What is design? Is it an object, a process, or a way of engaging with the world? Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, industrialization galvanized design across Europe and North America, through new approaches to making and consuming. At the same time, trade, travel, diplomatic exchange, universal expositions, and the exploitation of European colonies introduced new material and aesthetic terms into the budding Euro-American design vocabulary. Conversely, East Asian conceptions and pursuits of modernity during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries developed both in response to Western influences, and via their own cultural traditions during a period of political upheaval. Studying this history means exploring how a flood of new things and ideas impacted how people lived and understood their lives—as modern. The study of design operates at intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability to advance the cause of a more equitable future. BGC cultivates an expansive understanding of design through courses on topics from design and biology in the nineteenth century, to design as utopia,” to “Japonisme” Faculty-curated exhibitions include Dollatry: Playing with Likeness (2025), Jan Tschichold and the New Typography, and Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference. Relevant symposia have included: Re-Forming Modernism: Craft, Design, and Architecture at the Bauhaus, Conversations on Access and Design, and Global Legacies of Arts and Crafts.
The rapid industrialization that birthed modern design also provoked an important backlash. Condemning mechanized mass production–along with the social ills it had spawned–Western artisans and activists turned to the materials and processes of handcraft, along with the sensory and cognitive benefits of making, to inform their creation of everyday things. Yet, while handcraft and industrial design have frequently opposed one another, they still share considerable historical and theoretical territory. BGC advances contemporary discourse about craft through courses, lectures, and symposia including Shared Ground: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Craft Studies, as well as digital projects like Voices in Studio Glass History: Art and Craft, Maker and Place, and the Critical Writings and Photography of Paul Hollister and the Bard Graduate Center Craft, Art & Design Oral History Project.
The rapid industrialization that birthed modern design also provoked an important backlash. Condemning mechanized mass production–along with the social ills it had spawned–Western artisans and activists turned to the materials and processes of handcraft, along with the sensory and cognitive benefits of making, to inform their creation of everyday things. Yet, while handcraft and industrial design have frequently opposed one another, they still share considerable historical and theoretical territory. BGC advances contemporary discourse about craft through courses, lectures, and symposia including Shared Ground: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Craft Studies, as well as digital projects like Voices in Studio Glass History: Art and Craft, Maker and Place, and the Critical Writings and Photography of Paul Hollister and the Bard Graduate Center Craft, Art & Design Oral History Project.
