CCS CAT INSIDES NEW

CENTER FOR 

CURATORIAL 

STUDIES 

Master of Arts Program in Curatorial Studies Bard College 2007–2008

Installation view of 

IAMNOWHERE, 

curated by 

Erica Hope Fisher. 

May 7, 2006, opening 

reception of graduate 

thesis exhibitions at 

CCS BARD. 

COVER 

Thomas Struth, 

Audience 2 

(Galleria Dell’ Accademia), 

Florenz, 2004, 

Marieluise Hessel Collection. 

©Thomas Struth 2006 

2 BARD COLLEGE 

3 CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES 

Hessel Museum of Art 3 

The Collection 4 

Exhibition Program 5 

Library and Archive 7 

8 THE GRADUATE PROGRAM 

Master of Arts Program 8 

Curriculum 9 

Master’s Degree Requirements 10 

Two-Year Academic Schedule 10 

Required Courses 12 

Electives 14 

Summer Internship 15 

Master’s Degree Project 15 

Grading and Academic Standing 16 

18 FACULTY 

25 ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS 

Research Programs 25 

Lecture Series and Public Programs 26 

28 APPLICANT INFORMATION 

Admission 28 

Tuition and Fees 29 

Financial Aid 30 

Medical Records and Health Insurance 31 

Accommodations and Meal Plans 31 

Accreditation 31 

32 BARD GRADUATE PROGRAMS 

34 BOARDS AND ADMINISTRATION 

35 TRAVEL TO BARD 

36 CALENDAR 

36 NOTES 

APPLICATION FORMS

BARD COLLEGE 

Top row: (left to right) 

The Gabrielle H. Reem and 

Herbert J. Kayden Center for 

Science and Computation, 

The Levy Economics Institute, 

rugby field 

Bottom row: (left to right) 

Village Dorms, 

The Richard B. Fisher Center for 

the Performing Arts, 

Stevenson Library 

Founded in 1860, Bard College is a leader in the field of liberal arts and sciences, with exceptional 

strengths in the studio and performing arts. Offering outstanding academic opportunities and small group 

learning experiences, Bard has distinguished itself as one of the most innovative liberal arts programs in the 

country. Bard’s 540-acre campus is situated in the beautiful and historic Hudson River Valley, approximately 

90 miles north of New York City, and adjacent to 1,400 acres of nature preserve and estuarine sanctuary. 

The Hudson River borders the campus to the west; across the river lie the Catskill Mountains. Walking trails 

crisscross the campus through wooded areas, along the Saw Kill stream, and down to the river. The region 

is known for its rich contribution to early American history, literature, and art, and to contemporary culture. 

The campus contains more than 70 buildings of varied architectural styles, from 19th-century stone houses 

and riverfront mansions to structures designed by noted contemporary architects. Bard resources and 

campus services include the Academic Resources Center; Career Development Office; a campus center 

with a bookstore, post office, café, and cinema; a computer center and computer laboratories; four libraries 

(Charles P. Stevenson Library, The Levy Economics Institute Collection, the Center for Curatorial Studies 

Library, and, in New York City, the library of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 

Design, and Culture); the Stevenson Gymnasium, which features a 6-lane, 25-yard swimming pool, a fitness 

center, and squash courts; soccer and rugby fields and tennis courts; the Frank Gehry–designed Fisher 

Center for the Performing Arts; and the CCS galleries and Hessel Museum of Art. 

2 | CCS BARD

CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES 

View of the museum atrium from 

inside the CCS gallery 

The Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture is an exhibition and research center 

dedicated to the study of art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present day. Cofounded in 

1990 by the collectors Marieluise Hessel and Richard Black, the Center initiated its graduate program 

in curatorial studies in 1994. Since its inception, the program has awarded the M.A. degree to more than 

one hundred students. The Center’s original 38,000-square-foot facility, designed by architect Jim Goettsch 

and design consultant Nada Andric, was completed in December 1991. It includes 9,500 square feet of 

exhibition galleries, advanced collection storage facilities, classrooms, a library and archive, and offices for 

faculty, staff, and visiting curators and scholars. Expanded and completely renovated in 2006, the Center 

now includes a student lounge, where CCS graduate students can meet informally to discuss exhibitions 

and class projects. 

HESSEL MUSEUM OF ART 

On November 12, 2006, the Center for Curatorial Studies inaugurates the Hessel Museum of Art, a new 

17,000-square-foot building dedicated to the Marieluise Hessel Collection of more than 1,700 contemporary 

works. Designed by Jim Goettsch, architect of the original CCS, the new museum was conceived specifically 

with the Hessel Collection in mind, and has been scaled and organized so that approximately 10 to 15 

CCS Bard, CCS Bard Hessel Museum | 3

percent of the collection can be shown at any one time. The Hessel Museum will provide an educational 

venue for Bard students as well as the wider public, and a place to test out the possibilities for exhibitionmaking 

utilizing the remarkable resources of the collection as a whole. Tom Eccles, CCS executive director, 

will work closely with guest curators and invited artists to organize exhibitions and art projects for the Hessel 

Museum. These exhibitions will complement the extensive exhibitions curated for the existing CCS galleries. 

Wrestle, the Museum’s inaugural exhibition, opens on November 12 and remains on view through the 

spring of 2007. Tom Eccles and Trevor Smith, independent curator in New York City, curate the show. 

Wrestle offers a compelling overview of the Hessel Collection, with a focus on works that challenge our 

notions of self and others, offering surprising connections in form and content between works from diverse 

artistic and social positions. The exhibition features more than 200 works from the Collection, including 

From the Marieluise Hessel 

Collection, left to right: 

Tom Friedman 

Untitled (plastic), 2002 

Pipilotti Rist 

Extremities (smooth, smooth) 

(video still) 

Gabriel Orozco 

Carta Blanca, 1999 

Cans, labels, and sand 

works by Martin Creed, Robert Gober, Roni Horn, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Nauman, 

Richard Prince, Pipilotti Rist, and Cindy Sherman. A major, innovative catalogue will document the 

exhibition. 

The new Hessel Museum is part of a $10-million development that has been primarily funded by Ms. Hessel, 

with additional support from her husband, Edwin Artzt. Robert and Melissa Soros and Laura-Lee Woods 

provided part of the funding for the renovation and expansion of the existing CCS library, archive, classroom 

space, and student lounge. 

THE COLLECTION 

The foundation of the Center’s permanent collection is the Marieluise Hessel Collection of 1,780 paintings, 

sculptures, photographs, works on paper, artists’ books, videos, and video installations from the mid-1960s 

to the present. The Collection is international in scope, with works by more than 900 artists, including Carl 

Andre, Janine Antoni, Georg Baselitz, Louise Bourgeois, Anne Chu, Francesco Clemente, William Copley, 

Dan Flavin, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Isaac Julien, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Kushner, 

Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul McCarthy, Gabriel Orozco, Raymond Pettibon, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, 

Pipilotti Rist, Doris Salcedo, David Salle, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, and 

Christopher Wool, as well as major works from movements such as Arte Povera, Pattern and Decoration 

(P&D), Minimalism, and Transavantguardia. Works are continually acquired for the collection. Recent additions 

include works by Robert Gober, Thomas Hirschhorn, Roni Horn, Rosemarie Trockel, and Franz West, 


as well as two major new commissions for the Hessel Museum—a walkway designed by Lawrence Weiner 

that incorporates his signature text works, and a large-scale installation by Korean-born artist Do-Ho Suh, 

with thousands of diminutive figures buried below the glass floor of the Hessel Museum’s entrance gallery. 

