Welcome to Bard Graduate Center Gallery.

We invite you to visit our intimate townhouse Gallery on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to discover pioneering exhibitions on decorative arts, design history, and material culture. Our research-driven exhibitions are organized with leading scholars, curators, and institutions worldwide, and showcase a rich array of objects comprised of loans from public and private collections, many never before on view in New York City. With a commitment to investigating under-recognized topics in the history of design, our exhibitions provide a critical framework for understanding the context in which historical and contemporary objects were made, used, collected, and displayed. These investigations, in turn, lead us to a fuller understanding of the present through the lens of the past.

On our website you’ll find information about current, upcoming, and past exhibitions, Focus Projects, Gallery publications, artists-in-residence and tools to help you plan your visit. An important part of our exhibition and research initiatives, Focus Projects are part of an innovative program organized and led by faculty members or postdoctoral fellows through seminars and workshops that culminate in small-scale academically rigorous exhibitions and publications. Students, assisted by Gallery curators, staff designers and media specialists, are closely involved from genesis through execution and contribute to each project’s form and content. The Focus Project promotes experimentation in display, interpretation, and the use of digital media reflecting Bard Graduate Center’s commitment to exhibitions as integral to scholarly activity.

A full slate of public and research programs, public tours, and opportunities for school groups and educators compliment each exhibition. Video and new media interactives enrich the visitor experience in the Gallery. Read on for articles about current projects, dispatches from our curators, and go behind the scenes as we prepare exhibitions. Bard Graduate Center Gallery is just a few steps from Central Park and is easily accessible by public transportation. Click here to plan your visit. We look forward to welcoming you.