Bard Graduate Center is a research institute for advanced, interdisciplinary study of diverse material worlds. We support the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students as well as resident fellows, guest curators and artists, and visiting speakers.

On Tuesday, September 10, 2013, BGC hosted the first of four gatherings in a new speaking series entitled, “Conservation Conversations.” In these public research dialogues, a conservator and a professor are paired together for an evening of presentation and conversation about issues at the core of the “Cultures of Conservation” initiative.

Last night’s guests were David Bomford, Director of Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, who spoke on, “Connoisseurship: The Rembrandt Paradigm,” and Carlo Ginzburg, Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies at UCLA, who presented a paper entitled, “Small Differences: Ekphrasis and Connoisseurship.”

This inaugural event in the “Conservation Conversations” series was a great success as attendees filled the Lecture Hall and audiences near and far able to watch the dialogue remotely through live streaming (to access the BGC archive of live-streamed events, click here).