Hello Alumni,

After a bout of bitter cold, we’ve been experiencing some suspiciously spring-like weather in NYC! I did, however, catch a chill at a showing of Titanic, which has been re-released to theaters (in 3-D no less!) for the film’s 25th anniversary. Needless to say, the pan flutes of “My Heart Will Go On” have been stuck in my head for the last week and a half.  

Also since our last letter, I have had the pleasure of attending some of the opening events for Shaped by the Loom and Staging the Table and my ~official~ recommendation is that you run, don’t walk to these outstanding exhibitions! 

It’s always a treat to hear from you! Please continue to reach out with your news, either by email or through the online form. 

Best wishes,
Rachael Schwabe (MA ’20)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

William Degregorio (MA ‘ 12, PhD ‘14) and Christian Jussel co-wrote a two volume series on the Percival D. Griffiths Collection, English Furniture 1680–1760 and English Needlework 1600–1740 that will be published in March. The books are available for purchase here. Congratulations, William!

Sonya Abrego’s (PhD ’15) exhibition, Crafting Denim is now open in the John Cram Gallery at the Center for Craft. This exhibition was developed as part of her 2023 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellowship. Congratulations, Sonya!

Amanda Thompson (MA ‘16, PhD Candidate) was awarded a Craft Research Fund Project Grant from the Center for Craft to support her dissertation research. Big congratulations, Amanda!

Mark your calendars: Angelik Vizcarrondo’s (MA ‘16) exhibition, Funk You Too! Humor & Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture will open at the Museum of Art and Design on March 18! If you happen to be in NYC this spring or summer, be sure to check it out and explore its accompanying catalogue. Amazing work, Angelik!

Select Career Opportunities

Select BGC Events

Retirement Party for Professor Michele Majer
Thursday, February 23
6pm ET (In Person)
Come honor Professor Michele Majer’s work at BGC and celebrate her retirement with the BGC community in the Lecture Hall of 38 W. 86th St! If you are able to attend, kindly RSVP to Julia Cullen at julia.cullen@bgc.bard.edu. If you cannot make the event, consider emailing Michele your well wishes at michele.majer@bgc.bard.edu.

Dyeing with Plants
Wednesday, March 1
6 pm ET
Explore the world of natural dyes with ethnobotanist Arnold Clifford. In this lecture, Clifford reveals the diverse and abundant plant life of the Navajo Nation—including some plants named after him!—with a focus on the plants that give Navajo textiles their brilliant and distinctive colors.

Enriching the V&A: A Collection of Collections (1862-1914)
Thursday, March 2
6:30 pm ET
This lecture launches a new book on the Victoria and Albert Museum devoted to the Victorian and Edwardian private collectors whose generous long loans and donations proved almost overwhelming. From its origins as a national art school study collection formed to promote the reform of contemporary commercial product design, the V&A rapidly became a mirror of Britain as a nation of collectors. In the museum’s early decades its curators were far outnumbered by private lenders, donors, agents, and dealers, many with greater expertise in their specialist fields of collecting. Through the influence of fascinating but formidable personalities, from Lady Charlotte Schreiber to J. Pierpont Morgan, the V&A nearly lost its way. As a collection of collections this treasure house seemed to have strayed from its founding purpose as a resource for design reform and so attracted controversy. This lecture, and the book, explains how and why the debate continues today.

Curator Tour: Shaped by the Loom
Saturday, March 4
4 pm ET (In Person)
Explore the Shaped by the Loom exhibition with the curator! These tours are not comprehensive studies of the exhibitions; rather they offer an opportunity to experience various ways of studying objects alongside BGC curators and scholars. Tours last 40 minutes and focus on a curated selection of objects. You are invited to stay and explore the rest of the exhibition at your own pace after the tour ends. Stop by for a studio visit before your tour. Many of the objects in the exhibition feature vivid colors made with natural dyes. See ethnobotanist Arnold Clifford making these dyes by using plants from the Navajo Nation. The Studio is on the 4th floor of the Gallery, open March 4, 2-4pm.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Archaeometric Approaches: Provenance and Technology
Friday, February 24
11 am ET 
Please join the Society of Ancient Studies at NYI+U for the third session of our Friday lunchtime series “Ancient Mining in Desert Environments,” hosted virtually through the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Each session will feature one paper and one response followed by an open discussion.

Artist-In-Residence Lecture: Harriet Schwarzrock
Thursday, March 2
12 pm ET (In Person)
Join the Corning Museum of Glass for Harriet Schwarzrock’s artist-in-residence lecture. Schwarzrock will present on her artwork, which is inspired by motifs of circulation and respiration, and how she introduces plasma illumination into sculptural forms. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Gender and Genre–Lygia Pape’s Self-Fashioning in Print
Saturday, March 4
2 pm CT (In Person)
Join Adele Nelson, assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, for a discussion of the artist Lygia Pape (1927–2004). Following World War II, media and art institutions in industrializing nations like Brazil treated women artists as the faces of an expanding commercial culture. It was in this context that Lygia Pape expanded and subverted these expectations with her production of single edition woodcut prints that refused mass production. Pape plumbed the capacities of printmaking to create visual spaces of intersection and contrast in which sight and touch, word and image, and woman and worker form unexpected and unprecedented relationships.

Underside, Underbelly, Undertow: A Conversation with Jamal Cyrus, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and Cosmo Whyte
Saturday, March 4
2 pm ET (In Person)
The Queens Museum welcomes visitors for a conversation featuring Jamal Cyrus, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and Cosmo Whyte organized in conjunction with Weston’s exhibition “of [a] tomorrow: lighter than air, stronger than whiskey, cheaper than dust”. The artists will discuss the significance of Black archives within their work, how their artistic methodologies animate histories of Black resistance, and how this translates into critiques of the contemporary landscape. This conversation takes place on the closing weekend of Weston’s exhibition and presents a final opportunity to see the show before it closes the next day. There will be a reception after the conversation from 4-4:45 in the cafe. 

Fashion is Spinach: The Life and Work of Elizabeth Hawes
Tuesday, March 7
5:30 pm ET (In Person)
Join the Fashion Institute of Technology for a panel discussion of the life and work of fashion designer and writer Elizabeth Hawes, who is known for her timeless fashion designs and her written critique of the fashion system, such as in her 1940 book Fashion is Spinach. In a conversation moderated by author and podcaster April Calahan, professors and fashion historians Lourdes Font (FIT) and Francesca Granata (The New School) will discuss the importance of Hawes in American fashion.

The Larger Landscape Conversation: The Design of Disability
Thursday, March 9
7 pm ET (In Person)
The Design of Disability convenes conversation on the design and planning of the public realm in relation to human capacities, civic aspirations, and bodily experience beyond access. Featuring Victor Calise, advocate for people with disabilities, author and professor Elizabeth Guffey, and artist and professor Sara Hendren. The Larger Landscape Conversation is a recurring series that brings together visionaries across disciplines to discuss the intersection of creativity, lived experience, and social justice.

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