Dear Accepted Students,

Congratulations! Your dedication and hard work have certainly paid off. It’s been a pleasure connecting with many of you via email, at open houses, and during the campus tours. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone at the Accepted Students Day on Wednesday, March 19. It’s a great way to experience student life here at BGC and I’d like to highlight one part of mine: my summer internship.

As many of you know, BGC has an internship requirement for MA students, which is generally fulfilled over the summer between the 1st and the 2nd year. Students have interned at museums and galleries, historic sites and auction houses, and other arts and design institutions over the years. The program allows students to choose and complete their internships in fields related to their research and professional interests.

Last summer, I worked with the curator of Byzantine Art, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Garden in Washington DC to create an exhibition rotation on late antique and early medieval textiles. Over the course of a month, I was able to envision the rotation of several late antique textiles and early Seljuq silk textiles from the collection. I had the opportunity to interact with and learn from conservators, curators, and designers at the museum. The internship allowed me to expand my interests in the medieval world and learn about textiles as an important, complex vector in the global Middle Ages. Being in DC also gave me the opportunity to do some Qualifying Paper research on mirrored images in Seljuq silks at the Textile Museum in Arlington, Virginia. Viewing the fragments in person at the storage with the curator Dr. Sumru Krody allowed me to incorporate the objects in my discussion of Iranian Mirrors and their afterlives in the 12th-13th century. In terms of professional development, I encountered all aspects of exhibition-making at my internship at Dumbarton Oaks, including initial brainstorming, object consultation and conservation assessment, curatorial research, exhibition writing, and design review.

I hope to see many of you at Accepted Students Day! In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about BGC or moving to New York City and life at BGC.

Best,
Nishtha Dani, MA ’25
Admissions Ambassador
nishtha.dani@bgc.bard.edu