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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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BGC Gallery reopens this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.

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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.



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Unknown maker, Tlingit
Cedar bark, mountain goat wool, leather, calico, puffin beaks
Collected by George T. Emmons in 1916
American Museum of Natural History 16.1/1613 C

In the late nineteenth century, Chilkat robes and other fabrics were sometimes cut into strips by Tlingit potlatch hosts and distributed to rival chiefs as a conspicuous sign of wealth. Recipients occasionally assembled the fragments into new garments, such as this legging—one component of a full set of dance regalia made from recycled Chilkat cloth. In such cases, the singular robes with their complete designs ceased to merely display crests, while the multiple pieces were reused and revalued. The legging is trimmed in floral patterned calico (a Euro American trade item) as well as leather fringe ornamented with puffin beaks (popular in Native trade networks), which make a clacking sound when struck against each other during use. It was surely danced: it features worn ties, a generally soiled appearance, the acrid smell of smoke, and bits of eagle down from a chief’s headdress matted in the fringe. As ceremonial objects were considered more precious by their owners after they had been validated through use, these qualities likely added both ritual prestige and exchange value to the object.


Click here for a discussion about this object (Donna Cranmer)

Tags for Interactive Tag Cloud: multiples, repurposing