antiquity,” which is working towards a Focus Project exhibition planned for February 2018. The purpose of the visit was to view some of the original early bound codices that have been discussed in class and study the evolution of the codex from the earlier wax tablet codices to their later medieval structures.

The class was shown a set of a five wax tablet codices from the sixth century, the famous Glazier codex (in its original sixth-century binding), several decorated covers from the ninth- to tenth-century Hamuli Coptic codices, as well as an Ethiopic codex and two Syriac codices. Comparing the codices written in different languages, and to an extent bound in the context of different bookbinding traditions, it was possible to see that in fact the various bookbinding traditions around the Mediterranean—especially its eastern part—shared common technical and decorative features until well after the medieval period. The class viewed some of the detached covers of Coptic codices, which Bard Graduate Center will be asking to borrow for the Focus Project exhibition, and discussed the patterns and techniques used to decorate them and how such techniques and patterns can be found in other artifacts of the same period, such as shoes. During the trip, students also had the opportunity to visit the library, see some of the manuscripts and printed books on display, and view current exhibitions.