Greetings Alumni,

From where I’m sitting, considerations of familial bonds and community seems to be a resonant theme this fall. Take for instance the newly opened The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England exhibition at the Met. There’s some absolutely stunning, state sponsored objects in Tudors and I’d suggest visiting Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle at the Museum of Art and Design if you’re seeking further examples of creative collaboration. And if chosen family is more your vibe, look no further than Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces at MoMA. 

And speaking of community, Susan’s drinks in London on October 3 were a success! She was joined by Pat Kirkham, Catherine Arbothnott, Cynthia Coleman Sparke (MA ’01), Lisa DeZoete (MA ’06), Elise Hodson (MA ’09), and Laura Microulis (MA ’97, PhD ’16).

As always, please feel free to share your news, either by email or through the online form.

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

Alumni Spotlight

I am pleased to share a recent project of mine: Crafting Empathy–an archive for interviews I conducted with makers and friends earlier this year. Each interview is focused on the feelings that circulate through among makers, crafted objects, and viewers. If you visit the site, I recommend doing so on your browser, rather than your phone for an optimal experience. 🙂 

Select Career Opportunities

Select BGC Events

to stall, delay, invert
Wednesday, October 19
6 pm 
Join us for an artist talk with conceptual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston. This evening is co-sponsored by the Queens Museum, where Weston’s artworks, including glass sculpture, photographic prints, and site-specific installation, will be on view from October 2022 through March 2023 in a solo show titled of [a] tomorrow: lighter than air, stronger than whiskey, cheaper than dust. The artist talk will be followed by a conversation with Queens Museum assistant curator Lindsey Berfond. Weston is a researcher-in-residence in the Bard Graduate Center Fields of the Future Fellowship program.

Open House for Prospective Students
Sunday, October 23
11 am
Bard Graduate Center Open Houses give prospective students the opportunity to learn much more about our MA and PhD programs. At this event, held at our building on West 86th Street, you’ll have the chance to hear from faculty about their research and teaching, meet students, and see our buildings, including our gallery. This event will be hosted by our Dean, Peter Miller, and will include faculty members Jeffrey Collins, Francois Louis, and Jennifer Mass.

Lace and Music
Wednesday, October 26
6 pm
Performer and musicologist Elizabeth Weinfield (Juilliard) and celebrated opera director Elena Araoz (Princeton University) collaborate on an evening of music and performance that takes place throughout the Threads of Power exhibition, with selections that explore the mathematic and aesthetic dimensions of lace through the lens of history, gender, and labor. Visitors will be led through the gallery, floor by floor, with time to explore between music performances. This is a timed experience—visitors will have the opportunity to return to the gallery to explore at their own pace on a future date.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Socrates x Noguchi Field Guide: Exploring a “New Nature”
Saturday, October 15
11 am ET (In Person)
In the 1930s Noguchi envisioned a playground for New York City that was never realized. Join artist Chemin Hsiao for a watercolor workshop at Socrates Sculpture Park, and imagine Noguchi’s play sculptures placed within the urban landscape. Learn basic watercolor techniques, and use both reference images of Noguchi’s play equipment and the setting of Socrates to inspire your painting.

Disability Justice in Preservation
Wednesday, October 19
12 pm ET
Historic sites can struggle with modern accessibility requirements. But how can we push past compliance to build a truly equitable and accessible baseline for everyone who engages with historic buildings? This Zoom panel will explore work being done around disability justice in the preservation field, to go beyond ADA access and look at a more holistic vision for accessibility in historic spaces.

A Deep History of Mixing Blood: Indigenous Strategy, Fur Trade, and Race Science in North America
Wednesday, October 19
7:30 pm PT (In Person)
Anne Hyde, professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, discusses how intermarriage was a vital Native strategy using sex, diplomacy, and captivity to create a successful world of mixed-descent people who pioneered the American West. That success challenged U.S. ideas about who deserved frontier opportunities. Indian country’s mixed-descent families and their Indigenous kin soon faced a sharply racist white America determined to end intermarriage. Using personal — and sometimes painful — stories, Hyde examines specific families who built the fur trade in the North and who ended up everywhere in the U.S. West.

Dior and His Decorators
Thursday, October 20
5:30 pm ET (In Person)
Dior and His Decorators is the first book devoted to the two interior designers most closely associated with Christian Dior. Like the luxurious fashions of Dior’s New Look, which debuted in 1947, the interior designs of Victor Grandpierre and Georges Geffroy infused a war-weary world with a sumptuous new aesthetic drawing on the refined traditions of the past. Using vintage photographs, author Maureen Footer recounts the lives and the work of this trio.

The Costume Society 2022 Conference: “Clothes Maketh the Man”
Saturday, October 22 – Wednesday, November 2
Various Times
The Costume Society’s 2022 online Conference ‘Clothes Maketh the Man’ provides a thought-provoking platform for exploring men’s dress and how concepts of masculinity are expressed through male appearances. The Conference will showcase and celebrate the unique characteristics, influences, manufacture, methods of communication and inspiration involved in clothes for men, and those who identify as male, through a series of short presentations. Be sure to catch Nikki Dee-Collins’ (MA ‘20) presentation on Saturday, October 22!

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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.