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 November, Ivan Gaskell published “Portraiture Portrayed,” in Portraits and Philosophy, ed. Hans Maes (London and New York: Routledge). He participated in the workshop, The Politics of Collecting and Knowledge Production at the University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, presenting the introductory address, “Fear and Loathing in Museums and Indigenous Communities: Unlikely Lessons from Roger Fry.” In December, he co-chaired the workshop he organized with Martin van Gelderen on the etchings of Rembrandt van Rijn, Rembrandt: Lasting Impressions, at the Advanced Study Institute of the Georg-August University, Göttingen. He gave the paper, “Face to Face with Rembrandt.”

Catherine Whalen and BGC PhD candidate Anne Hilker co-chaired the session “Between Making and Knowing: Kits in the Learning of Craft and Art” at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago. Speakers included: Jennifer Way (University of North Texas), Shirley Wajda (Enfield Shaker Village), and Emily Schlemowitz (Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts). Catherine Whalen also was a panelist at the “Designing the Design History Curriculum” idea exchange roundtable.

Ittai Weinryb organized a session at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago. The session, titled “Art and Frontier” centered on art and material culture in frontier societies. Speakers included: Aaron Hyman (Johns Hopkins University, Nany Um (SUNY Binghamton), Jennifer Raab (Yale University) and Richard Teverson (Fordham University)

Deborah Krohn gave a talk at The Fitzwilliam Museum, at the University of Cambridge titled “Food Service by the Book in Early Modern Europe”, which explored several cookbooks, many of them illustrated, published in several European languages between 1550 and 1800. She also attended the Centre for Visual Culture Inaugural conference in Cambridge, where she gave a talk titled “Practicing what we Teach”.

Jennifer Mass was featured in The New York Times, for her research on Edvard Munch’s 1920 version of “The Scream”.

Aaron Glass’s exhibition The Story Box: Franz Boas, George Hunt and the Making of Anthropology, received a featured review in the special issue of Museum Worlds.