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!





About

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).


Tobias Locker is an Adjunct Lecturer of Art History in the Humanities Department of the Pompeu Fabra University and at CIEE Barcelona. He has taught at numerous institutions, including Liverpool University and Saint Louis University (Madrid campus). His research focuses on the decorative arts of the historic Baroque and Rococo with a special interest in furniture as well as on the nineteenth and twentieth century revivals of these art periods within distinct national contexts. He has lectured and published on these topics, including the book chapter “A Prussian manufactory of gilt bronzes à la française: Johann Melchior Kambly (1718–84) and the adoption of Parisian savoir-faire” in French Bronzes (Archetype, 2014) and the article “The Baroque in the Construction of a National Culture in Francoist Spain: An Introduction” in Bulletin of Spanish Studies (Vol.91.5, 2014). He received his PhD from the Technical University in Berlin. At Bard Graduate Center, he will be conducting research on a Project entitled, Rococo for the Spanish Court: The Interiors of Mattia Gasparini in the European Context, which focuses on the person and the production of this skilled Italian artist who became court painter for Charles III of Spain and left his mark in the decoration of various interiors of the Royal Palace of Madrid.