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.

About
28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell
Events
Wednesdays @ BGC
Join us this spring for weekly programming!





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).


Ivan Gaskell published “Display Displayed” in The Agency of Display: Objects, Framings and Parerga, edited by Johannes Grave, Christiane Holm, Valérie Kobi, and Caroline van Eck (Sandstein Verlag, 2018).

Aaron Glass participated in the workshop “The Museum as Archive: Past, Presents, and Futures” at California State University Channel Islands and organized the panel, “Reuniting Objects, Records, and Indigenous Knowledge in Digital Platforms,” at the International Conference of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museum, in Prior Lake, Minnesota, in October. On November 15, he will present a lecture entitled “Reassembling The Social Organization: Franz Boas, Indigenous Ontologies, and the Anthropology of Art” at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

François Louis published an article on “Rhyta in Medieval China” in the catalogue for the exhibition Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings, edited by Susanne Ebbinghaus (Harvard University Art Museums, 2018). In conjunction with that exhibition, he will present a paper, “Vessels, Bullion, and Banking: Early Silversmithing in China,” at the symposium, “Between Art and Asset: Silver Vessels from Antiquity to Today,” in November.

Ittai Weinyb recently presented papers at Syracuse University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology related to the exhibition, Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place, on view in the Gallery.

Catherine Whalen
will attend the American Studies Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, where she will be chair and commentator of the session, “States of Material Emergence: Object-based Explorations of Power and Political Expression, 1700-1980,” on November 10.