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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.

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Applications for our MA program may be submitted until March 1, 2025





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).


Bard Graduate Center, a member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH), offers long and short-term fellowships for researchers working on the cultural history of the material world and welcomes scholars working across art history, architecture and design history, economic and cultural history, history of technology, philosophy, anthropology, and archaeology. Below are the fellows who will be in residence during the 2019–20 academic year.

Jan Eike Dunkhase will be resident at the BGC until the end of November working on Heidegger’s thinking about history in the 1920’s and its impact on later 20th-century historiography.

Soon Kai Poh is BGC’s Mellon Fellow in Cultures of Conservation this academic year. He will be working on organizing the seminar meetings at the Cooper-Hewitt that are aimed at developing the upcoming exhibition on Conserving Active Matter (spring 2022).