Happy New Year, Alumni!

I hope your year is off to a good start! I spent New Years in Honolulu, whose residents began setting off fireworks at 6pm through 1 am. Explosions aside, I was grateful to start the year reconnecting with my family’s roots on the island. Hawaii’s humidity was a refreshing break from the icy cold, although I think my hair is grateful to be back in the (now) more temperate weather of NYC.  

As we embark on various journeys in 2023, I encourage you all to keep in touch with your news (big or small!), either by email or through the online form. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you!   

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

Alumni Spotlight

Ellen Enderle (MA ‘22) published a conference report in Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists on Rethinking the Wearable in the Middle Ages, a symposium that was held at BGC April 28-29, 2022. Well done, Ellen! 

Listen to the latest season of BGC’s Fields of the Future podcast! This season is produced by mary adeogun (MA ‘22), and she discusses lace in Nigerian culture by closely looking at and working with a few laces, alongside historians, researchers, dressmakers, and fashionistas. Well done, mary!

Brandy Culp (MA ‘04) has become the Chief of Staff/Curator at Steven W. Spandle Architect, LLC. Congratulations, Brandy!

Select Career Opportunities

Select BGC Events

Eureka, A Lighthouse Play
Wednesday, January 18
6 pm 
Since the destruction of the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria—in a series of earthquakes during the Middle Ages—many people have searched for its remains in an effort to reconstruct the histories of this lost wonder of the ancient world. In this live documentary, Ellie Ga recounts her own research journey, drawing upon an archive of photographs, video footage, documents, interviews, and artifacts.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

The Antique in Print: The Classical Past and the Visual Arts in the Long 18th Century
Wednesday, January 18
1 pm ET
Join the Cooper-Hewitt as Dr. Adriano Aymonino explores how the print culture of the long 18th century shaped the visual and allegorical language of Neoclassicism. At the same time, he will contextualize Michel Angelo Pergolesi’s drawings and popular set of prints (Designs for Various Ornaments, 1777–1801). Dr. Julia Siemon, curator of Cooper Hewitt’s Mr. Pergolesi’s Curious Things: Ornament in 18th Century Britain will provide a brief overview of the exhibition at the start of the program.

Mental Health and Well-Being in the Museum
Wednesday, January 18
6 pm PT (In Person)
Join art therapist Nicole Rademacher in an engaging and holistic arts workshop. This program contextualizes therapeutically intentioned practices in the museum and encourages looking at artworks and discussion. Participants are welcome to use the art supplies provided in the studio or bring their own. The program takes place in LACMA’s galleries and studio space and is designed for those 18 and above. No previous art-making experience is necessary. All abilities are welcome.

Fruiting Bodies: Colonization and First Foods
Thursday, January 19
7 pm ET
“Fruiting Bodies: An exploration of mushrooms through a decolonial lens” is a three-part virtual series curated and moderated by journalist and writer Simran Sethi. In this three-part virtual series, the Museum of Food and Drink pulls back the veil on mushrooms and looks at evolving perceptions of mushrooms for food, drink, and health. Our third and final program in the series is with M. Karlos Baca, an Indigenous food activist, chef, and member of I-collective. Baca will highlight the connection of mushrooms to indigenous cultures and the impacts of colonization on these “first foods.”

Genshitsu Sen Annual Tea Lecture: Tea and Politics in Japan’s Age of Unification
Thursday, January 19
7:30 pm PT
Japan’s elite culture of tea, known as chanoyu, played a key role in the transition of Japan’s divided politics and civil wars of the late 16th century into a unified government in 1603. The civil wars intensified when three warrior hegemons successively conquered rebellious provinces, forged alliances to strengthen their collective militaries, and strove to unify what had been a profoundly divided polity for almost a century. The end result was the establishment of what would be the last samurai government in Japanese history, the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled from 1603 to 1868. This lecture by Dr. Morgan Pitelka, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores tea’s role during this period by illuminating the interplay between sociability, patronage, and the pleasures of the tea house.

Ruin Dance Performance
Friday, January 20–Sunday, January 22
Various Times (In Person)
Choreographer Kyle Marshall reacts to the work of Henri Matisse, inspired by the Pennsylvania Art Museum’s current exhibition Matisse in the 1930s, in a dance entitled Ruin. This performance explores body percussion, our physical relationship to sound, natural rhythms, and elemental human ritual. Through the magic of kinetic sonic devices, the performers source the ground and the air for sound in real-time. Ruin is a reflection on the echoes of history, the dynamic cycles of human civilization, and the syncopation of modern life.

Decorative Arts Trust 2023 Emerging Scholars Colloquium
Sunday, January 22
9 am–11:30 am ET (In Person)
The Decorative Arts Trust is excited to host our 7th Annual Colloquium featuring young scholars in the decorative arts field. Among the speakers will be Christina De León (MPhil ‘20, PhD Candidate), who will present “Reinterpreting an American Chair: Clara Porset and Josef Albers’ Butaca.”

Materialities of Contemporary Latin American Publishing
Wednesday, January 25
5:30 pm ET (In Person)
This panel at the Center for Book Arts examines how actors associated with publishing have reimagined books as material objects in contemporary Latin America. While often situated on the periphery of global publishing markets, the region is a center of innovation where a range of projects—independent, state-funded, radically anti-capitalist, or a mixture of these—have proposed alternative ways of making, reading, and circulating books. Our panel features three scholars who, through a series of case studies from Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia, consider these projects and how they reflect in the materiality of books and digital platforms.

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