Hello Alumni!

I hope you all are doing well. Here is the next round-up of career opportunities, BGC events, and things to do out in the world. We also have some exciting alumni news to share below. 

We hope you plan to join us for the Exhibition Preview and Reception for Eileen Gray at the BGC Gallery this Friday, February 28, from 6:30 to 8:30pm. If you haven’t already, please send an email to vip.rsvp@bgc.bard.edu to let us know if you plan to attend.

As always, feel free to email me at alumni@bgc.bard.edu with any jobs or events that might be of interest to your fellow alumni, or share via the BGC Facebook or LinkedIn pages. 

Sincerely,
Grace Reff (MA ‘17)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

Congratulations to Sarah Scaturro on her new appointment as the Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art! Sarah has been the head of conservation at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2012 and is currently completing her PhD at BGC. She will begin her new position in Cleveland on April 13. Best wishes on your new adventure, Sarah!

All is Possible: Mary Ann Scherr’s Legacy in Metal, an exhibition at the Gregg Museum in North Carolina curated by BGC alum Ana Estrades (MA ‘16) opened to the public last week. The show is a tribute to the designer who influenced the metal and design communities for over 6 decades. Congratulations to Ana on this brilliant show.  

Finally, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta announced last week that Monica Obniski (MA ‘06) has been appointed Curator of Decorative Arts and Design. She will oversee exhibitions and programming and the Museum’s collection of more than 2,300 objects. Congrats, Monica!

Select Career Opportunities

Select Events at BGC

Symposium—Eileen Gray
New Research and Methodologies
Friday, February 28
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Historians, conservators, curators, and architects who are currently investigating Eileen Gray’s highly versatile career will discuss the range of her architectural projects, her pioneering role as a Parisian gallerist and as an artisan of lacquer, among other topics. The symposium will illuminate the fascinating Parisian milieu of artists, writers, architects, and craftspeople who helped to shape Gray’s groundbreaking ideas on modernism in design and architecture.

Screening: In Conversation with Eileen Gray
Saturday, February 29
2:30 pm – 4 pm
In 1973, Andrew Hodgkinson conducted an interview with Eileen Gray in her Paris apartment. In this previously unknown recording, Hodgkinson and Gray discuss her work while looking at a portfolio she compiled that documents her long and distinguished career. French documentary filmmaker Michael Pitiot directed the film. Cloé Pitiot and Philippe Garner adapted the interview for the film using period images and images taken from Gray’s portfolio.Join us for a post screening conversation with Hodgkinson, Garner, and Cloé and Michael Pitiot. 

Vernacular Viewing: Searchable Science and Visual Tools in Early Modern Books
Wednesday, March 4
6 pm
Join Stephanie Leitch for this talk in which she argues that the trajectory by which ancient knowledge domains became how-to skills can perhaps best be tracked in a codex produced in southwestern Germany c. 1524, which seamlessly imported images from a variety of printed genres. She will shed light on early modern cross-referencing and collecting practices, as well as the role of printed books in shaping the visual horizon of the vernacular viewer.

BGC Late: Jazz & Conversation in the Gallery
Breaking Ground: Architecture, Gender, Activism
Thursday, March 5
6 pm
Enjoy cool jazz, warm vibes, and a glass of wine; see our fascinating exhibitions and learn from provocative conversations about the objects on view. At 6pm Gene Perla and the fantastic musicians he brings together start playing, with Chase Baird on the saxophone, Dave Lantz on the keyboard, Gene Perla on bass, and Mike Clark on the drums. At 6:30 pm, in our lecture hall at 38 West 86th Street, Jane Hall and Esther Choi lead a conversation titled Breaking Ground: Architecture, Gender, Activism.

Fashioning Race Through Metalwork in French Sugar Casters
Tuesday, March 17
6 pm
In this talk, Sarah R. Cohen will examine three extant pairs of French sugar casters, all fashioned through various forms of luxury metalwork, and the questions they prompt regarding elite dining fashions, artisanal practices and constructions of racial identities. Cohen will examine their implications in light of changing conceptions of race in eighteenth-century France, in the context of global commerce, sugar production, and slavery.

Select Events out in the World

Art Matters with Arnold Lehman
Eileen Gray: Architect & Designer
Saturday, February 29
11:00am
Join Arnold Lehman, Phillips’ Senior Advisor, for this conversation at Phillips Auction House with Esther da Costa Meyer, Professor Emeritus, Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, Jared Goss, Independent Scholar, and Cloé Pitiot, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Collections, Musée des Arts Décoratifs. RSVP is required: artmatters@phillips.com. 

“Making Museums Essential” Conference
Saturday, March 7 – Tuesday, March 10
Museums are now considered one of the most trustworthy entities in the nation, over newspapers, non-governmental organizations, state agencies, and the Federal government. This conference, organized by the Virginia Association of Museums in Chantilly, VA, will include four days of professional development training, engaging dialogues, tours, and fellowship, all while exploring how museums can support the needs of their communities and strive for positive transformative change.

What Future for our National Heritage? Panel Talk
Monday, March 9
6:30pm
The controversial reconstruction of Notre Dame, which suffered considerable damage last spring due to a fire, has sparked another question around national heritage and its adaptation to the present and future. This debate at the Cultural Center, Lycée Français de New York will question whether we should favor a newly built version which is adapted to current times, or preserve the original as a way to remember the past.

Cairo: The City of 1,000 Minarets
Monday, March 9
8:00pm
Join Iman R. Abdulfattah, PhD Candidate in Islamic Art and Archaeology at Universität Bonn, for a visual journey into the riches of the art and architecture of this important metropolis. 

Mario Buatta: Under the Influence 
Colefax & Fowler, the English Country House, and American Interior Design
Monday, March 9
6:30pm
Roger Jones, Director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, and Emily Evans Eerdmans, Design Historian, will have a lively discussion on John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster’s creation of the English Country House style and its seminal influence on Mario Buatta.

Tariffs: The Impact of Trade Wars on Art and Culture
Tuesday, March 10
6:30pm
In August 2019, the U.S. published a list of items worth $300 billion of Chinese imports subject to tariffs. Among these items were arts and antiques comprising lithographs, prints, drawings, paintings, engraving, and sculptures that are more than 100 years old. Many U.S. dealers and curators have expressed concern arguing that tariffs are counterproductive and will hurt the U.S., not China. Although these tariffs may eventually be lifted as part of phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal, they have created much uncertainty in the arts world. How will this impact the art world in the U.S.? Organized on the occasion of the inaugural Asia Society Triennial, join the conversation with a group of experts to understand the future of art trade.