Dear Prospective Students,

One of the exciting parts of resuming in-person classes this semester has been the return of the extracurricular programming that is so important to our program. You can find some of these BGC-supported activities in the Beyond the Classroom section of our website, and they range from site visits with makers to funding opportunities, and complement in different ways the curriculum. Over the past two weekends, for example, students were able to go to Urban Glass in Brooklyn for sandcasting workshops as part of our Materials Days series. We’ll look to continue these studio visits, as in years past, through the spring semester with more opportunities for students to engage with makers and processes.

We’re hopeful, too, that this winter MA students will be able to again travel for research on their Qualifying Papers. Students can apply for funding to support QP research, as well as for funding to support attending–or presenting at–academic conferences. And of course we are looking forward to resuming our Bard Travel program in May. This longstanding component of BGC’s MA program takes our first-year students on an international trip to visit museums, collections, and historic sites. Recent destinations have been to Berlin, Paris, and London. In 2019, we were able to extend the trip to Greece and the archaeological site where Prof Caspar Meyer conducts fieldwork. Aside from giving students the chance to see some of the objects and places that have been part of the first-year curriculum, this trip allows students to consider the histories of objects from excavation to display, all part of the biographies of objects so often talked about here at BGC.

If you missed our first open house earlier this month, we have two more planned for the fall, both of which will be held here on 86th Street. The next one will be on Sunday, November 14, and the final one will be on Sunday, December 5. For more information and to register, go here.

And if you have any questions about the program (either MA or PhD) or wish to arrange a visit to BGC, please let me know.

Best wishes,

Keith Condon
Director of Admissions and Student Affairs
keith.condon@bgc.bard.edu