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Upcoming Exhibitions
BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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Exhibitions

The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.



Finnish Modern Design: Utopian Ideals and Everyday Realities, 1930-1997 considered the development of Finland’s flourishing modern design culture as well as its relationship to broader political and cultural issues.

Beginning with the impact of the groundbreaking Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 Finnish Modern Design sought to illustrate the history of Finnish contributions to 20th-century design. It featured 140 objects reflecting the variety and high quality production of Finnish applied arts, including glass, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, textiles, and costume. In the gallery, object displays showed the inextricable link between Finnish modern design and the nation’s broader socioeconomic, political, and cultural landscape. The exhibition also highlighted the architectural context for the formation of a distinctly Finnish aesthetic with works by Alvar Aalto and architects Yrjo Lindegren, Aarne Ervi, Viljo Revell, and Aulius Blomstedt.

On view from February 27–June 14, 1998, the exhibition was curated by Marianne Aav and Nina Stritzler-Levine. It was organized by Bard Graduate Center with the Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki.
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Credits
Curated by Marianne Aav and Nina Stritzler-Levine. Organized by Bard Graduate Center with the Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki.