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).

Persephone Allen (MA ‘17) was recently promoted to curator of programs and engagement and the American Folk Art Museum.

Natalie DeQuarto (MA ‘21) was appointed assistant curator at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT.

Andrew Gardner (MA ‘15) was part of the curatorial team for Automania at MoMA, along with former faculty member Juliet Kinchin.

Savannah’s Telfair Museums appointed Elyse Gerstenecker (MA ‘08) curator of historical collections.

Anne Hilker (PhD ‘21) presented a talk about “Erica Wilson: The Original Hand Embroidery Influencer” for the Royal School of Needlework in September. Hilker and her husband, the Honorable Robert D. Sack, also welcomed current PhD candidate Diane Yang back to the US this fall after two years in Shanghai.

Pallavi Patke (MA ‘18) recently started a new job as a conversation designer for AI-driven chatbots.

Ann Marguerite Tartsinis (MA ‘11, Bard Graduate Center Gallery Associate Curator, 2010–16) has been awarded a Terra Foundation for American Art Research Travel Grant to conduct research in London and Paris for her Stanford University Department of Art and Art History dissertation entitled “Modernism in Pieces: Transatlantic Visual Culture Between the Wars.”

Katie Tycz (MA ‘13) was awarded an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She will be working on her postdoctoral project on printed prayers in Italy, 1460–1660 at the Humanities Center at the Moore Institute.

Madeline Warner (MA ‘20) accepted a position as development associate in institutional giving at MoMA.

Designing Motherhood by Michelle Millar Fisher and Amber Winick (MA’ 13) has been published by MIT Press. Her exhibition of the same name is open at the Center for Architecture and Design until November 13 and the Mütter Museum until May 1, 2022.