Hello Alumni,

I hope this letter finds you enjoying the twilight of summer! One of my favorite adventures in these last heat fueled days and weeks has been down to the Rockaways Beach to see their annual Beach Sessions. This year’s program featured the Trisha Brown Dance Company and I joined the crowd that followed the performers along the shore line as they enacted movements with water lapping at their calves. Even more magical was the sunset that submerged the beach and surrounding buildings in a rosy, welcoming glow.

I hope you too are finding your light! Please continue to share your news, either by email or through the online form. I always love to see your names in my inbox!

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

Select Career Opportunities

Select BGC Events

Good Genes: A Lecture Performance by Sister Sylvester
Wednesday, September 7 
6 pm (In Person)
Acclaimed director Sister Sylvester and a cohort of BGC students lead audiences through this bio-art lecture performance. Genetic and archival research—on a costume hat from Bertolt Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble—are woven together to help us remember the stories of those who wore it. This hands-on experience is for ages 14 and up.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Wednesday, September 7
6:30 pm ET (In Person)
In conjunction with the exhibition Writing a Chrysanthemum: The Drawings of Rick Barton, which includes drawings Barton made while incarcerated, Nicole R. Fleetwood, James Weldon Johnson Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, talks about the exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, that explores the impact of the US prison system through contemporary visual art. Through the work of artists who are or have been incarcerated alongside artists who have not, the exhibition reveals how punitive governance, predatory policing, surveillance and mass imprisonment impacts millions of people. Art made in prison is crucial to contemporary culture, though it has been largely excluded from established art institutions and public discourse. Marking Time aims to shift aesthetic currents, offering new ways to envision art and to understand the reach of the carceral state on life today.

It Takes a Village: Unsung Women and Their Contributions to Silent Film
Monday, September 12
6 pm ET 
In the first two decades of the 20th century, the nascent silent film industry offered women numerous opportunities to make a significant impact in the field. Mostly marginalized and forgotten over time, these women contributed heavily to early Hollywood filmmaking, doing everything from editing to designing,  producing to directing. While some like Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber, and Mary Pickford are well known by cinema buffs, many unsung pioneers like Clare West, Elsa Lopez, and Marion Fairfax still live in obscurity. This lecture will acknowledge these many women’s talents and provide the recognition they deserve.

Artists of the New York Scene
Tuesday, September 13
10:30 am ET
Join Jewish Museum curator Kristina Parsons, Leon Levy Assistant Curator at the Jewish Museum at 92NY (92nd Street Y) to discover how works created amidst epoch-changing events—such as the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963), and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1963)—fundamentally altered the artistic, social, and political landscape of New York City, and the nation at large.

Roberto Lugo: A Village Potter
Wednesday, September 14
6:30 pm ET (In Person)
Roberto Lugo details his studio practice and the intersections of identity, representation, empowerment, and storytelling in his work, now on display at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery in the exhibition This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. These themes are evident in his work, from Sévres porcelain-inspired vessels depicting Frederick Douglass to life-size urns decorated with likenesses of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Lugo adorns classical pottery forms with portraiture and surface design that incorporate his North Philadelphia roots and hip-hop culture. His hand-painted works reimagine traditional European and Asian ceramics, highlighting themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice.

Design by Transformation:Inventiveness and Cultural Persistence in Spanish America
Thursday, September 15
6 pm ET (In Person)
Celebrating the exhibition Foreign Exchange: 18th-Century Design on the Move, this lecture will examine the historical context that gave rise to the unique material culture of Spanish America during the colonial age (1500–1830). Dr. Jorge F. Rivas Pérez will highlight the originality, ingenuity, and visual traditions of local artists. He will explore how they contributed to the development of a new cross-cultural world after the profound processes of readjustment and transformation ensued from the conquest and colonization of the Americas.

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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.