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).

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Bard Graduate Center’s Chief Curator and Associate Gallery Director Marianne Lamonaca, who was appointed president of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) and AAMC Foundation last November, began her two-year term after the full membership ratified her nomination at their 2019 Annual Conference & Meeting in May.

“We congratulate Marianne on this appointment. I know her longstanding curatorial experience will be a great asset to the AAMC,” said Gallery Director and Director of Curatorial Affairs Nina Stritzler Levine. “It is wonderful to have a decorative arts curator as President of the AAMC.”

Lamonaca has been at the BGC Gallery since 2012. Most recently she was co-curator with Ittai Weinryb and Caroline Hannah of the acclaimed exhibition Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place (fall 2018). She previously served as associate director for curatorial affairs and education at The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, from 2006 - 2012, where she was the recipient of the 2001 Presidential Award for Achievement and Excellence, Florida International University’s highest annual honor. In addition to a wide range of exhibition and publication projects, Marianne served as curatorial coordinator for The Artful Truth–Healthy Propaganda Arts Project, a statewide arts education project organized in conjunction with the State of Florida Department of Health, Office of Tobacco Control (1998–2001). She also managed projects funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services.

A native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Lamonaca began her museum career at the Brooklyn Museum as assistant curator of decorative arts (1989-1992). She has published on a variety of subjects related to twentieth-century decorative arts and design, with a particular emphasis on Italy. In 2008 she was awarded an American Academy in Rome fellowship. Marianne holds an M.A. in the history of decorative arts from Parsons The New School for Design/Cooper-Hewitt Museum and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been an AAMC member since 2004 and served previously as VP of Communications on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, as well as participating on various committees, and hosting programs for the organization.