The permanent collection also has works that have been given to the Center by Eileen and Michael Cohen, 

Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, Asher Edelman, Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, Robert Gober, Joan and 

Gerald Kimmelman, Eileen Harris Norton and Peter Norton, Toni and Martin Sosnoff, and Thea Westreich 

and Ethan Wagner. Many of the gifts are works from the 1990s by young and mid-career artists. 

This collection also provides the basis for faculty research and teaching. CCS faculty members Rhea 

Anastas and Michael Brenson are currently editing Witness to Her Art, a major anthology of writings on 

important exhibitions by Jenny Holzer, Nan Goldin, Rosemarie Trockel, Cady Noland, and other women 

artists whose works are well represented in the collection. Witness to Her Art will be launched at the 

Hessel Museum inauguration in November. 

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 

The principal aim of the CCS exhibition program is to encourage and explore experimental approaches to 

the presentation of contemporary visual arts, particularly approaches that reflect the Center’s commitment 

to the multidisciplinary study of art and culture. Exhibitions are organized and presented on a regular basis 

in the CCS galleries by the director of the Center, and by Center faculty and visiting curators and scholars, 

who are invited to discuss their projects with students and the public in gallery walk-throughs and the 

Center’s lecture series. Beginning in the fall of 2006, the CCS exhibition program will also include 

exhibitions and projects in the new Hessel Museum of Art, as well as a new series of artists’ projects and 

commissions for the campus grounds that extend into the wider community. 

Installation view of thesis exhibition 

Draw a straight line and follow it, 

curated by Anna Gray. Detail of 

Peter Coffin’s version of Butterfly 

Piece Composition No. 5, 2006. 

Thesis exhibition critique 

Since 1994 the Center for Curatorial Studies has presented several exhibitions exploring issues of contemporary 

museology, including Exhibited (1994), Sniper’s Nest: Art That Has Lived with Lucy R. Lippard 

(1995), a/drift (1996), and Odradek (1998); and exhibitions highlighting aspects of the collection, such 

as Mirror Image; The Arch of Desire: Women in the Marieluise Hessel Collection; Re(f)use; and Text, 

Texture, Touch (all 2002). The Center has also presented exhibitions of work by the Cuban photographer 

Arturo Cuenca (1995) and the Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov (1996); retrospective exhibitions of 

The Collection, Exhibition Program | 5

the Brazilian sculptor Tunga (1997), and the American artist Dave Muller (2002); a series of exhibitions of 

work by emerging artists, including the first museum exhibitions of Maciej Toporowicz (1994), Paul Myoda 

(1995), Kara Walker (1995), and David Shrigley (2001); and special projects by Tony Feher (2001) and 

Sarah Sze (2001). In the summer of 2003, the Center presented Sodium Dreams, an exhibition about 

cinema and urban experience, and recent works by Slater Bradley and Aïda Ruilova; in the fall of 2003, it 

presented a Christian Marclay retrospective organized by the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. 

From 1994 until 1997, the CCS museum was directed by Vasif Kortun, whose pioneering efforts to build 

a program that was both innovative and international in scope provided the foundation for the Center’s 

exhibition program today. Under his leadership, the Center initiated a series of projects and exhibitions 

with emerging international artists and guest curators, including artists Nedko Solakov, Luchezar Boyadjiev, 

Left and middle: 

Uncertain States of America, 

curated by Daniel Birnbaum, 

Hans Ulrich Obrist, and 

Gunnar Kvaran 

and Maciej Toporowicz, and curators Katalin Neray, Ivo Mesquita, and Ralph Rugoff. In 1998, Amada Cruz 

became director of the CCS Museum. Between 1999 and 2003, she organized major solo exhibitions 

of artists such as Takashi Murakami, Ilya Kabakov, Isaac Julien, and David Shrigley. Cruz also augmented 

the Center’s publication program, producing an original catalogue to accompany all major exhibitions 

presented at CCS during her tenure. 

CCS Bard Library with view of 

survey of Contemporary 

Independent Cultural and Arts 

Publications, curated by 

graduate student 

Max Hernández Calvo 

Most recently, CCS has collaborated with three of Europe’s leading curators—Daniel Birnbaum, Gunnar 

Kvaran, and Hans Ulrich Obrist—on Uncertain States of America: American Art in the Third Millennium. 

First shown at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo in October 2005, this remarkably 

succinct compilation of recent evolutions in painting, sculpture, and video provides an astute, yet 

contentious, assessment of the current state of American art and culture. 

In 2005, a new exhibition fund was established by Audrey Irmas, a Los Angeles–based collector and 

CCS board member. This fund provides a foundation of support for the Center’s exhibition program as well 

as artists’ commissions and other educational and public activities at the Center. 

A special fund for student-curated exhibitions at CCS has been instituted by CCS board member Martin 

Eisenberg. Last fall, the Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg Student Exhibition Fund provided lead support for 

Reshuffle: Notions of an Itinerant Museum, an exhibition-as-publication curated by the first-year graduate 

students at the Center for Curatorial Studies. 


LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE 

The CCS library contains just under 19,000 books and exhibition catalogues, an archive of more than 

1,600 artist and subject files documenting the contemporary visual arts from the mid-1960s to the present, 

and a slide collection. The library has particularly strong collections of exhibition catalogues and monographs 

on individual artists, including catalogues and monographs documenting the work of artists represented in 

the Marieluise Hessel Collection. It also has special collections of catalogues documenting the exhibition 

history of important galleries and museums and major international exhibitions of contemporary art. The 

library collections are continually being expanded. 

Installation view of works by 

Frank Benson, Hannah Greely, 

and Karl Haendel 

CCS Library | 7

Paul Chan 

2nd Light, 2005 

Digital animation installation 

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM 

MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM 

The graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College provides practical training and 

experience in a museum setting and an intensive course of study in the history of the contemporary visual 

arts, the institutions and practices of exhibition, and the theory and criticism of the visual arts in the modern 

period. The program is broadly interdisciplinary. Its faculty includes curators and other museum professionals, 

scholars in the humanities and social sciences, artists, and critics. The curriculum is specifically 

designed to deepen students’ understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating exhibitions 

of contemporary art, particularly in the complex social and cultural situations of present-day urban arts 

institutions, and to help students improve their interpretive and critical writing. While the Center’s graduate 

program is organized with a view to the needs of curators and critics of contemporary art, its explorations 

of exhibition practice and the social and cultural contexts of exhibiting institutions address significant 

aspects of museum work generally. The program can offer an alternative to traditional museum studies for 

students interested in periods of art other than the contemporary or areas of museum or arts administration 

other than curating. 

The Center initiated its graduate program in curatorial studies in the fall of 1994. To date, 107 students 

have been awarded the M.A. degree. More than a hundred curators, critics, scholars, artists, and other arts 


professionals have taught seminars or lectured in practicums and courses since the program began. The 

Center also sponsors exhibitions, lectures and conferences, and research in the contemporary visual arts, 

society, and culture. The purposes of the Center’s public and research programs are to create new forums 

for the discussion of important issues in the contemporary arts and culture and to encourage new scholarship 

and exhibition initiatives that can contribute to the development of the graduate curriculum. 

CURRICULUM 

The intensive, two-year graduate program at the Center assumes that a curator or critic of the contemporary 

visual arts must be acquainted with the recent history of the arts, the social and cultural conditions of 

their production, and the critical and theoretical conceptions that inform their reception. It further assumes 

that study of the arts in the context of contemporary society and culture requires familiarity with a wide 

range of thought in the humanities and social sciences, including social and cultural history, philosophy, 

sociology, and economics. Finally, the program assumes that thoughtful exhibition and criticism of contemporary 

art require both a trained sensitivity to the aesthetic demands of art and study of the institutions and 

practices of exhibition. 

