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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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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).




This article originally appeared in the March 2020 edition of Apollo: The International Art Magazine. Reprinted with permission.

The first time I visited the majolica collection of one of the largest lenders to our forthcoming exhibition, I remember feeling a bit bewildered by the concentration of material in front of me—shelves upon shelves of teapots and game pie dishes, jugs and ornamental figures, garden seats and jardinières—many in the form of molded animals or embellished with exuberant historicist decoration. I recall thinking, where does one begin to understand this glorious excess? The combination of vibrant colors and sheer diversity of objects was reminiscent of a Victorian interior in its density of display, and yet it complemented this sleek Manhattan apartment in a wholly contemporary manner. It was the first of many paradoxes that engagement with majolica would present—and this was just the beginning of an Alice “Through the Looking-Glass” type of visual journey that has culminated in the exhibition and catalogue Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States, 1850–1915.

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