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).

Andrew Kircher is a creative producer, dramaturg, teacher, and artist. He previously led The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Initiative—which pioneered new approaches to creative development and arts entrepreneurship—and served as the associate director of the international Under the Radar Festival and as General Manager of Ars Nova. He has collaborated on interactive artworks with 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Flako Jimenez, and Janani Balasubramanian, among others, and is a member of the Guild of Future Architects, a curator of the Prelude Festival, a 2020 Sundance Fellow, and a Brown Institute for Media Innovation Magic Grant recipient. In his younger years, he ran a comedy club and wrote voicemail greetings read by Britney Spears and Lance Bass. He has a PhD in theatre from the CUNY Graduate Center (dissertation entitled The Dramaturgies of Intellectual Property Law), and a masters in theatre history and criticism from Brooklyn College, where he taught for many years in the Performance and Interactive Media Arts program.