Students benefit from 

small classes and group 

critiques 

Course offerings in the graduate program include seminars in art history, in theory and criticism, and on 

issues of curatorial and critical practice; practicums taught by curators, critics, and other arts professionals; 

and independent research courses and writing tutorials. Students are required to complete an internship 

with an artist, curator, or other arts professional between their first and second years; they also have opportunities 

in practicums and seminars to work with curators, scholars, and critics in the preparation of exhibitions 

and publications. 

Upon satisfactory completion of course work and other requirements of the graduate program, students are 

awarded the degree of master of arts in curatorial studies. 

The Program | 9

MASTER’S DEGREE REQUIREMENTS 

Candidacy for the master’s degree requires satisfactory completion of a total of 40 course credits: 

— 24 credits in 10 required courses 

(four seminars, four practicums, and two independent research courses or writing tutorials) 

— 10 credits in five elective courses 

— 6 credits in a required summer internship 

The final master’s degree project does not itself carry any course credit. 

First-year seminar 

Second-year students 

take a break 

TWO-YEAR ACADEMIC SCHEDULE 

The typical course schedule for a student in the graduate program is outlined below. All required seminars, 

proseminars, and practicums must be taken in the semesters indicated. Practicums meet for two and a half 

or three hours each week; other courses typically meet for two and a half hours each week, although some 

may have additional discussion sessions. Courses are held on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at the 

Center and on Thursdays at museums, artists’ studios, and other locations, often in New York City. Fridays 

are left free of regularly scheduled courses so that students can view current exhibitions and visit museums 

in New York City and elsewhere in the area. 


First Year 

Semester I (Fall Term) 

Proseminar: Studies in Contemporary Art (2 credits) 

Seminar: Theory and Criticism in Contemporary Art I (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies I (3 credits) 

Elective Course (2 credits) 

Semester II (Spring Term) 

Proseminar: Studies in the History and Practices of Exhibition (2 credits) 

Seminar: Theory and Criticism in Contemporary Art II (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies II (3 credits) 


Summer Internship (6 credits) 

Exhibition critique 

Thesis exhibition 

installation 

Second Year 

Semester III (Fall Term) 

Independent Research: Master’s Degree Project (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies III (3 credits) 


Elective Course (2 credits) [may be taken in the fall or spring term] 

Semester IV (Spring Term) 

Independent Research: Exhibition Preparation (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies IV (3 credits) 


The Program | 11

REQUIRED COURSES 

First Year 

Semester I 

Proseminar: Studies in Contemporary Art 

A proseminar in the history of the contemporary visual arts. Particular attention is given to the concepts 

and methodology of art historical study and their application to the contemporary visual arts. (2 credits) 

Seminar: Theory and Criticism in Contemporary Art I 

A seminar in the historical and philosophical foundations of contemporary criticism and theory. Studies of 

classical, medieval, Renaissance, and 18th- and 19th-century texts in aesthetic theory, including texts that 

explore relations between the arts and society. The purpose of the seminar is to introduce students to past 

discussions of the arts that continue to inform contemporary critical conceptions and theory. (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies I 

The first-semester practicum introduces students to the basic principles of collections care and management 

and to the intellectual and practical tasks of preparing an exhibition. The practicum includes sessions with 

Center staff and other arts professionals on art handling, registration, and condition reporting; preparing 

works of art for transit; environmental standards for collections storage and exhibition; and the professional 

responsibilities of the curator. Students explore issues relating to the planning, design, and installation of 

exhibitions by preparing exhibitions from the Center’s permanent collection with guest curators. (3 credits) 

Stlll life of materials for 

thesis exhibition installation 

Semester II 

Proseminar: Studies in the History and Practices of Exhibition 

A proseminar in the history of the institutions and practices of exhibition. The proseminar surveys the history 

of museums, galleries, and other exhibition spaces and explores how social and cultural conditions, institutional 

requirements, and aesthetic conceptions have shaped past and current exhibition practices. The specific 

emphases of the proseminar each year depend on the background and interests of the instructor. As 

part of the proseminar, students conduct intensive studies of past or current exhibitions or permanent 

museum installations. (2 credits) 

Seminar: Theory and Criticism in Contemporary Art II 

A continuation of the first-semester seminar in criticism and theory. The emphasis in the second semester 

is on issues in 19th- and 20th-century criticism and theory and on recent studies of the social, cultural, and 

institutional contexts of the contemporary visual arts. (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies II 

The second-semester practicum is an intensive workshop in critical and interpretive writing, taught each 

year by one or more practicing critics. Through group discussions of past and recent critical writing and 

frequent writing assignments, the practicum develops students’ abilities to write critically about works of 

visual art and their various historical, social, cultural, and theoretical contexts. (3 credits) 


Second Year 

Semester III 

Independent Research: Master’s Degree Project 

Independent individual research, supervised by a member of the faculty, leading to a draft of the catalogue 

for the final master’s degree project. (2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies III 

The third-semester practicum includes sessions on educational programming, public relations, the 

architecture of museums and galleries, and the design of exhibitions. Instructors include Center faculty 

and invited education curators, architects, exhibition designers, and other arts professionals. These studies 

are intended to broaden students’ consideration of the possibilities of public programming and exhibition 

design and to address questions of the relation of an exhibition’s design to its subject and intended 

audience. At the end of the semester, students present and discuss their final master’s degree projects 

(see section on the master’s degree project). (3 credits) 


Hot Topic, curated by Amy Mackie 

Installation of thesis exhibition 

Welcome to the Limelight, 

curated by Natalie Woyzbun 

Semester IV 

Independent Research: Exhibition Preparation 

Final design, preparation, and installation of the exhibition for the master’s degree project. This independent 

research course, like the third-semester course, involves periodic consultations with a faculty member. 

(2 credits) 

Practicum: Curatorial Studies IV 

Review and discussion of final exhibition projects. Each student presents and discusses his or her final 

master’s degree project, addressing the choice of artworks for exhibition and the interpretive concerns and 

strategies of the exhibition and catalogue. These presentations are organized around critiques of the 

student exhibitions by visiting curators and scholars. (3 credits) 

The Program | 13

ELECTIVES 

Particular attention is given in elective courses to developing interdisciplinary perspectives on the visual 

arts and their exhibition. Specialized courses taught by visiting curators and scholars offer studies of the 

contemporary arts and exhibition practices in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Electives are divided 

into two distribution areas, described below. Students must complete a total of five elective courses, 

including at least two in each distribution area. Each course carries 2 credits. 

Area I 

Studies in Contemporary Art 

Seminars in the history of the contemporary arts, including seminars on individual artists and particular 

developments or “movements” in contemporary art, and specialized seminars in criticism and theory. 

