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).

Graduate Internship:
Blue: The Tatter Textile Library

Digital Project Requirement:
Spring 2020 Interlaced Traditions course

Qualifying Paper:
On Anne Wilson and Winding the Warp: Embodied and Tacit Knowledge in Contemporary Textile Art

Describe one surprising discovery during your QP research:
I would like to continue developing the topic in much further depth. At first I thought I would be satisfied with the length of this, but I have much more to say.

Next Steps:
I will be working as the Managing Editor of the Tatter Journal and Tatter blog at Tatter Library in Brooklyn. I am also excited to work on Bard Graduate Center’s Fields of the Future podcast with my classmate Juliana Fagua Arias and to participate in a one month art and research residency in Oaxaca to perform textile research with the travel and research fund. I also have my own textile art practice where I make one-of-a-kind handwoven and naturally dyed textiles. I hope to one day teach textile history and textile art at an undergraduate level.