Hello Alumni,

Winter is upon us at last! In the spirit of the season, I visited the winter markets in Union Square and Bryant Park over the Thanksgiving weekend. Entering into the steady stream of shoppers, the holiday hustle and bustle felt even more visceral than two years ago. Back home, I luxuriated in my rattling radiator’s glowing heat–one of the winter’s pleasures. I hope you are finding some rest as 2021 draws to a close. And Happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating!

The next, mid-December newsletter will be the last of 2021–please don’t hesitate to send me your end-of-year news, either by email or through the online form. 

Warmly,
Rachael Schwabe (MA ‘20)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

The September issue of the Journal of Design History featured articles by Colin Fanning (MA ‘13, BGC PhD candidate), Anne Hilker (PhD ‘21), and Freyja Hartzell (MA ‘05), in addition to being co-edited by Sarah Lichtman (MA ‘03, PhD ‘14). Well done, all!

The Craft History Workshop, coordinated by Colin Fanning and Antonia Behan (MA ‘14, PhD ‘21) began this week with a presentation on December 1 by Daria Murphy (MA ‘21), entitled, “Technical Artistry: The Industrialization of Ceramics Education in Meiji Japan (1868-1912).”  Additional BGC alumni presenters include Cynthia Kok (MA ‘16) on December 15, Hadley Jensen (MA ‘13, PhD ‘18) on February 22, 2022, and my own presentation on May 18, 2022. The full workshop schedule can be found on the program’s website.

Select Career Opportunities

Select Events at BGC

Open House for Prospective Students
Sunday, December 5
11 am–12:30 pm (In-Person)
Bard Graduate Center Open Houses give prospective students the opportunity to learn much more about our MA and PhD programs. You’ll have the chance to hear from our faculty about their research and teaching, meet students, and see our spaces. The December open house will be hosted by our chair of academic programs, Prof. Deborah Krohn, and will include faculty members Aaron Glass, François Louis, Caspar Meyer, and Catherine Whalen.

Majolica Speaks! A Virtual Verbal Description Tour for Participants with Low or Impaired Vision
Wednesday, December 8
6 pm
Explore the objects in Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States, 1850–1915 through verbal description and discussion. An experienced guide, Deborah Lutz, will describe objects in the exhibition, sharing details of their form, materiality, and aesthetic nature, for the enjoyment of visitors with low vision and blindness. Group discussion takes place throughout the program. Registration is required.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events Out in The World

A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House: Charles Dickens in New York, 1867
December 1–December 31
Various Times (In-Person)
Join Mr. Dickens, portrayed by John Kevin Jones, as he tells his timeless Christmas tale in the elegant intact Greek Revival double parlor of the landmark 1832 Merchant’s House Museum. Surrounded by 19th century holiday decorations, flickering candles, and richly appointed period furnishings, audiences will be transported back 150 years in this captivating one-hour performance created from Dickens’ own script.

Rethinking Residencies Symposium
December 8–December 10
Various Times
The Rethinking Residencies Symposium invites artists, curators, scholars, and residency organizations worldwide to come together to address residency programs as critical sites of production within the field of visual arts. The symposium will consider existing scholarship and cultivate new thinking about the history, institutional structures, and conditions of visual art residencies.

Weaving Fiber Forward with Venancio Aragon and Eric-Paul Riege
Thursday, December 9
7–9 pm ET
Venancio Aragon and Eric-Paul Riege, two dynamic emerging artists from the Southwest who are shaping Navajo (Diné) weaving as a contemporary art form, will speak at Montclair Art Museum for the 35th Annual Julia Norton Babson Lecture. The conversation will be moderated by MAM’s Curator of Native American Art, and BGC Alum, Laura J. Allen (MA ’20).

Looting, Loss, and Recovery: A Virtual Symposium
Thursday, December 9
6:30–8 pm ET
Participate in a two-part virtual symposium exploring a range of topics related to the exhibition Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art. Part one will premiere on the Jewish Museum’s YouTube channel on December 6 from 5–7:30 pm ET. Then on December 9 at 6:30 pm ET join them on Zoom for part two of the symposium, a live virtual conversation moderated by the exhibition curators. Speakers will have the opportunity to respond to one another’s presentations and engage in a discussion considering several broader themes including the role that cultural restitution and related issues should play in scholarship and museum practice in the future.

GWU Textile Museum Presents, “Fiber Ecologies”
Friday, December 10 
1 pm ET
With the dawn of the Anthropocene, and the emergence of a post-fossil fuel society, our understanding of nature is being reconsidered. The future of textiles and production is based in protecting almost-lost knowledge and on re-evaluating craft to emphasize a symbiotic relationship with the Earth and move to a plastic-less future. Examined through the lens of textiles, Curator of Contemporary Art Caroline Kipp will share her research on “fiber ecologies,” a concept that explores holistic, nature-based processes, speculative design, and experiments from art, design, and fashion that are influencing a more sustainable future.

Eric-Paul Riege – [][][][]
Saturday, December 11
11 am–4 pm
Embraced by textile relatives—the luminous Diné weavings on display—artist Eric-Paul Riege will conduct a durational performance in Montclair Art Museum’s Rand Gallery to build a temporary floor-to-ceiling soft sculpture. The program is curated by MAM’s Curator of Native American Art, and BGC Alum, Laura J. Allen (MA ’20).

Exploring the Field: Equity and Arts Programming
Monday, December 13
3 pm ET 
Hatuey Ramos-FermÍn and Valeria Miranda, experienced leaders in community programming, will offer insights into their professional journeys in the arts sector, and the path that led them to leadership roles in the field. This session will center their experiences as people of color navigating the field. They will discuss what it means to create programming curated around the community and will talk through some of the challenges and advice they have for emerging leaders interested in developing intentional, successful community programming. Americans for the Arts has a wide slate of live web events to explore via their website.

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.

Sign up for Gaggle!

Gaggle.mail is an opt-in list-serv that serves as a place to share job openings, conference attendance, published books/articles, and exhibition openings directly with fellow alums. It’s a communication forum for alumni, by alumni. To circulate your news in the Gaggle group, send an email to bgcalumni@gaggle.email.