The following are some of the seminars offered over the past five years: 

Student research facilities 

include the CCS Library and 

the Stevenson Libraries 

of Bard College 

The Work of Art after Minimalism and Pop 

Exhibiting Feminism: The 1970s 

Public Art/Public Space 

Current Issues in Critical Practice 

Art of the Sixties: Installation Practices and Strategies 

The Art and Criticism of Contemporary Women Artists 

On the Wall of the Museum: Collections and Exhibitions 

The Projective Artwork in the Age of Digital Reproduction 

Art and Criticism of the ’80s and ’90s 

On Globalization: A History, Some Theories, and a Few Interpretations 

Politics in the Arts: Art, Criticism, and Democratic Culture 

Fictions of the Artist 

Area II 

Institutional and Exhibition Studies 

Seminars exploring the history and the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions of the institutions 

and practices of exhibition, including specialized studies of the history of exhibition, museum and curatorial 

practice, the sociology of museums and their audiences, the economics of arts institutions and of the art 

market, and the architecture of museums and the design of installations. The following are some of the 

seminars offered over the past five years: 

The Exhibition: Medium, Form, Genres 

Virtual Culture: Toward Definition 

The Catalogue as Site 

Curatorial Practice: Mapping a Territory 

City-Space and the Museum 


SUMMER INTERNSHIP 

The summer internship provides students an opportunity to conduct research and gain practical experience 

through work with an artist, curator, or other museum or arts professional. Internships involve a minimum of 

three days’ work each week for eight weeks during the summer between a student’s first and second 

years. Internships may be based in a museum department, gallery, artist’s studio, or arts publication office 

and are supervised by the arts professional or artist with whom the student is working. The graduate program 

staff helps students find placements for their internships; some placements may be competitive. 

Internships should result in a substantial piece of work—for example, preparatory work for an exhibition, 

an analysis of a segment of a permanent collection, or a survey or catalogue of an artist’s archives. Each 

student is required to submit a written report upon completion of his or her internship. The internship supervisor 

is asked to provide a written evaluation of the student’s work. (6 credits) 

MASTER’S DEGREE PROJECT 

As the culmination of his or her study and training, each student prepares a final master’s degree project. 

The project is supervised by a review committee, made up of the student’s faculty adviser and two additional 

faculty members. On occasion, a scholar, critic, or arts professional who is not on the Center faculty 

may serve on a student’s project review committee. Students consult with members of their project review 

committee at each stage of their final master’s degree project. 

Each student organizes an exhibition and prepares an interpretive catalogue as a final master’s degree project. 

The exhibition, which is presented at the Center in the fourth semester of study, may include works 

from the Center’s collection or works that the student has obtained on loan from artists’ studios, collectors, 

galleries, or other institutions. The final project is planned and completed in three stages. 

Brian Sholis, a managing editor at 

Artforum.com, and Christina Lei 

Rodriguez, Miami-based artist 

Graduate student Zeljka Himbele 

and Marcia Acita, assistant director 

of the museum, readying a piece 

for installation 

The Program | 15

Stage I, Exhibition Proposal 

A detailed exhibition proposal must be presented to the Graduate Committee in the third semester of 

study. The proposal must describe the exhibition’s subject and its intellectual and aesthetic intentions and 

must include a checklist of works that the student wishes to borrow from the Center’s collection or other 

sources. The proposal must also be accompanied by a budget and an installation plan, which are reviewed 

and approved by the Center’s registrar. Students present brief prospectuses for their final exhibition projects 

to the Graduate Committee in the second semester of study. 

Stage II, Catalogue Essay Draft 

A preliminary draft, 20 to 25 pages in length, of the catalogue essay for the proposed exhibition must be 

submitted to the student’s project review committee at the beginning of the fourth semester of study. 


Tales of Place, 

curated by Zeljka Himbele 

Performance of 

Echoplex (reissue) 

by Mika Tajima 

at the opening of 

Uncertain States of America, 

June 24, 2006 

The draft must include an exhibition checklist and a bibliography of relevant literature, including any works 

cited in the essay. 

Stage III, Final Project 

The final project consists of the completed exhibition, presented during the fourth semester of study, and its 

interpretive catalogue. The catalogue must include a substantive essay, 20 to 30 pages in length, exploring 

the subject of the exhibition; biographical information about the artist or artists represented; a checklist of 

works exhibited; and a bibliography. The interpretive catalogue is submitted as a master’s degree thesis in 

the middle of the fourth semester of study. 

GRADING AND ACADEMIC STANDING 

All seminars, proseminars, and elective courses are graded on the following scale: 

A Excellent 4.0 

B Very good 3.0 

C Competent 2.0 

D Minimally acceptable 1.0 

F Unacceptable 0.0 


The following plus and minus grades may also be given: A- (3.7), B+ (3.3), B- (2.7), C+ (2.3), and C- (1.7). 

Student participation in practicums and independent research courses is graded either Satisfactory (S) or 

Unsatisfactory (U). The grades of S and U have no numerical value and are not included in the calculation 

of a student’s grade point average (GPA). 

Students must maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 and must complete all their practicums and independent 

research courses with a grade of S to remain in good academic standing. Any student whose GPA in a 

semester falls below 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students whose GPA falls below 3.0 in 

two semesters in succession or who receive an unsatisfactory grade (U) in a practicum or independent 

research course will be asked to leave the graduate program. All decisions about academic standing are 

made by the Graduate Committee upon review of student grades at the completion of each semester. 

Internships and final master’s degree projects are not graded. Students receive written evaluations of their 

work in internships and of their final projects. These evaluations are included in each student’s academic 

record and are reviewed by the Graduate Committee in its final evaluation of a student’s candidacy for the 

master’s degree. 

Doris Salcedo 

Untitled, 2001 

Wood and concrete 

Marieluise Hessel Collection 

The Program | 17

Mike Bouchet 

Top Cruise, 2005 

Astrup Fearnley Collection, Oslo 

FACULTY 

The faculty of the graduate program includes curators and other arts professionals, scholars in the humanities 

and social sciences, critics, and artists. Most faculty members are working professionals or hold permanent 

academic appointments at institutions other than Bard. The following list includes faculty teaching 

in the program in 2006–07 and 2007–08. 

Norton Batkin Director of the graduate program, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary 

Culture; dean of graduate studies and associate professor of philosophy and art history, Bard College. 

B.A., Stanford University; M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University. Assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, 

Yale University (1981–88); associate professor of humanities, Scripps College (1988–90). Assistant 

director, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University (1982–84); director, Scripps College Humanities 

Institute (1988–90). Publications include Photography and Philosophy (1990); “The Museum Exposed,” 

in Exhibited (Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, 1994); “Conceptualizing the History of the 

Contemporary Museum: On Foucault and Benjamin,” Philosophical Topics (1997); and other articles 

and reviews in philosophical aesthetics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of psychology. 

Marcia Acita Assistant director of the museum, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary 

Culture. B.F.A., University of Colorado, Boulder; M.F.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Registrar 


and exhibition coordinator, Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College (1988–92); registrar (1992– ) and 

acting director of the museum (1997–98), Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture. 

Curator, Alighiero e Boetti (1998), Gabriel Orozco: Selections from the Marieluise Hessel Collection 

(2000), and numerous artists’ book exhibitions (1995–2000). 

Rhea Anastas Faculty, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture. B.A. and M.A., 

Columbia University; Ph.D., Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York. Lecturer, 

Visual Arts Department, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (2001–03). Coeditor, Dan 

Graham: Works 1965–2000 (2001). Publications include articles and exhibition catalogues on postwar 

and contemporary art, criticism, and theory, including “‘Not in eulogy not in praise but in fact’: Ruth Vollmer 

and Others, 1966–1970,” in Ruth Vollmer 1961–1978; Thinking the Line (Hatje Cantz 2006); and “The 

Artist is a Currency,” with Gregg Bordowitz, Andrea Fraser, Jutta Koether, and Glenn Ligon, Grey Room 24 

(Summer 2006). Her lecture, Untitled by Andrea Fraser: A Short Reception History, 2002–2005, is a 

book in-progress. Cofounder, Orchard, New York (2005– ). Graduate Committee (2003– ). 

