About
Upcoming Exhibitions
BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
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.

About
28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell
Events
Wednesdays @ BGC
Join us this spring for weekly programming!





Research

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.
“I think a lot about how objects can open up much wider possibilities for historical storytelling.”


In This Episode
Ivan Gaskell speaks to curator, art historian, and professor Sarah Anne Carter about how objects illuminate hidden histories. Carter articulates the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinarity in curation, teaching, and writing. Through recalling her own educational trajectory she highlights the central role objects can play in learning.

Download a transcript of episode 6.

Listen on Spotify.


Sarah Anne Carter is the Visiting Executive Director of the Center for Design and Material Culture in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She previously served as the Curator and Director of Research at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While at Chipstone, she collaboratively curated many innovative museum exhibitions, including Mrs. M.——-‘s Cabinet at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and directed Chipstone’s Think Tank Program in support of progressive curatorial practice. Carter wrote Object Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World (OUP 2018) and she is co-author of Tangible Things: Making History Through Objects (OUP 2015). Along with co-editor Ivan Gaskell, they published The Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture earlier this year. Carter received her PhD in American Studies from Harvard and an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.


References

The Fields of the Future podcast amplifies the voices and highlights the work of scholars, artists, and writers who are injecting new narratives into object-centered thinking. Join us for engaging conversations between BGC faculty and fellows and their guest