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).

On September 12, Jennifer Mass, gave a presentation on the restoration history of the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Roman marble Bacchus (a.k.a. the Raleigh Bacchus) for Virtual Bacchus Scholars Day on the provenance, history, and conservation of this important work.

Deborah Krohn appeared in the documentary film, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, which follows celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi as he assembles a star-studded team of the world’s most innovative pastry chefs to put on a Versailles-themed culinary gala at the Met.

The Eileen Gray catalogue, created to accompany the exhibition of the same name, co-edited by Nina Stritzler-Levine, was awarded the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architectural Book Award for 2020 at a ceremony conducted online on October 16. Accepting the award, Stritzler-Levine acknowledged BGC, Yale University Press, co-editor Cloé Pitiot and designer Irma Boom, and all of the contributors to the catalogue. She remarked, “The awarding of an architecture prize to our book has special meaning. In the exceptionally versatile and extensive body of work and practices Gray engaged in, arguably architecture is the one that is at the same time revered and misunderstood. By that I mean the reverence for E1027, the exceptional house situated in such a dramatic way on the cliffs overlooking the Bay of Monaco in Roquebrune cap Martin. We must understand that architecture for Eileen Gray is the macro and the micro worlds she created, the interiors, the spatial journey, the situating of the rooms in relation to light, function, and the meaning of what constitutes a modern home. To be recognized as an architect, as a woman architect of that iconic house, however, is problematic because the overall body of architectural work, despite the efforts of scholars Caroline Constant, Cloe of course, Jennifer Goff and Renaud Barres it remains in a shadow of doubt about authorship. The total body of Eileen Gray’s work consists mainly of unbuilt projects and renovations like the houses she designed for herself. So to be acknowledged in this way contributes greatly to legitimizing Eileen Gray as a pioneer woman architect of the twentieth century, and we are especially grateful to you for that affirmation.”