Bard Graduate Center is a research institute for advanced, interdisciplinary study of diverse material worlds. We support the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students as well as resident fellows, guest curators and artists, and visiting speakers.

Photo by Fresco Arts Team.

Our Public Humanities + Research department focuses on making scholarly work widely available and accessible through the coordination of the fellowship program and public programming that combines academic research with exhibition-related events. Across the institution—from the classroom to the gallery, from publications to this website—we utilize digital media to facilitate and share original research. This section outlines current programming and provides a repository for past scholarly content.

Nobuko Shibayama gave a Brown Bag Lunch presentation on Monday, December 7, 2015. Her talk is entitled “The Analysis of Organic Colorants in Art Objects: Case Studies from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

At Bard Graduate Center, Shibayama will discuss organic dye analysis performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Scientific Research. Since the Department of Scientific Research was established in 2004, it has carried out scientific studies to support curatorial and conservation work at the Museum. These have included analysis of materials used in art objects, investigations into the appropriate environment for art objects, and scientific research into conservation treatments and materials. Organic dye analysis is one of these activities, and Shibayama will present case studies including a Colonial Latin American tapestry from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, Safavid and Mughal velvets made between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Gluttony tapestry by Pieter Coecke van Aelst.

Nobuko Shibayama is Associate Research Scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received a PhD in Applied Science for Functionality from the Postgraduate School, Kyoto Institute of Technology, and a Diploma in Textile Conservation from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her work focuses on the use of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to identify dyes and organic lake pigments in art objects.