September 11, 2024

Dear Alumni,

Classes are back in session at BGC! With the start of the academic year, you’ll find the return of this newsletter’s section on events at BGC. For those of you who live in New York City or plan to visit, hopefully you’ll make time to attend a public program on 86th Street. Find the full calendar here.

We also hope you’ll save the date for another in-person event generously hosted by Susan Weber at her home in Manhattan on November 12. In order to make sure you receive event details, please fill out this form to update your contact information. 

As always, you can share your news through the online form.

All best,

Julia Carabatsos (MA ’22)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

BGC’s orientation for new students concluded with a visit to the Brooklyn Museum, where Dare Turner (MA ’17) discussed the institution’s outdoor installation by Nico Williams, and former BGC postdoctoral fellow Annissa Malvoisin led a tour of the Arts of Africa installation. Along with Dare and Annissa, several other BGC alumni and affiliates work at Brooklyn Museum. This summer, a current student, Vega Shah (MA ’25) completed an internship there under the supervision of Liz St. George (MA ’11). In the office, Vega even sat next to Grace Billingslea (MA ’22)—what a nice mini BGC community in Brooklyn!

This summer, Raphaël Machiels (MA ’24) began as associate specialist in the European Ceramics Department at Bonhams. Congratulations, Raphaël!

Mackensie Griffin (MA ’24) will work as a research assistant at Barnes Foundation. Her project focuses on the museum’s collection of metalwork. Well done, Mackensie!

Select Career Opportunities

The McNeil Center for Early American Studies will appoint a Barra Postdoctoral Fellow for a two-year term, beginning July 1, 2025. Applications, due November 1, are welcome from junior scholars whose work focuses on any aspect of the histories and cultures of North America in the Atlantic world before 1850. Applicants must have earned their PhD no earlier than 2021 and must have completed all requirements for the degree when the appointment commences. Candidates who have received McNeil Center funding for a related project at the pre-doctoral stage are not eligible. Proposals reliant on research in Philadelphia-area archives, libraries, and museums are especially welcome.

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts offers a range of fellowships, including several postdoctoral fellowships. A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships and Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellowships are two-year, residential appointments that support research and writing for publication. In their first year, postdoctoral fellows design and direct an intensive weeklong seminar for the Center’s predoctoral fellows in residence, focusing on a topic related to the postdoctoral fellow’s field of interest and with a special emphasis on methodological issues. In the second year, postdoctoral fellows teach a course at a neighboring university. The A. W. Mellon and Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellowships commence in alternating years. The Center will also host a Berger Collection Educational Trust Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in British Art from June 15 to August 15, 2025. This residential appointment will support full-time research on the visual arts and architecture of Britain and the British Empire from any period. Applications are due on October 15.

For more job listings please visit the BGC job board.
username: career.services@bgc.bard.edu
password: CareersBGC2024-5*=*

BGC Events

Playtime with River L. Ramirez: A Lecture Performance
September 11, 2024
6 pm

Join us for an evening with comedian, storyteller, and musician River L. Ramirez, who will curate and activate a collection of objects from the Bard Graduate Center Study Collection in an original lecture performance. Following the lecture, Ramirez will be in conversation with BGC PhD student Ellen Enderle (MA ’22). River L. Ramirez (they/them) is an NYC-based artist originally from Miami, Florida. Working in the mediums of comedy, film, TV, writing, visual art, and music, it’s easy to forget that they are just a little furby with a knife. River’s work explores magick, collective consciousness, and liberation through play. Their work has been written about in the New York Times, Forbes, Art in America, SSENSE, and GQ. They teach a class called How to Be in Front of People at the Brick Aux, and just released their new EP: GIVING. You can also find them in Julio Torres’s Fantasmas and Problemista out now.

Opening night celebration for Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today
Thursday, September 19, 2024
6 to 8:30 pm
Remarks at 7 pm

Celebrate the opening of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today with an exhibition viewing at Bard Graduate Center Gallery followed by a reception at Bard Graduate Center. The exhibition presents the history of the Sèvres Manufactory and its production of extraordinary sculptural objects in various ceramic pastes. Organized by Sèvres, Manufacture et Musée nationaux, and Bard Graduate Center, the exhibition is the first outside of France to highlight the production of sculpture made at the famed porcelain manufactory. Please RSVP by Thursday, September 12. This invitation admits two and is nontransferable. Capacity is limited, so please reserve early.

Call for new members: Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI) Working Group
BGC’s DEAI Working Group seeks new members. This coalition of students, staff, faculty, and alumni volunteer their time to learn, research, make recommendations, and take action to increase diversity, equity, access, and inclusion for all at BGC. This group is self-sustaining; each cohort serves a two-year term with 1–2 meetings per month during the academic year.

If you are interested, please fill out this form by September 13. If you have any questions, please contact working group co-chairs Julia Cullen (julia.cullen@bgc.bard.edu) and Amanda Thompson (amanda.thompson@bgc.bard.edu).

Select External Events

Crafting Modernity Networks, Part 3: Craft as Resistance in Venezuela and Mexico
MoMA
September 11, 2024
5 pm

In conjunction with the exhibition Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980, this three-part series of conversations among Latin American scholars is intended to highlight new research, amplify complexities, and strengthen networks of scholarship and fellowship among creative circles interested in art, architecture, and design. In this session, scholars Raul Naon and Fernando Portal will explore the intersection of memory and design in Argentina and Chile. This conversation will be moderated by Inés Katzenstein, director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America, and curator of Latin American Art.

Shop the BGC Store!

Visit our online store at store.bgc.bard.edu for 40% off all items. Enter code ALUMNI at checkout to receive the discount.