What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 11am - 5pm Wednesday 11am - 8pm Thursday 11am - 8pm Friday 11am - 5pm Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

Bard Graduate Center

Home
United States
New York, NY
Bard Graduate Center

Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. Bard Graduate Center is a graduate research institute in New York City.

Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture. At Bard Graduate Center, we study the human past through its material traces. We study objects—from those created for obvious aesthetic value to the ordinary things that are part of everyday life. Learning is what Bard Graduate Center is all about. Our accomplished faculty inspire students to strive for excellence, knowing that this will prepare them for the intellectual and professional rigors of careers in academia, in museums, and in the private sector. This high standard is equally the hallmark of the Gallery’s acclaimed exhibitions and related public programs. The Center’s campus comprises a state-of-the-art academic programs building at 38 West 86th Street and Gallery at 18 West 86th Street. Founded by Dr. Susan Weber in 1993, Bard Graduate Center is an academic unit of Bard College through which it is accredited and a member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH).

10/08/2026

Only about 20% of American silent feature films have been preserved, and the survival rate for the original costumes is even lower. This button-adorned silk-velvet three-piece ensemble, worn by Colleen Moore in the 1926 film “Twinkletoes,” is among the exceptionally rare costumes that have survived.

Currently on loan from La Cinémathèque française, it may have been designed by pioneering American Hollywood costume designer Clare West.

See it up close in "Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film" at Bard Graduate Center Gallery, on view through January 3.

Plan your visit at the link in our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/bardgradcenter.

10/05/2026

Big questions, candid conversations, and a seat at the table. At Bard Graduate Center’s Tuesday Tea, students and faculty gather with scholars to explore research together.

Recently, BGC PhD candidate Kenna Libes was joined by another BGC PhD Candidate Angela Hermano Crenshaw, Michelle McVicker (Antonio Ratti Textile Study and Storage Center) and Wafa Ghnaim (The Tatreez Institute) to discuss their contributions to Fashion’s Missing Masses. Edited by Libes. The volume champions a more inclusive approach to studying, displaying, and curating dress.

Want to be part of these conversations? Explore graduate study at BGC at a fall open house. Register through the link in our bio.

09/22/2026

Every bead, pearl, and sequin had a role to play. In silent film, fashion helped tell the story, and all the details mattered.

See them up close in "Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film" at Bard Graduate Center Gallery, on view through January 3.

Plan your visit at the link in our bio.

09/21/2026

At BGC, we explore the connections between objects, ideas, and the people who give them meaning.

MA student Sam Simons ( ) took their classroom research on nineteenth-century sculpture and early film to the Victorian Society New York’s ( ) Emerging Scholars event, and into print in "Panorama" with an article titled, "From Marble to Moving Image: The “White Slave” in American Visual Culture, 1847–1913."

See where your curiosity might take you. Join us at a fall open house: register through the link in our bio.

09/19/2026

You brought the glamour! Thank you to everyone who joined us at Bard Graduate Center Gallery to celebrate "Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film" and to the curators, scholars, lenders, supporters, and colleagues who made it possible.

The magic continues through January 3. Visit our website for exhibition tickets, tour bookings, curator talks, and other exciting related programs.

Photos: Yann Chashanovski

09/18/2026

Our doors are open! Come see what's on view in the Gallery—plus, free admission every Friday.

09/08/2026

New library acquisitions alert, including one from our very own Prof. Caspar Meyer!

BGC students, fellows, faculty, and staff can take a closer look at these and other recent purchases on display in the 3rd-floor alcove in the library.

09/04/2026

Wednesdays@BGC brings objects to life through talks, screenings, performances, and conversations with scholars and makers.

The series returns this month with two fascinating journeys through fashion history—one into the spectacle of silent film, the other into the intricate art of Victorian hairwork.

September 23: Fashion Shows on Film: An Evening of Silent Serials with Michelle Finamore, live-scored by Makia Matsumura

September 30: Victorian Hairwork and Nineteenth-Century Mourning Practice with Karen Bachmann

Both programs begin at 6 pm. Tickets at the link in bio.

Images: (1) Poster for the American film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914), Eclectic Film Company. (2) Hair wreath, Presque Isle, ca. 1860.

09/01/2026

It's opening month! 🎬 Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film opens September 18 at BGC Gallery

When films were silent, fashion spoke volumes. Curated by Michelle Finamore and Emma Cormack, Goddesses brings together a selection of rare objects surviving from the advent of cinema. A vibrant display of garments and accessories at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery will be enriched by accompanying film clips and works on paper including photographs, posters, film stills, and costume design sketches.

Learn more and reserve tickets via the link in bio!

Images: (1) Olaf M. Brauner, Portrait of Irene Castle, 1922. Oil on canvas. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Acquired through the generosity of John Foote, Class of 1974, and Kristen Rupert, Class of 1974, and transferred from the Cornell Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections to the Johnson Museum, 2022.041. Image courtesy of the Johnson Museum. (2) One-sheet poster for Mademoiselle Modiste (Corinne Griffith Productions, Inc., 1926) starring Corinne Griffith, 1926. Lithograph. Ira Resnick Collection. (3) I. Miller (Israel Miller), shoes, mid-1920s. Silk satin, gilt leather, and kid leather. Jimmy Raye Collection. Photograph by Joel Benjamin.

08/31/2026

What can you do with a Bard Graduate Center degree? 🎓

John Stuart Gordon (MA ’07) is the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale University Art Gallery. “An emphasis on hands-on experiences pushed me to explore an internship at the Met … BGC gave me confidence to try something unfamiliar, which wound up being my calling.”

For BGC alumni, the study of objects becomes a foundation for careers across museums, academia, and the cultural field.

Photos courtesy of John Stuart Gordon.

Address

38 W 86th Street
New York, NY
10024

Opening Hours

Tuesday	11am - 5pm
Wednesday	11am - 8pm
Thursday	11am - 8pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+12125013023

Website

http://www.bgc.bard.edu/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bard Graduate Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Bard Graduate Center:

Featured

Heart River Center for Intuitive Healing

Want your organization to be the top-listed non profit organization in New York?