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).

Dr. Malvoisin is the Associate Curator of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Her research specializes in archaeological ceramic studies and researches the inter-regional relationships between Nile Valley sites and West African sites via Meroitic pottery and wider ancient trade industries. Malvoisin is a curator and scholar of ancient African history with research interests in a globalized ancient world through the study of material culture and trade and from the perspective of African regions. In addition to the Brooklyn Museum, she has worked on the collections of Global Africa and Egypt and Nubia at the Royal Ontario Museum and as a ceramicist for the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition at Arizona State University. Her scholarship has been supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and the American Society of Overseas Research, among others. Previous curatorial projects include Africa Fashion and Sakimatwemtwe: A Century of Reflection on the Arts of Africa at the Brooklyn Museum.