Greetings Alumni,

Spring is in full swing at BGC! Two exhibitions are opening on Friday, March 25: the Focus Projects, Conserving Active Matter and Richard Tuttle: What Is the Object?. Both shows will be on view through July 10 and have many affiliated events, some of which are listed below in the “BGC Events” section of this newsletter. BGC invites alumni to reserve complimentary timed-entry tickets through April 11. 

In the meantime, there are also two exciting symposia being hosted at BGC I wish to highlight: Conversations on Access and Design (which I will be attending!) as well as High Availability, a symposium on museums’ use of the digital since the pandemic. 

Since you last heard from me, I have returned from a week-long spring break trip to Ireland, over the course of which I soaked up the gray, blue, and green hues of the Irish countryside. Though it was not an entirely balmy experience, it has put me in a spring-colored mindset. As we near the end of March, please do not hesitate to reach out with your news, either by email or through the online form. I do love hearing from you!

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

Alumni Spotlight

Alexis Griffith Winton (MA ‘03), manager of content and curriculum at the Cooper Hewitt, will be speaking with the institution’s acting head of textiles, Susan Brown, for the Textile Arts Council. They will discuss the California designer and weaver Dorothy Liebes, from her roots in San Francisco to her New York “idea factory,” where she developed handwoven prototypes for industry. Details for the event are listed below. 

Daniella Ohad (PhD ‘06) is leading a ten-session program for Christie’s Education, “Interior Design: The Legends” through April 27. More information on the virtual course can be found on Christie’s Education website.

Select Career Opportunities

Select Events at BGC

Conversations on Access and Design
Friday, March 18
10 am – 3 pm
In celebration of Bess Williamson’s Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design, which was awarded the 2019/20 Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Book Prize, leading disability history scholars, artists, and designers will discuss studies of access and design history.

Colonial Dutch “She-Merchants” as Collectors
Monday, March 21
12:15 – 1:15 pm
Due to their unique legal status in the colonies, the women of New Netherland and their New York descendants had the right to buy, sell, and trade any kind of goods of their own accord, a liberty that remained in place well into the eighteenth century. Women who took advantage of this freedom were even referred to in documents as “she-merchants.” Inventories of wealthy women from the New Netherland/New York region from 1650 to 1750 indicate that they often owned quite a number of works of art. As part of the growing interest in the role of women in the history of collecting, Louisa Wood Ruby’s lecture will address the collecting habits of Dutch seventeenth-century “she-merchants” in New Netherland and their New York descendants. 

The Current State of Archaeology in China
Tuesday, March 22
6 – 7:30 pm
Lothar von Falkenhausen’s lecture presents some important recent discoveries in China and reflects on how they have changed our understanding of how Chinese civilization was formed. In a related vein, Professor von Falkenhausen will also reflect on changes in the intellectual framework in which Chinese archaeological research is being conducted today.

Symposium–High Availability: Museums’ Digital Response During the Pandemic
Friday, March 25
1 – 5 pm
The pandemic created an unprecedented set of challenges for cultural institutions over the past two years. Forced to close their doors, many institutions relied on their digital platforms, tools, and personnel to communicate and interact with audiences, share resources, collaborate, and develop new and existing projects. This symposium features speakers from New York City museums who will discuss how their institution responded to the pandemic, how it shaped and redefined their work, and the new pathways and connections it created for the future of their institutions.

How Can a Gathering of Things Be Transformed into a Scientific Collection?
Monday, March 28
12:15 – 1:15pm
Horse figurines made of textile, wood, or glass from different regions of the world, toy soldiers made of pewter, souvenir figurines—for example, of Marx, Atatürk or Mao—and much more: this assortment of seemingly disparate things lay scattered for years on the bookshelves and any free space in the study of Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006). Lisa Regazzoni’s lecture will give insight into approaches she is experimenting with to transform these objects into a scientific collection with epistemic value.

Heavenly Pearls: Nature, Religion, and Politics in Habsburg Spain
Tuesday, March 29
6 – 7:30 pm
In 1616, the image of Our Lady of the Sagrario was placed in her own chapel at Toledo Cathedral, splendidly covered with various pearl-studded garments, including a cloak embroidered with 78,000 natural pearls. The Virgin’s makeover coincided with the “pearl rush” that occurred in the Caribbean and the Pacific coasts of central America throughout the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In this lecture, Mónica Domínguez Torres uses the Virgin’s luxurious garments as a springboard to explore some of the connotations and functions that the organic gems acquired in Spain under Habsburg rule. Believed since antiquity to be wondrously engendered, in imperial Spain pearls became the material of choice to exalt the immaculate nature of the Virgin Mary, a fundamental tenet within the Habsburg “universal monarchy.”

