About
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.

About
28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell
Events
Wednesdays @ BGC
Join us this spring for weekly programming!





MA/PhD
Number
Number
Course
Course
Professor
Professor
Location
Location
Day & Time
Day & Time
471
Americana Redux: Materializing Multiculturalism in the Postwar United States
Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
FRI 9:30am – 12:00pm

This course investigates how individuals and groups have deployed material culture to challenge, redefine, and expand constructs of citizenship and belonging in the United States …

More
471
Americana Redux: Materializing Multiculturalism in the Postwar United States
Catherine Whalen
2nd Floor Classroom
FRI 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This course investigates how individuals and groups have deployed material culture to challenge, redefine, and expand constructs of citizenship and belonging in the United States …

More
471
Americana Redux: Materializing Multiculturalism in the Postwar United States
Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
FRI 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This course investigates how individuals and groups have deployed material culture to challenge, redefine, and expand constructs of citizenship and belonging in the United States …

More
500
Objects in Context: A Survey of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture I
Catherine Whalen
Lecture Hall
MON 5:00pm – 7:30pm

This two-semester, team-taught course introduces incoming students to major historical developments in decorative arts, design, and material culture from antiquity to the present. Monday evening …

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501
Objects in Context: A Survey of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture II
Catherine Whalen
Lecture Hall
MON 5:00pm – 7:30pm

This two-semester, team-taught course introduces incoming students to major historical developments in decorative arts, design, and material culture from antiquity to the present. Monday evening …

More
501
Objects in Context: A Survey of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture II
Catherine Whalen
Remote
MON 5:00pm – 7:30pm

This two-semester, team-taught course introduces incoming students to major historical developments in the decorative and applied arts, design, and material culture from antiquity to the …

More
502
Approaches to the Object
Catherine Whalen, Ivan Gaskell
Lecture Hall
WED 9:30am – 12:00pm

This course is required for entering students who have not taken a course deemed comparable. Drawing on the expertise of BGC faculty, it introduces incoming …

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502
Approaches to the Object
Catherine Whalen, Ivan Gaskell
Lecture Hall
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This course is required for entering students who have not taken a course deemed comparable. Drawing on the expertise of BGC faculty, it introduces incoming …

More
502
Approaches to the Object
Ivan Gaskell, Catherine Whalen
Lecture Hall
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This course is required for entering students who have not taken a course deemed comparable. Drawing on the expertise of BGC faculty, it introduces incoming …

More
548
Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000: Diversity and Difference
Catherine Whalen
FRI 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar surveys the emergence of women designers and their contributions to American design from 1900 to 2020. It draws upon Pat Kirkham’s groundbreaking edited volume, …

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548
Women Designers in the USA, 1900–Present: Diversity and Difference
Catherine Whalen
2nd Floor Classroom
TUE 9:30am – 12:00pm

This seminar surveys the emergence of women designers and their contributions to American design from 1900 to the present. It draws upon Bard Graduate Center’s …

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606
The Colonial Revival
Catherine Whalen
2nd Floor Classroom
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar focuses on the Colonial Revival in the United States, a complex cultural phenomenon succinctly described as “national retrospection.” Chronologically, the course ranges from …

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622
Issues in Design History and Material Culture Studies
Freyja Hartzell, Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
THU 5:00pm – 7:30pm

This seminar introduces students to issues and debates within design history and material culture studies. It aims to provide an understanding of their development as …

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693
Craft and Design in the USA, 1945 to the Present
Catherine Whalen
2nd Floor Classroom
MON 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar examines the shifting boundaries of craft and design in the United States from World War II to the present. In the postwar era’…

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693
Craft and Design in the USA, 1945 to the Present
Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar examines the shifting boundaries of craft and design in the United States from World War II to the present. In the postwar era’…

More
693
Craft and Design in the USA, 1945 to the Present
Catherine Whalen
Lecture Hall
THU 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar examines the shifting boundaries of craft and design in the United States from World War II to the present. In the postwar era’…

More
774
The Material Culture of New York City: The Twentieth Century
Catherine Whalen
2nd Floor Classroom
MON 9:30am – 12:00pm

In this course we will study of the material culture of New York City in the twentieth century, its built environment, cultural landscape, and decorative …

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834
American Collectors and Collections
Catherine Whalen
Seminar Room
THU 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar explores the history, theory, and practice of collecting in the United States from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. Both …

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834
American Collectors and Collections
Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
FRI 9:30am – 12:00pm

This seminar explores the history, theory, and practice of collecting in the United States from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. Both …

More
845
American Craft, Design, and Folk Art in the 1920s and 1930s
Catherine Whalen
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

This seminar explores the intersection of craft, design, and ‘folk’ art in the United States during the years between World War I and II, specifically …

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877
Picturing Things: Photography as Material Culture
Aaron Glass, Catherine Whalen
5th Floor Classroom
WED 1:30pm – 4:00pm

Although photography is usually approached as a visual medium of image production and reproduction, photographs are also objects with their own unique material properties. They …

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878
French Furniture – Paris, 1650-1830
Ivan Gaskell, Catherine Whalen

The course will investigate how the city of Paris became the pre-eminent European center of artistic production and trendsetter in the field of the decorative …

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