Julie Ault Artist. Visiting lecturer, critical studies program, Malmö Art Academy. Cofounder, Group Material 

(1979–96). Recent exhibition projects include Information (with Martin Beck), Storefront for Art and 

Architecture, New York (2006); Mirage (with Martin Beck), Alexander & Bonin Gallery, New York (2005); 

and Points of Entry, Queens College, City University of New York (2004). Exhibition designs with Martin 

Beck for Strangers (2003) and Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina: Photography and Montage After 

Constructivism (2004), International Center of Photography, New York; and X-Screen: Film Installations 

and Actions of the 1960s and 1970s (2003), Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna. Editor, Felix Gonzalez- 

Torres (2006) and Alternative Art New York, 1965–1985 (2002). Author Come Alive: The Spirited Art of 

Sister Corita Kent (2006); coauthor with Martin Beck, Critical Condition: Selected Texts in Dialogue (2003). 

Norton Batkin 

Rhea Anastas 

Michael Brenson 

Michael Brenson Independent critic. B.A., Rutgers University; M.A., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University. 

Art critic, New York Times (1982–91). Curated exhibitions of Magdalena Abakanowicz, P.S.1 (1993); 

Ryoji Koie, Gallery at Takashimaya (1994); and Jonathan Silver, Sculpture Center (1995). Publications 

include Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of the Visual Artist in America 

(2001); Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block Structures (2002); Acts of Engagement: Writings on Art, Criticism, 

and Institutions, 1993–2002 (2004); museum catalogues on Elizabeth Catlett, Mel Edwards, Alberto 

Giacometti, Gillian Jagger, Maya Lin, Juan Muñoz, Martin Puryear, and David Smith; and numerous other 

Faculty | 19

essays on modern and contemporary sculpture, public art, art criticism, and contemporary art and its institutions. 

Currently working on a biography of David Smith. Graduate Committee (2006– ). 

Johanna Burton Faculty, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture. B.A., University of 

Nevada, Reno; M.A., SUNY Stony Brook; Critical Studies, Whitney Museum of American Art Independent 

Study Program; M. Phil., New York University; Ph.D. candidate, Princeton University. Cocurator, Videodrome II 

(2002) and Super-ficial: The Surfaces of Architecture in a Digital Age (2003), New Museum of Contemporary 

Art; curator, For Presentation and Display: Some Art of the ’80s, Princeton University Art Gallery (2005). 

Teaching fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art (2004– ). Publications include catalogue essays on 

Carroll Dunham, Peter Fraser, Guyton/Walker, and Rachel Harrison, among others, and numerous reviews 

and articles for Artforum, Parkett, Texte zur Kunst, and Time Out New York. 

Joshua Decter with graduate 

student Erica Fisher 

Tom Eccles (right) talking with 

Peter Hutton, director of the Film 

and Electronic Arts Program 

at Bard College 

Lynne Cooke Curator, Dia Art Foundation, New York. B.A., Melbourne University; M.A., Courtauld Institute 

of Art; Ph.D., University of London. Lecturer, History of Art Department, University College, London 

(1979–89); visiting lecturer, Visual Arts Department, Syracuse University (1987), and Graduate Sculpture 

School, Yale University (1990, 1992, 1998); visiting graduate critic, School of the Arts, Columbia 

University (2001– ); adjunct professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University 

(2002– ). Cocurator, Aperto, Venice Biennale (1986) and Carnegie International (1991); artistic director, 

Biennale of Sydney (1996). Has curated exhibitions at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol; Whitechapel Art Gallery 

and Hayward Gallery, London; Third Eye Center, Glasgow; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and 

elsewhere. Has written widely about contemporary art in exhibition catalogues and in Artmonthly, Artscribe, 

Burlington Magazine, Parkett, and other art journals. Graduate Committee (1993–94, 1995– ). 

Joshua Decter Independent curator. B.A., SUNY Purchase; Museum and Critical Studies, Whitney 

Museum of American Art Independent Study Program; graduate study, Department of Cinema Studies, 

New York University; Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Graduate School and University Center, 

City University of New York. Has taught at Bennington College; Graduate School of Art, New York 

University; Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; University of California, Los Angeles; School of Visual 

Arts, New York; Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Program coordinator/assistant curator, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (1986–88). Cocurator, 

Juxtapositions: Recent Sculpture from England and Germany (1987), and curator, (C)Overt (1988), P.S.1 

Contemporary Art Center. Curator, Don’t Look Now, Thread Waxing Space (1994); Screen, Friedrich 


Petzel Gallery (1996); Cathode Ray Clinic #1, apexart (1996); a/drift, Center for Curatorial Studies 

Museum, Bard College (1996); Heaven–Private View/Public View, P.S.1 Center for Contemporary Art 

(1997); Exterminating Angel, Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris (1998); Transmute, Museum of 

Contemporary Art, Chicago (1999); Tele[visions], Kunsthalle Vienna (2001); Dark Places, Santa Monica 

Museum of Art (2006); Curatorial Interlocutor for Interventions, inSite05, 2003–05. Publisher and editor, 

Acme Journal (1991–94). Publications include catalogue essays for MAK, Vienna; Centre National d’Art 

Contemporain, Grenoble; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; the Carnegie International; and the São 

Paulo Bienal; and articles and reviews in Artforum, Flash Art, Parkett, Texte zur Kunst, Trans, and other 

periodicals. Organizer and moderator of numerous panel discussions: The Question of the City, Vienna Art 

Week, 2006; Garage Talks, inSite_05, San Diego, 2005; Polyphony of Voices, Bunkier Sztuki Center for 

Contemporary Art Krakow, 2002. Graduate Committee (2006– ). 

Tom Eccles Executive director, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture. Studies at 

the University of Siena, University of Perugia, and University of Bologna; M.A., University of Glasgow. Tutor 

in moral philosophy, University of Glasgow (1989–92); lecturer, M.A. program in fine art, Glasgow School 

of Art (1992–93). Independent curator and arts organizer (1989–93); project manager, Project Ability and 

Center for Developmental Arts (1989–91), Glasgow, and Art in Partnership (1992–93), Edinburgh. Project 

director (1993–95), deputy director (1996–97), and director and curator (1997–2005), Public Art Fund, 

New York. Curatorial projects at the Public Art Fund include exhibitions and commissions of public works 

by Francis Alÿs, Janet Cardiff, Martin Creed, Pierre Huyghe, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Barbara Kruger, 

Mariko Mori, Vik Muniz, Pipilotti Rist, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Rachel Whiteread, Andrea Zittel, and 

others; large-scale installations by Jonathan Borofsky, Louise Bourgeois, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, 

Nam June Paik, and at Rockefeller Center; commissions of new works for Madison Square Park; sculpture 

installations at Doris C. Freedman Plaza; collaborations on outdoor artists’ projects with the Whitney 

Museum of American Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum of Modern Art; a program of 

commissions for public works by emerging artists, and survey exhibitions of monumental sculpture in New 

York City. Founding editor, Transcript (Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art, University of Dundee), and 

author of exhibition reviews in Art in America and other publications. 

Thelma Golden Executive director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem. B.A., Smith College. 

