Greetings Alumni,

I am sure you (like me) are still thinking about the Canadian smoke that submerged coastal cities in haze and smog last week. As I kept an eye on the fuschia-colored air quality map, I cast my mind back to the history of London’s fog–that is, the air pollution created by factories, rather than the charming earl grey latte I learned to make during my stint as a barista.  

I hope everyone is breathing easy! We have some exciting alumni news below–please continue to feel free to send me your news either by email or through the online form. 

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

Alumni Spotlight

Alexa Griffith Winton (MA ‘03) is a co-curator of the upcoming exhibition, A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The exhibition will run from July 7 through February 4, 2024 and is the first major show of her work since 1970 (!). A new book on Dorothy Liebes by the same name features contributions by Alexa, alongside two BGC alumni, Leigh Wishner (MA ‘04) and John Stuart Gordon (MA ‘03), will be published this month in time for the exhibition. Congratulations to all and best wishes!

Anglik Vizcarrondo’s (MA ‘16) exhibition, Funk You Too! Humor & Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture on view at MAD through August 27 recently received a write up by the New Yorker. Well done, Anglik! 

Cassandra Celestin’s (MA ’18) film, Water & Wall (2021) will be featured in Sight/Geist: Dislocation, a screening and discussion hosted by The 8th Floor in New York City on Thursday, June 22. Congratulations, Cassandra! 

Lauren Drapala (PhD Candidate) and Michelle Jackson-Beckett (MPhil ‘20, PhD ‘22) moderated panels for Delving Inside: A New Research Symposium on Interiors hosted by SAH Historic Interiors Group and Chelsea College of Art. Madeline Porsella (MA ‘23) was a speaker for the “Making the Immaterial Material in Space” panel. Well done, all!

Friendly Reminder: Call for DEAI Working Group Members

Current Working Group members, Alexis Mucha (alexis.mucha@bgc.bard.edu) and Freyja Hartzell (freyja.hartzell@bgc.bard.edu) invite your participation for the third iteration of BGC’s Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion Working Group.

At minimum they are looking for one incoming MA student to be recruited in the fall; one rising second-year MA student; and one alumnus who works outside of BGC. If you care about diversity, equity, inclusion, and access and would like to be a part of a BGC group pursuing these values, please fill out this form by Friday, June 16. We will follow up with everyone who signs up.

The basics:

• This invitation is for new members – people who have not yet served on the DEAI working group before.
• The working group is on a volunteer basis, but requires a commitment of 1–2 meetings per month.
• The group benefits from having a wide variety of skill sets from all parts of the organization, so interest and commitment are the most valuable attributes of an ideal working group member.
• Working group members are asked to commit to participating for the entirety of the term (2 years) and to make their very best efforts to attend all meetings.
• The new working group will determine what areas they’d like to focus on. Past areas of focus include hiring, student recruitment and experience; curriculum; professional development; and gallery accessibility. 
• The ideal working group will include representatives from a variety of departments at BGC. We are especially interested in alumni and student members (both MA and PhD).

The third working group will utilize funds from the newly confirmed DEAI working group budget. This budget line can be used for invited speakers, workshops, community social events, and an accessibility audit of BGC’s Gallery.

Select Career Opportunities

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Digital Body Language Workshop with Analivia Cordeiro and Nilton Lobo
LACMA
Saturday, June 17
10:30 am PT (In Person)
In conjunction with the exhibition Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982, artist Analivia Cordeiro and computer scientist Nilton Lobo will lead a dance and movement workshop where participants will be guided through movement exercises and create original choreography inspired by relationships between the body, movement, visual and audiovisual art, and media technology. No previous dance experience required. The workshop is presented in two parts and will take place at LACMA over two days. Each session runs approximately 2.5 hours. All requests for accommodation can be sent to educate@lacma.org. This program is open to participants ages 18 and up. 

An Attack Against One is An Attack Against All: From Civil Rights to Black Power
Poster House
Thursday, June 22
6:30 pm ET (In Person and Live Streamed)
The civil rights movement and the Black Power movement are often presented as discrete and, at times, antithetical campaigns. While these separate approaches relied on different tactics and strategies, both were effective in securing fundamental human rights for Black people in America and have more in common than is generally recognized. Both addressed their audiences through powerful imagery and accessible visual language, thereby galvanizing the masses. 

Live Matter: Contemporary Artists on Plants in Practice
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Thursday, June 22
7 pm ET (In Person)
On the opening evening of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s exhibition, Presence of Plants in Contemporary Art join acclaimed exhibiting artists Piero Golia and Natalie Jeremijenko in conversation with exhibition curators Pieranna Cavalchini, the Gardner’s Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art, and Charles Waldheim, the Gardner’s Ruettgers Curator of Landscape and Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Hear more from artists on this panel about their remarkable interdisciplinary creative practices, how they work with living plant material, and what plants can teach each of us about our place on this planet. 

Expanding the Field: Rethinking Methodologies in British Art Research
Friday, June 23
10 am BST (In Person and Online)
This annual symposium offers an opportunity for doctoral and early career researchers to share and discuss their research creative methods, varied approaches, ethics, and methodologies on topics related to British art and art history (broadly defined). By questioning ‘how we come to know what we know’, we aim to reflect on the current possibilities, dilemmas, and challenges in academic research, participatory engagement, or creative practice. Join us to hear from speakers presenting on a variety of topics that cover decolonial, postcolonial, feminist, or queer perspectives; address the impact of quantitative and data-driven methodologies; report on practice-based, curatorial, or collaborative research; or reflect on the role of different media, including digital, audio, and filmmaking.

A Conversation on Nora Thompson Dean with Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans
The Morgan Library Museum
Friday, June 23
6 pm ET (In Person)
Join the Morgan Library & Museum for an evening celebrating the Lenape traditionalist Nora Thompson Dean, who dedicated her life to preserving Lenape culture and language, with two of the founders of the Lenape Center, Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans. The Lenape Center is a New York-based organization with the mission of continuing Lenapehoking, the original Lenape homeland in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, through community, culture, and the arts. The program will be moderated by Sal Robinson, Lucy Ricciardi Assistant Curator, Literary and Historical Manuscripts.

Summer Solstice Celebration: Ceremonies for Connecting with the Land
Queens Museum
Saturday, June 24
1 pm ET (In Person)
The summer solstice, also known as the sun festival, marks the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. It is one of the most important annual celebrations for many cultures and people who hold their relationships with the land as sacred. The Queens Museum’s Summer Solstice Celebration will provide an opportunity to experience land blessings and land healing ceremonies by local and diasporic indigenous community members, and participate in dance and movements practices that rekindle kinship with the natural world and the cosmos.

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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.