Bard Graduate Center

The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a special school for students who want to learn about the history of objects and designs. It is in New York City and works with Bard College, which is in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

The center has a gallery in a big house on West 86th Street and another building nearby for classes and books. Students study how people’s culture and history are shown through the things they make and use. This helps us learn more about the past by looking at everyday objects and special designs.

Programs

The Bard Graduate Center has two main programs. One leads to a Masters of Arts degree and the other to a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Students can study the history of everyday objects and why they matter.

The center also has a Gallery. It shows many exhibitions about the history of decorative arts, design, and everyday items. These exhibitions are made by teachers, special researchers, and students working together.

Teaching

The Bard Graduate Center offers more than regular classes. It also has evening talks and seminars that anyone can join. These events go with the regular courses. Special programs, like the History and Theory of Museums, invite experts from current exhibitions. Another group studies Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Europe and has two events each year with Columbia University.

The center also has special lectures about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France and the history of glass. Every May, it works with Yale University, Boston University, the University of Delaware, the University of Wisconsin—Madison, the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New-York Historical Society for the Consortium for American Material Culture.

Students at the Bard Graduate Center work closely with real objects. In their first-year classes, there are special "Materials Days" where they learn about how things are made by doing it themselves.

Exhibitions

The Bard Graduate Center Gallery has shows and many fun activities. These include talks, discussions, films, and special books. All of these help people learn more about materials and objects.

Notable alumni

Some famous people studied at the Bard Graduate Centre, including:

• Grace Jeffers, a design teacher who got a Master’s degree in 1996.
• Sarah Archer, a curator and writer who got a Master’s degree in 2006.
• Daniella Ohad Smith, a design historian and writer who earned a PhD.