Visual arts director, Jamaica Arts Center, Jamaica, New York (1989–91); director and exhibition coordinator, 

Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris (1991–93); associate curator and director of branch 

museums (1993–96) and curator (1996–98), Whitney Museum of American Art; special projects curator, 

Peter Norton Family Foundation (1998–99); deputy director for exhibitions and programs and chief curator 

(2000–05), executive director and chief curator (2005– ), Studio Museum in Harlem. Organized exhibitions 

of Romare Bearden, Jane Dickson, Jacob Lawrence, Leone & Macdonald, Suzanne McClelland, Lorna 

Simpson, Matthew McCaslin, Glenn Ligon, and others at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip 

Morris; cocurator, 1993 Biennial Exhibition; curator, Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in 

Contemporary American Art (1994) and Bob Thompson: A Retrospective (1998), Whitney Museum of 

American Art. Curator, Isaac Julien: Vagabondia (2000), Martin Puryear: The Cane Project (2000), Glenn 

Ligon: Stranger (2001), Material and Matter (2001), Freestyle (2001), Red, Black and Green (2001), 

Yinka Shonibare (2002), Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary African-American Art 

(2002), Gary Simmons (2002), Aaron Siskind: Harlem Document (2003), and Harlemworld: Metropolis 

as Metaphor (2004), Studio Museum in Harlem. Publications include essays for Artforum, ACME, and 

Poliester. Graduate Committee (1993– ). 

Faculty | 21

Chrissie Iles Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art. B.A., University of 

Bristol; postgraduate diploma in arts administration, City University, London. Visiting faculty, sculpture 

department, Yale University; adjunct professor, Columbia University; external examiner, curatorial course, 

Goldsmiths College, London. Head of exhibitions, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1988–97). Curator of 

retrospective and survey exhibitions of Sol LeWitt, John Latham, Gary Hill, Marina Abramovic, Louise 

Bourgeois, and Yoko Ono; Signs of the Times: Film, Video, and Slide Installations in Britain in the 1980s 

(1990); and Scream and Scream Again: Film in Art (1996), Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Cocurator, 

2004 Whitney Biennial; curator, Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964–1977 (2001), 

Jack Goldstein: Films and Performance (2002), Flashing into the Shadows: The Artist’s Film after Pop 

and Minimalism 1966–1976 (2000), and James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence (2004); cocurator, 2006 

Chrissie Iles 

Ivo Mesquita 

Whitney Biennial: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art. Author of numerous exhibition catalogue 

essays and articles in Artforum, Frieze, October, and Parkett. 

Nico Israel Associate professor of English and comparative literature, Hunter College, City University of 

New York. B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., Yale University. Assistant professor or visiting 

assistant professor, New York University (1995–98), Williams College (1998–99), Columbia University 

(2001), Duke University (2002), Université de Paris VIII (2005), and Otis School of Art, Los Angeles 

(2006). Publications include Outlandish: Writing between Exile and Diaspora (2000); academic articles 

on Joseph Conrad, Theodor Adorno, Salman Rushdie, Wallace Stevens, modernism, and postcoloniality 

and globalization; several exhibition catalogue essays; and numerous articles in Artforum and Bookforum. 

Kay Larson Writing tutor, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture. Managing editor, 

Curator: The Museum Journal. Faculty, Workshop in Language and Thinking, Bard College. Regular contributor 

of features on art and culture to the New York Times. Art critic and feature writer for art magazines 

and other publications. Freelance editor. Art critic, The Real Paper, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1972–75); 

associate editor, ARTnews (1975–78); art critic, Village Voice (1979–80); and art critic and contributing 

editor, New York magazine (1980–94). 

Ann Lauterbach Cochair (1991– ) of writing faculty, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts; David 

and Ruth Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature (1998– ), Bard College. B.A., University of 

Wisconsin-Madison; graduate study, Columbia University. Taught at Brooklyn College, Columbia University, 


Princeton University, Denver University, Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa; distinguished professor, 

City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Books include The Night 

Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience (2005), Hum (2005), If in Time: Poems 1975-2000 (2001), 

On a Stair (1997), And for Example (1994), Clamor (1991), Before Recollection (1987), Many Times, 

But Then (1979). Poems and essays on visual art published in numerous journals, including Conjunctions, 

of which she has been a contributing editor since 1981. Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1967), Guggenheim 

Fellowship (1986), MacArthur Fellowship (1993). 

Diane Lewis Professor, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union, New York, and principal, 

Diane Lewis Architects. B.Arch., Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union. Rome Prize in 

Architecture (1976–77), American Academy in Rome. Assistant professor, University of Virginia (1977–78) 

and Graduate School of Architecture, Yale University (1978–82). Has lectured at Graduate School of 

Design, Harvard University; Architectural Association, London; Royal Academy, Copenhagen; and 

universities and art schools throughout the United States. Visiting critic, Sommer Akademie, Salzburg, 

Austria (1984), and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia (1990). Architectural practice has 

included residences, private libraries, art galleries, museums, and housing. 

Cuauhtémoc Medina Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, National University of Mexico, 

Mexico City, and associate curator of Latin American art, Tate Gallery, London. B.A., National University of 

Mexico; Ph.D., Essex University. Curator of contemporary art, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (1989–92); staff 

member, Curare: Espacio crítico para las Artes (1992–98); and current director, Teratoma A.C., Mexico 

City. Curator, When Faith Moves Mountains, a project by Francis Alÿs, Lima, Peru (2001), and 20 million 

Mexicans can’t be wrong, South London Gallery (2001); researcher, International 04, Liverpool Biennial 

(2004). Publications include “Abuso mutuo/Mutual abuse,” in Mexico City: An Exhibition on the Exchange 

Rates of Bodies and Values (2002); “Gerzso and the Indo-American Gothic: From Eccentric Surrealism to 

Parallel Modernism,” in Risking the Abstract: Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso (2003); 

“Aduana/Customs,” in Santiago Sierra: Pabellón de España, 50a Bienal de Venecia (2003); “Architecture 

and efficiency: George Maciunas and the economy of art,” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics (2004); and 

numerous essays and reviews in exhibition catalogues, art publications, and newspapers, including Curare, 

Poliester, La Jornada, Reforma, Félix, Flash Art, and Third Text. 

Ivo Mesquita Curator, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil. B.A., M.A., São Paulo University. 

Researcher and assistant curator (1980–88) and director (1999–2000), São Paulo Bienal Foundation; 

director, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (2001–02). Curator, Jorge Guinle, 20th São Paulo Bienal 

(1989); Desire in the Academy, 1847–1916, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo (1991); Cartographies, 

Winnipeg Art Gallery (1993); Daniel Senise: The Enlightening Gaze, Museum of Contemporary Art, 

Monterrey, Mexico (1994); Body and Space, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (1995); Stills: A Selection 

from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College (1998); 

Alair Gomes, fotógrafo, Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo (1999); and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: 

Climate, Fundació “la Caixa”, Madrid (2003); Projeto Octógono (2003–); and Voyage to Dakar: Three 

Artists from the Americas, VI Dak’Art Biennial of Contemporary African Art, Dakar (2004). Cocurator, 

Roteiros . . . , 24th São Paulo Bienal (1998); inSITE97 and inSITE2000, San Diego and Tijuana; and 

F[r]icciones, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2000). Publications include Leonilson: use é lindo, eu garanto 

(1997), Daniel Senise: ela que não está (1998), F(r)icciones (with Adriano Pedrosa, 2001), Eliane Prolik: 

Noutro Lugar (2005), and catalogue essays. Graduate Committee (1997–98, 1999– ). 

