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).

Martina D’Amato’s research interests include the intersection of revivalism and modernism in decorative arts and design, national artistic traditions and transnationalism, and the history and theory of collecting and museums. Her dissertation examines the political motivations behind collecting medieval and Renaissance art in nineteenth-century France and Italy, with a focus on the collections of Louis Carrand (1827-1888) and the Marquise Arconati-Visconti (1840-1923). She holds a BA from New York University (2009) and an MA from the BGC (2012). She has contributed to publications including Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013) and The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design (2015). Since 2015, she has worked at Cora Ginsburg LLC, where she researches 19th- and 20th-century textile design. She previously worked at the BGC as Curatorial Fellow for the exhibitions Visualizing 19th-Century New York (2014), The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing (2015), and Design by the Book: Illustrating the Chinese Ritual Classics (2017), as well as at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; the Frick Collection; and the New-York Historical Society.