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).

Shuning Wang

From June 25 to July 25, I joined the Conservation Internship Program organized by MOCHE, Inc. Based in Huanchaco, Peru, it emphasized conservation of archaeological textiles in combination with excavation fieldwork, archaeological site and museum visits, and safe storage management.

Gabriel Prieto, archaeologist at Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, generously welcomed us to participate in his current excavation project, and the Chimú and colonial textiles we worked on also came from his past excavations at the sites of Pampa la Cruz and the Church of Huanchaco. Through the program, I acquired basic skills of textile conservation—from documentation and cleaning to analysis and packing. I also gained exposure to the issues of site conservation as we discussed plans for a tourist path to Huaca Menocucho, an archaeological site in the Moche Valley, that would protect the site and benefit the surrounding local community. Visits to Chan Chan, Huacas de Moche, and the El Brujo Archaeological Complex facilitated our research discussions.

Interested in becoming a curator rather than a conservator, and with no previous conservation experience, I was drawn to this program because of my coursework and research experience gained at BGC over the past year. “Damage, Decay, and Conservation” co-taught by Professor Ivan Gaskell and “Cultures of Conservation” Fellow Jessica Walthew, instilled in me the recognition of the importance of collaboration between art historians/curators and conservators—a recurring theme at BGC—and thus the desire to look from the other side. Through the internship, I gained a deeper understanding of how excavation and conservation affect the condition and, in turn, the study and display of objects. The multi-sensory knowledge germinated from processing the objects is invaluable and transferable to my future research in human-object relationship in different contexts such as in early modern Europe.

— Shuning Wang