Faculty | 23

Christian Rattemeyer Curator, Artists Space, New York. M.A., Free University of Berlin; Ph.D. candidate, 

Columbia University. Most recently curated the group exhibitions Establishing Shot, Repeat Performance, 

Based on a True Story, Model Modernisms, and International Geographic at Artists Space. Has worked as 

a freelance writer and critic in New York and as communication editor for Documenta11 in Kassel. Founder 

and codirector, OSMOS (1997–98), an independent project space in Berlin; curated several festivals—for 

film and for architecture—in Berlin (1998–2000), Los Angeles (2001), London (2003), and New York 

(2005). Contributor to Parkett, Texte zur Kunst, Artforum, and Art Papers; has published many catalogue 

essays on contemporary art. Editor, Igor Mischiyev: Multi Story Car Park (2002) and the Documenta11 

Short Guide. Has taught seminars at the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies, Rhode Island School 

of Design, and School of Visual Arts, New York. 

Daniel Buren 

Cabane eclatee polychrome 

aux mirroirs, 2004, 

wood, mirrors, acrylic paint. 

Marieluise Hessel Collection 


ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS 

RESEARCH PROGRAMS 

The Center encourages new research and exhibition initiatives related to its concerns by providing fellowships 

to visiting scholars and curators. Particular attention is given to furthering interdisciplinary study of the 

social and cultural contexts of contemporary art, curatorial practice, and the history of exhibition, including 

comparative studies of the contemporary visual arts and their exhibition throughout the world. 

Installation with viewer 

Dance to the beat of a different 

drum machine, 2005 

Mario Ybarra Jr., from Uncertain 

States of America 

In 1995 the Center initiated a program of visiting research residencies that has enabled curators and 

scholars to spend up to a semester at the Center to conduct research and teach in the graduate program. 

An award to the Center from the Getty Grant Program provided substantial support for this residency program 

and for a series of research conferences. Curators and scholars awarded residencies include Susan 

Cahan, Mary Jane Jacob, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Stephen Melville, Ivo Mesquita, Mari Carmen Ramírez, 

Marcia Tucker, John Vinci, and Martha Ward. 

In 1996, with grants from the ArtsLink Partnership and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Center also 

initiated a program of visiting fellowships for curators from Central and Eastern Europe. Fellowships have 

been awarded to Lech Lechowicz, curator at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland; Ivona Raimonova, curator 

at the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of the National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic; Viktor 

Research Programs | 25

Misiano, director of the Contemporary Art Centre in Moscow, Russia; Iaroslava Boubnova, curator at the 

National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria; Anda Rottenberg, director of the National Gallery of 

Contemporary Art Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland; Maria Hlavajova, director of the Soros Center for 

Contemporary Art, Bratislava, Slovakia; and Piotr Piotrowski, professor of art history, Adam Mickiewicz 

University, Poznan, Poland. 

LECTURE SERIES AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS 

The Center organizes public lectures and conferences on issues relating to the contemporary visual arts, 

curatorship, and the history of exhibition. Some 70 artists, scholars, curators, and other museum professionals 

have participated in such events, among them Jean-Christophe Ammann, Carol Armstrong, Stephen 

Hans Ulrich Obrist 

Bob Niskas, Daniel Birnbaum, 

Molly Nesbit 

Trevor Smith 

Bann, Daniel Birnbaum, Benjamin Buchloh, Germano Celant, Chuck Close, Paolo Colombo, Catherine 

David, Olivier Debroise, John Elderfield, Okwui Enwezor, Michael Fehr, Karl Haendel, Shinji Kohmoto, 

Gunner B. Kvaran, Daria Martin, Jean-Hubert Martin, Gerardo Mosquera, Molly Nesbit, Kori Newkirk, Bob 

Nickas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nam June Paik, Virginia Perez-Ratton, Adrian Piper, Griselda Pollock, Yean Fee 

Quay, Osvaldo Sánchez, Brian Sholis, Trevor Smith, Elisabeth Sussman, Mika Tajima, Fred Wilson, Wu 

Hung, and Mario Ybarra Jr. 

The graduate program at the Center also sponsors a series of informal talks, called Conversations, in which 

artists, scholars, curators, and other arts professionals discuss their recent work, a current exhibition, or 

important issues in the contemporary visual arts. Past participants in the series include the following: 

Richard Armstrong 

Richard Artschwager 

Ute Meta Bauer 

Dara Birnbaum 

Francesco Bonami 

Cornelia Butler 

Sarah Charlesworth 

Lisa Graziose Corrin 

Arthur Danto 

Bart De Baere 

Donna De Salvo 

David Deitcher 

Virginia Dwan 

Bruce Ferguson 

Eric Fischl 

Andrea Giunta 

Robert Gober 

Felix Gonzalez-Torres 

Dan Graham 

Agnes Gund 

Paulo Herkenhoff 

Jan Hoet 

Jens Hoffman 

Alfredo Jaar 

Merlin James 

Isaac Julien 

Charlotta Kotik 


Marta Kuzma 

Miwon Kwon 

Maria Lind 

Lucy Lippard 

Margo Machida 

Charles Merewether 

Andrea Miller-Keller 

Helen Molesworth 

Mignon Nixon 

Luis Enrique Perez Oramas 

Judy Pfaff 

Marjetica Potrc 

Ann Reynolds 

Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen 

Michael Shapiro 

Milada Slizinska 

Oleksandr Soloviov 

Mary Anne Staniszewski 

Mierle Laderman Ukeles 

Susan Vogel 

Kara Walker 

Lawrence Weschler 

Slavoj Zizek 

In 1998 the Center initiated an Award for Curatorial Excellence to honor exceptional achievements by a 

curator of contemporary art. The award, presented at the Center’s annual spring benefit, has been given to 

Harald Szeemann (1998), Marcia Tucker (1999), Kasper König (2000), Paul Schimmel (2001), Susanne 

Ghez (2002), Kynaston McShine (2003), Walter Hopps (2004), Kathy Halbreich (2005), and Mari Carmen 

Ramírez (2005). In 2006, the Center presented the award to Lynne Cooke and Vasif Kortun. 

foreground 

Taft Green 

Continual Distance: 

Arriving at Inbetween, 2003 

Wood, acrylic paint, hardware 

background 

Frank Benson 

Flag 

Nylon 

Lecture Series and Public Programs | 27

APPLICANT INFORMATION 

ADMISSION 

Up to 14 students are admitted to the graduate program each year. 

Applicants for admission must hold an A.B., B.A., B.S., or B.F.A. degree from 

an accredited college or university in the United States or a baccalaureate or 

equivalent degree from a college or university outside the United States. An 

applicant’s undergraduate major need not be in art history or the studio arts; 

however, applicants must demonstrate that they have a broad knowledge of 

the history of art as well as acquaintance with the contemporary visual arts. 

Applications are encouraged from advanced graduate students in the 

humanities and social sciences—for example, graduate students in art history 

or in philosophy who are interested in critical and theoretical issues in 

the contemporary visual arts, or students in cultural history or sociology 

with interests in the institutional contexts of the contemporary arts. The 

graduate program at the Center offers such students an unusual opportunity 

to study with curators, critics, and scholars who are engaged in formulating 

new approaches to the exhibition and interpretation of contemporary 

art. Additionally, it provides opportunities for practical engagement with the 

tasks of curating that can offer invaluable lessons about contemporary art 

and the possibilities and limitations of exhibition as a mode of interpretation— 

lessons that cannot be gained from academic study alone. 

Applications for admission are reviewed by the Graduate Committee. The 

committee assesses whether a candidate has sufficient knowledge of art 

history and the contemporary arts to profit from the program of study at 

the Center and demonstrates the intellectual ability, maturity, and motivation 

to pursue graduate-level courses and to complete a final M.A. project. 

The committee also considers each candidate’s promise of making a contribution 

to the Center’s intellectual life, particularly taking into account the 

Center’s commitments to exploring contemporary art and exhibition practices 

from different disciplinary perspectives and in different cultures. 

