Greetings from West 86th Street!

I hope your fall season has been as rich and vibrant as ours at Bard Graduate Center. The months have flown by so quickly; students are taking exams and turning in final papers this week. They are looking forward to a restful semester break, and I hope that you, too, have a moment to rest and relax before diving into the new year.

Nothing delights me more than the successes of our students and alumni. It is especially gratifying when we can connect these two groups, as we did many times this fall. It was a pleasure to organize a discussion between Billy DeGregorio (MA ’12, PhD ’21) and current PhD student Elena Kanagy-Loux, who met at the Ratti Center to discuss Billy’s new book and their respective experiences at the Met and at BGC. I was very proud of BGC’s many connections to Cooper Hewitt’s exhibition, A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes, and you can learn more about that in this issue as well.

In the Gallery, it has been wonderful to see the praise that SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa has received in the New York Times, Ebony, Elle Décor, Essence, Hyperallergic, and the Architect’s Newspaper. If you haven’t yet seen it, I urge you to go before it closes on December 31.

This fall our Public Humanities + Research team worked with SIGHTLINES curator and associate professor Drew Thompson, BGC / Brooklyn Museum postdoctoral fellow in the arts of Africa Annissa Malvoisin, and the staff of the Brooklyn Museum to convene a two-day symposium called Exhibiting Africa. They brought together an impressive group of curators and scholars to reflect on this pivotal moment in approaches to the display of African art. Knowing that the conversations generated by the symposium may resonate in the field in the years to come, I am very pleased to share video recordings of each session on BGC’s YouTube channel.

Looking ahead, I hope you will mark these dates in your calendar. On February 23, the Gallery reopens with Sonia Delaunay: Living Art. Curated by Laura Microulis (MA ’96, PhD ’16) and Waleria Dorogova, it presents new research along with many objects that have never before been on view in the United States. Please also save the date for the annual Iris Foundation Awards luncheon on April 3.

Everything that we do at BGC depends on the generosity of our donors. It would be an honor to count you among our supporters this year.

See you in 2024!


Susan Weber

Director and Founder