About
28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell
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.






Exhibitions

Tickets

Join us for Wednesdays@BGC!

More

Gallery Hours

BGC Gallery is currently closed.

More

The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.



1 of 2
Photo by Da Ping Luo.

The gallery’s fourth floor offers an interactive space where visitors can screen a film that offers insight into the long process of making porcelain at Sèvres and the many artisans required to create a single Sèvres masterpiece. In addition, visitors can visit stations where they will learn about the materials and tools required to make porcelain, the use of molds, the various shapes and forms from which Sèvres vases are constructed, and the processes of making the famous “Sèvres blue” and burnishing gold. Using 3D printed shapes and forms, visitors will have the opportunity to practice constructing their own vases and learn how the handles of such vases can indicate various styles, from Neoclassical to Postmodern.