The Past and Its Objects
Wednesday, March 30
12:15 – 1:15 pm
From the nineteenth century onwards, as anti-colonial nationalism grew, Indian history was mostly perceived in religious terms. While religion and spirituality were often conflated, the tendency to consign objects and artifacts to religious categories gained currency. In contemporary times, the debates about the authenticity of various versions of history continue to be reduced to debates around religion. Jyotirmaya Sharma’s lecture will discuss how the idea of the museum has been affected by these tensions around religious identities and historical interpretations, and how in turn, this has had an impact on the question of what to exhibit as well as the pedagogic purposes of the museum.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events Out in The World

Dorthoy Liebes, Coast to Coast
Saturday, March 19
1 – 2 pm ET 
Few people wielded as much influence over the texture and color of modern interiors in America as California designer and weaver Dorothy Liebes. The distinctive style of her woven designs – which combined vivid color, lush texture, and often a glint of metallic – became known as “the Liebes Look,” and was inextricably linked with the American modern aesthetic. Join Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith for a discussion of Liebes’s impact, from her roots in San Francisco to her New York “idea factory,” where she developed handwoven prototypes for industry.

Virtual Conversation with Artist Roberto Lugo
Wednesday, March 23
6:30 – 7:30 pm ET
Roberto Lugo, American artist, ceramicist, social activist, spoken word poet, and educator, in conversation with curator Rebecca Tilles. Lugo’s work is featured in the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Garden’s exhibition, The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present, including the vase Good Trouble, which was recently acquired by Hillwood.

The Gold of Banjska
Thursday, March 24
4 – 5:30 pm ET 
Midway through the quick succession of brief biographical notes about Serbian monarchs and potentates that comprise the so-called Genealogy of Karlovci, a fifteenth-century text, the reader comes across a passage of considerable art historical import. Writing about the great works of royal and clerical patronage, the anonymous author declares that “the pavement of the church at Prizren, the church of Dečani, the narthex of Peć, the gold of Banjska, and the paintings of Resava are to be found nowhere else.” This lecture takes the peculiar reference to “the gold of Banjska” as the point of entry into an exploration of a little-studied phenomenon—the extensive use of gilding in medieval Serbian wall painting. Drpić uses the results of recently conducted technical analyses to illuminate this phenomenon and clarify its significance for finding Serbia’s place on the artistic map of the later Middle Ages. 

Master Workshop: Mat Weaving with ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow
Friday, March 25
5:30 – 8:30 pm ET (In Person)
Take this rare opportunity to learn mat weaving from ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow, esteemed Eastern Band Cherokee Basket Maker and featured artist in the Center for Craft’s exhibition, ᎢᏛᏍᎦ  ᏫᏥᏤᎢ ᎠᎵᏰᎵᏒ:  ᎪᏥᎩ  ᏣᎳᎩ  ᏔᎷᏣ  ᏗᎬᏗ,  ᎦᏙ,  ᏃᎴ  ᎪᎵᏍᏗᎯ Weaving Across Time: Contemporary Cherokee Basket Making, Land, and Identity. Registration is $75 and all materials are included. This workshop is in-person and masks are required. All experience levels are welcome. This activity is recommended for ages 16 and older.

Cocktails & Conversation: Moshe Safdie, FAIA, with Donald Albrecht
Friday, March 25
6:30 – 8 pm ET (In Person)
Cocktails & Conversation is a series of dialogues about design that joins an architect with a critic, journalist, curator, or architectural historian to discuss current architecture design issues. For this program, Moshe Safdie, FAIA, will discuss his career and current projects with curator Donald Albrecht over a custom-crafted cocktail.

Temples in the Cliffside: Buddhist Art in Sichuan
Thursday, March 31
7:30 – 9 pm PT 
In her new book, Temples in the Cliffside: Buddhist Art in Sichuan, Sonya Lee argues that centuries-old religious monuments can be part of the world’s sustainable future. This talk focuses on the transformation of cave temples from religious centers into tourist destinations in southwest China, where venerable sites such as Leshan, Nankan, and Baodingshan have become entangled in some of the most consequential economic, political, and religious trends in Asia today.

“The Body in Ruins: Radical Performance in the Late East Germany” with Sara Blaylock
Thursday, March 31
4:30 pm CT 
The common impression of the communist East Germany is one of austerity and cultural oppression. The Auto-Perforation Artists, a collective of four artists who created the country’s most legendary experimental artworks, in fact, embraced that vision in an aesthetic that married self-harm to the absurd. Importantly, their performance art––began while set design students at a state-run art academy in the city of Dresden––countered the gendered and class constraints of East German society. Shocking, irreverent, and entirely committed to their art, the Auto-Perforation Artists ultimately managed to carve out a place for performance art in state culture.

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