Greetings Alumni,

I feel we’ve been corresponding long enough that I can safely reveal I am a (February) Pisces. Do what you will with that information! I recently celebrated the season with some fellow Pisces–and Aquarians (I don’t discriminate!)–over a dim sum lunch at the Golden Unicorn in Chinatown. We spent the afternoon swapping personal updates and celebrity gossip stories over several cups of tea and filling our stomachs with many steamed dumplings. As the weather begins to turn to spring, I hope that you too are marking the season with friendly meals.  

Please feel free to get in touch with your news, either by email or through the online form. 

Swimming on,
Rachael Schwabe (MA ’20)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

‘Tis the season of Colin Fanning (MA ‘13, BGC PhD candidate) and Antonia Behan’s (MA ‘14, PhD ‘20) Craft History Workshop! View their spring schedule here, and tune in to the next session of their series on the topic, “Revival, Renewal, and the Nation” taking place over Zoom on March 23.

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Select BGC Events

Poetics of Black Sociality
Wednesday, March 15
6 pm ET
Join BGC faculty member Drew Thompson as he continues his exploration of the Polaroid as an object of Black material culture. In this conversation, he is joined by photographer and curator Zun Lee and poet Dawn Lundy Martin.

Vajrabhairava Mandala and Medium Specificity in the Mongol Court
Wednesday, March 22
6 pm ET
A monumental work of silk tapestry depicting the Vajrabhairava mandala, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the most dazzling works produced under the patronage of the Yuan dynasty’s Mongol ruling house (1271–1368). In this presentation, Yong Cho explores the Vajrabhairava mandala’s intended ritual function as well as Yuan-era courtly discourses that theorized silk tapestry as a medium of choice for divine imagery.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Stephen Shore and Jeff Rosenheim Discuss the Art of Bernd & Hilla Becher
Thursday, March 9
6 pm PT (In Person)
Stephen Shore has spent his career as an artist and educator thinking about vernacular traditions. He knew the artists Bernd and Hilla Becher personally and even showed alongside them in the 1975 landmark exhibition New Topographics. Join Shore and acclaimed guest speaker Jeff L. Rosenheim, Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for a lively conversation about the Bechers, the power of the vernacular, and its role in the development of the medium. Shore’s recent books will be available for purchase and signing following the talk.

The Woks of Life: Chinese Foodways and Authenticity with the Leung Family and Grace Young
Wednesday, March 15
7 pm ET (In Person)
In celebration of their new New York Times bestselling cookbook, The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family, The Leungs will be in conversation with award-winning cookbook author, Chinese culinary historian, and activist Grace Young. They will be discussing the meaning of the word “authenticity” as it relates to Chinese food and Chinese cooking and thinking about the ways in which food pathways change Chinese dishes and preferences, especially within a multi-generational family that is cooking together.

Artists Talk: What the Funk?!
Tuesday, March 21
6:15 pm ET (In Person)
To mark the opening of Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture, the exhibition’s curator, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy (MA ‘16), will be in conversation with exhibiting artists Alake Shilling, Natalia Arbelaez, Sharif Farrag, and Salvador Jiménez-Flores. Together, they will discuss irreverent approaches to serious subject matter, the important role of the cute, cheeky, and subversive in contemporary ceramics, and clay’s rise to sculptural stardom.

Virtual Insights: Intimate Stories Through Textiles
Tuesday, March 21
1 pm ET
Join curators Emelie Gevalt and Sadé Ayorinde behind the scenes of What That Quilt Knows About Me to learn more about the artworks, the artists and the themes included in this exhibition. In this program, Gevalt and Ayorinde walk us through the exhibition, which is not organized by time period, style, culture, or technique. Instead, the visitor is encouraged to revel in a wide range of objects and their stories, and focus attention on the intimacy of the human-textile relationship.

Rococo Across Borders: Designers & Makers
Friday, March 24–Saturday, March 25
Various Times GMT
A two-day symposium organized by the Furniture History Society & the French Porcelain Society on Rococo ceramics and furniture across Europe and beyond, which aims to examine the geographical spread of the Rococo style, the interaction between designers and makers, and the significant role played by print culture in its dissemination. It will go beyond the traditional geographical, chronological and conceptual fields of Rococo design to explore how the style evolved throughout the long Eighteenth century, and reflect on wider discussions about the historical contexts for Rococo ceramics and furniture, alongside the place of the ‘Rococo’ in museums and art historical scholarship today.

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