Happy October, Alumni!

If you live in the tri-state area I hope this note finds your living quarters recovered from last week’s biblical floods. When the subway was somewhat healed, I attended one of the programs for New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival. The night’s program featured geometric movements of Coté Danse and a block of flamenco performances. The angle of my seat in the far left mezzanine meant that my view of the stage was slightly obstructed. So I took in the audience swooping to my right and the Neo-Moorish details framing the light fixtures. 

This experience had some symmetry with the approach of BGC’s new exhibition, SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power, and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa, whose audio program encourages visitors to not only look closely at particular objects, but to look through the vitrines to consider the visual and cultural relationships of the surrounding objects. Come visit SIGHTLINES for yourself and see its stunning exhibition design (and objects, obviously!) in person!

And as always, please continue getting in touch with your news, either by using the online form, or by emailing the alumni gmail account. 

Here’s to autumn,
Rachael Schwabe (MA ‘20)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

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Select BGC Events

Sightline: Jessica Lynne
Wednesday, October 11
6 pm ET (In Person)
In the spirit of the exhibition title—SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power, and Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa—Bard Graduate Center (BGC) has invited writer and critic Jessica Lynne, novelist Maaza Mengiste, composer JJJJJerome Ellis, and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili to create their own sightlines—ways of seeing the exhibited artworks through time, form, and space. This evening, Jessica Lynne will reflect on the spiritual potencies of water, black memory, and cultural retention, and home as a site of care and intimacy. A selection of film clips, songs, and interviews will be used as a response to and in conversation with her selected sightline.

Coming to Washington: Tracing the History of Visitors in the Nation’s Capital
Wednesday, October 18
6 pm ET (In Person)
Drawing upon an extensive multimedia archive of fictional and documentary sources from 1800 to the present, M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska explores how personal experience, popular culture, and politics have defined the expectations and experiences of visitors to Washington, DC. In this talk, Rymsza-Pawlowska will share from her recent research, focusing especially on working with visual and material evidence from the long and interesting history of visits—by tourists, officeholders, activists, and militias—to the nation’s capital.

Exhibiting Africa: State of the Field in African Art and the Diaspora
Thursday, October 19 – Friday, October 20
Various Times ET (In Person)
This timely symposium explores present-day perspectives on the display of the arts and material culture of Africa and the Diaspora, examines its historiography in Western cultural institutions, and considers directions for its future. The event coincides with exhibitions at each of its host institutions that contribute new approaches to display practices in the field. Convened by Drew Thompson and Annissa Malvoisin, curators, scholars, and faculty members at Bard Graduate Center, the event features discussions among thought leaders whose expertise ranges from the ancient to the contemporary.

Select Virtual and In-Person Events in the World

Printed Plants: Illustrated Herbal Incunabula
The Morgan Library & Museum
Friday, October 6
6 pm ET (In Person)
The first European printed herbals had bold graphics and clear layouts. The illustrations were copied repeatedly as printers issued competing editions trying to claim their share of this new commercial market. What can we learn about how early books were marketed just from their layout? Join John McQuillen, Associate Curator of Printed Books and Bindings, to examine the visual impact of printed herbals in the 15th century.

Latinx History is Poster History
Poster House
Tuesday, October 10
12 pm ET (Virtual)
Latinx History is Poster History! Join us in honoring Latinx Heritage Month by welcoming art historian and curator Alejandro Anreus, who will present an overview of posters in Latin America and Latinx communities (Chicano, Nuyorican, Cuban). Anreus’ expertise in the fields of Latin American and Latinx art history will provide an introductory understanding of posters from these diverse and deeply creative communities.

Endangered Eating: The Vanishing Flavors of New York Apples
Museum of Food and Drink
Thursday, October 19
7 pm ET (In Person)
Apples, a common New England crop and the fruit that gave New York its iconic nick name, have been called the United States’ “most endangered food.” In Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods, culinary historian Sarah Lohman draws inspiration from the Ark of Taste, a list compiled by Slow Food International that catalogues important regional foods. Lohman travels the country learning about the distinct ingredients at risk of being lost, focusing on the apples of New England and New York state for this program with MOFAD. Lohman learns from those who love these rare ingredients: shepherds, fishers, and farmers; scientists, historians, and activists. And she tries her hand at raising these crops and preparing these dishes. Each chapter includes two recipes, so readers can be a part of saving these ingredients by purchasing and preparing them. In celebration of Lohman’s new book, MOFAD is excited to welcome Sarah Lohman and a distinguished panel of apple and cider experts from across New York for a conversation on how to preserve and celebrate local culinary traditions and rare, cherished foods―before it’s too late. This event includes a tasting of local New York regular and hard ciders. Ticket also includes a glass of wine from the collection of the TOM’s Wine Cave.

61st Annual Seminar on Glass
Corning Museum of Glass
Thursday, October 19 — Friday, October 20
10 am – 4 pm ET (Virtual)
The Corning Museum of Glass is pleased to announce its 61st Annual Seminar on Glass, a two-day program of online sessions that complements the special exhibition Dig Deeper: Discovering an Ancient Glass Workshop. The program, held virtually on October 19 and 20, 2023, will explore the ways archaeologists study glass and glassmaking in the ancient world, with particular focus on the site of Jalame in modern Israel.

Dining Culture in the English Country House, 1600 to 1914
American Friends of Attingham
Thursday, November 2
6 pm ET (In Person and Live Streamed)
Please join American Friends of Attingham as we welcome Ivan Day, British culinary historian, collector and chef extraordinaire, as the speaker for our 2023 annual benefit lecture. Mr. Day’s talk will offer something for everyone, from the architecture of dining rooms to the decorative arts of table settings, and his historic meals never fail to bring interiors to life with the rich colors, textures, and aromas from the past.  As an experienced chef, Mr. Day will also consider the preparatory spaces and skilled women and men who designed these theatrical and ephemeral creations.  His lecture draws upon prints, paintings, books, manuscripts and decorative arts. This delectable and visually lavish presentation promises to be a feast for the eyes, and it will be followed by historic libations and gustatory temptations at a thematic reception.

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