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).

The National Endowment for the Arts has approved Bard Graduate Center Gallery’s exhibition, Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest, for a grant of $45,000. In addition to the exhibition, the grant will support associated public programs that feature Indigenous weaving practices. Shaped by Loom is the first online and gallery exhibition to showcase the American Museum of Natural History’s collection of Indigenous textiles from the greater American Southwest. Fifth-generation Navajo weavers Linda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas, additional guest weavers, loom and toolmakers, natural dye experts, multimedia experts, and other specialists from the Navajo Nation will share contemporary understanding of skill, expertise, and art of traditional weaving, bringing to life the objects in the exhibition.

According to Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA “is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide. … Projects such as this one with Bard Graduate Center strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”