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).

Elissa Auther is the Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and the William and Mildred Lasden Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. In this role she provides the strategic direction and creative oversight for exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, and exhibition-related programming. She is the author of the groundbreaking study String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art. In addition, she has published widely on a diverse set of topics, including the history of modernism and its relationship to craft and the decorative, the material culture of the American counterculture, and feminist art. Her work on feminist art and culture also includes the co-direction of the public program Feminism & Co.: Art, Sex, Politics at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver from 2007 to 2017. In her role as a curator, recent exhibitions include, Surface/Depth: The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro (2018); Vera Paints A Scarf!: The Art and Design of Vera Neumann (2019) and Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle. Prior to her appointment at MAD she was Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Colorado. At BGC her teaching focuses on the intersections of craft, design, and contemporary art.