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).


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Amulet in the Form of a Ba as Human-Headed Bird. Reportedly from Saqqara, Egypt; Ptolemaic Period, 305?30 B.C.E. Gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, steatite, 1¼ x 2 11/16 x ? in. (3.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.804E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)


The Brooklyn Museum and Bard Graduate Center are entering a collaborative, multi-phase project aimed at re-thinking the presentation and study of American decorative arts.

Starting in fall 2017, Bard Graduate Center faculty and students and Brooklyn Museum curators will come together as a think tank to examine the collection, organization, display, and interpretation of the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive collection of American decorative arts, which will launch a series of courses on American decorative arts at the Brooklyn Museum, led by by Kevin Stayton, Curator Emeritus, along with Barry Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts, among others.

Open to all students enrolled in Bard Graduate Center’s MA and PhD programs the course will serially study parts of the museum’s collection and will have as its outcome the redesign of the display of the decorative arts collection. The partnership will be an ongoing, collaborative project focusing on the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive, world-renowned collection of American decorative arts. In addition to the collaborative course, students and conservators will examine individual objects through the lens of BGC’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-supported “Cultures of Conservation” initiative. Students will continue their collections-based work through summer internships that further and expand on course research.

The project will culminate in a full-scale exhibition, curated, in part, by students, at the Brooklyn Museum on the work of Brooklyn craftsmen, makers, artisans, and artists, and their place in the history of decorative arts and design. Participating students will have an unparalleled opportunity to discover and study one of the country’s great American decorative arts collections. Ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, the collection includes silver, glass, ceramics, pewter, and furniture. An array of period rooms, installed on the museum’s fourth floor, spanning from 1675 to 1929, provides context for the collection, offering visitors a window into American culture and domestic life. The Luce Center for American Art, on the fifth floor, displays additional treasures from the collection.

“It is an exciting opportunity to have fresh eyes and insights on our world-renowned decorative arts collections,” says Anne Pasternak, Brooklyn Museum Shelby White and Leon Levy Director. “We are looking forward to training the next generation of curators and art historians.” Bard Graduate Center Founder and Director Susan Weber adds, “The Brooklyn Museum is one of the great museums in the United States. Its collections of American decorative arts are deep and superb. It is a privilege for our students and faculty to have the opportunity to explore this vast and still under-studied landscape alongside the museum’s curators and conservators.”