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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).


PhD candidate Julie Bellemare has received two postdoctoral fellowships that she will pursue consecutively. In 2021–22, she will be the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she will work on a new project dealing with agates in Qing China. Then, in 2022–23, she will undertake a Henry Luce Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies Early Career Fellowship to publish her dissertation in a series of peer-reviewed articles. Julie will be presenting her research at the upcoming Institute of Fine Art and the Frick Collection Symposium on the History of Art.

Graduating MA student Juliana Fagua Arias has been awarded the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Twelve-Month Curatorial Internship in American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

First-year MA student Mackensie Griffin’s research article, A Seat at the Table: The Western Dining Table as a Symbol of Power, was published in the February issue of Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies.

PhD student Kate Sekules will conduct four in-person workshops at the Winterthur Sustainable Style Fair on May 15. These appearances are centered around her book, Mend! A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto, and her Instagram account, @visiblemend, which have recently been featured in ARTNews and Nylon.