Applicants for admission must submit the following materials: 

1 A completed application form 


2 A brief (two-page) statement describing the applicant’s interests in the 

graduate program, previous academic preparation, relevant work 

experience, particular interests in contemporary art, and career plans 

3 A brief (two- to three-page) review of a recent exhibition of contemporary 

art. We are especially interested in the applicant’s assessment of 

the curatorial aspects of the exhibition—for example, how it structures 

and enhances the viewer’s experience and understanding of the works 

it presents or, alternatively, how it fails to do so. 

4 Official copies of transcripts from any undergraduate institutions and 

graduate programs in which the applicant has previously been enrolled 

5 Three letters of recommendation, which must be sent by the recommenders 

directly to the Center for Curatorial Studies 

6 A $50 application fee 

Applicants are not required to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) 

General Test; however, any applicant who has taken the GRE General Test 

may request that an official copy of his or her scores be sent to the Center 

for Curatorial Studies. 

The deadline for receipt of completed applications for admission is 

February 1, 2007. An application is considered incomplete and cannot be 

acted upon until all the materials listed above are received by the Center 

for Curatorial Studies. 

Applicants will receive notification of admission by March 31, 2007, and 

must announce their decision about enrolling by April 15, 2007. 

International Students 

In addition to the above application materials, international applicants must 

provide evidence of proficiency in English—for example, a score of 550 or 

higher on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Proficiency 

in English may also be established by an interview and writing samples. 

To receive visa documentation, international applicants must submit proof 

that their income from all sources will be sufficient to meet expenses for 

the residency period. A Certification of Finances must be completed. 

Evidence may come from the following sources: 

1 An affidavit from a bank 

2 Certification by parents or sponsors of their ability to provide the 

necessary funds 

3 Certification by an employer of anticipated income 

Transfer Credit 

The graduate curriculum is organized to encourage ongoing discussion of 

curatorial issues among students of varied backgrounds and interests, and to 

this end, half of each student’s courses are taken with his or her entering 

class. Consequently, only limited transfer credits (no more than 4 credits or 

the equivalent of two courses) will be given for course work completed elsewhere. 

Requests for transfer of credit must be made when a student applies 

for admission and will be reviewed by the Graduate Committee. Transfer 

credits may be used only to meet elective course requirements. Students 

receiving 4 transfer credits in a single distribution area will be required to take 

at least one further elective in that area during their studies at the Center. 

TUITION AND FEES 

Tuition for the 2007–08 academic year is $25,440. Fees include a $100 

registration fee each semester and a $1,000 fee for exhibition expenses 

for the final master’s degree project, which is charged in installments of 

$500 each semester of a student’s second year. A $110 graduation 

fee is charged prior to graduation. Students who take longer than two 

years to complete their work toward the master’s degree are charged a 

maintenance-of-status fee of $500 per year. 

Schedule of Payment 

New students must pay a nonrefundable deposit of $500, applicable to 

their first year’s tuition and fees, and continuing students must pay a nonrefundable 

deposit of $200, applicable to their second year’s tuition and 

fees, by April 15, 2007. The balance of tuition and fees for the academic 

year will be billed in two equal installments, with payments due on August 

1, 2007, and January 1, 2008. Billing statements will reflect charges and 

financial aid awards, including all Federal Stafford Loan applications on 

file. Unpaid balances will be subject to a late payment fee of $100 and 

finance charges of 1 percent per month (12 percent per annum). A student 

who has outstanding indebtedness to Bard College will not be allowed to 

register or reregister, receive a transcript of record, have academic credits 

certified, or have a degree granted. 

Refunds 

No refund of any fees will be made in the event that a student withdraws 

from the program at any time after registration except as herein specified. 

In no event is the tuition deposit refundable. In all cases, the student must 

submit an official request for withdrawal to the Graduate Committee. The 

date of submission of such a request will determine the amount of refund. 

Students who officially withdraw before the first day of classes for the term 

in question will be given a full refund of all charges, less the nonrefundable 

tuition deposit. If the official withdrawal from the program occurs after the 

first day of classes in a given term, tuition is refunded as follows. If the 

withdrawal occurs within the first week of classes, 75 percent of tuition is 

refunded; within the second week, 60 percent of the tuition is refunded; 

within the third or fourth weeks, 30 percent of the tuition is refunded; after 

Applicant Information | 29

four weeks, no refunds are given. Registration and student health insurance 

fees are not refundable. 

To be eligible for federal student aid, applicants must not be in default of 

repayment of federal student loans or owe refunds on federal student grants. 

Refunds to financial aid recipients who withdraw from the program will 

be affected by a reduction in the amount of grant; any institutional grant, 

scholarship, or fellowship will be reduced by the same percentage as indicated 

in the tuition refund schedule above. Refunds to federal aid (Federal 

Stafford Loan) recipients who withdraw will be calculated according to the 

federal refund policy concerning the amount of the Federal Stafford Loan 

to be returned to the lender. A student who is considering withdrawal may 

wish to confer with the Student Accounts Office and the Financial Aid 

Office concerning any anticipated refund and the amount of the Federal 

Stafford Loan that Bard College must return to the lender, since this 

amount will have a direct bearing on the amount of refund, if any, that the 

College will provide the student. 

No refund is made in cases of suspension or expulsion. 

Awards of financial aid are made without reference to age, color, ethnic or 

national origin, gender, handicapping conditions, marital status, race, or 

sexual orientation. International students, although not eligible for financial 

assistance from the federal government of the United States, may qualify 

for aid administered by Bard College. 

Center Scholarships and Fellowships 

Center scholarships are awarded on the basis of need, as determined 

annually by the federal government and Bard College. Center fellowships 

are awarded on the basis of achievement and promise. Determinations of 

achievement and promise are made by the Graduate Committee in its 

review of applications for admission. Awards of scholarships and fellowships 

are not automatically renewed from year to year. Students must 

remain in good academic standing for renewal of all forms of aid and must 

continue to demonstrate financial need for renewal of aid based on need. 

FINANCIAL AID 

The graduate program is able to provide limited financial assistance, in the 

form of scholarships and fellowships, to students whose personal financial 

resources are insufficient to meet the expenses of graduate study. Funds 

for scholarships and fellowships are limited, and awards typically will meet 

only a small part of a student’s expenses. Students may also apply for federal 

loans, and those who are New York State residents may apply to the 

New York State Tuition Assistance Program. These loan and grant programs 

are briefly described below. More detailed information about applying 

for financial aid can be obtained from the Center for Curatorial Studies. 

Financial aid is administered by the Bard College Office of Financial Aid. 

Eligibility for financial aid is determined each year by the demonstration of 

financial need. Financial need is assessed by a uniform method from financial 

data provided by the student on the Free Application for Federal Student 

Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA form should be sent to the federal processor as 

soon after January 1, 2007, as possible and no later than February 1, 2007. 

All students applying for financial aid must also complete a Financial Aid 

Application (see the back of this catalogue) and send it to the Center by 

February 1. 

Copies of the FAFSA and Financial Aid Application can be obtained from 

the Center for Curatorial Studies. Students whose admission and financial 

aid applications are complete by February 1 will be notified of financial aid 

awards by March 31. The FAFSA form can and should be filed electronically 

at www.fafsa.ed.gov. 

Federal Stafford Loans 

Federal Stafford Loans are available as subsidized or unsubsidized loans. 

To qualify for a subsidized loan, the student must demonstrate financial 

need. The federal government pays the interest on the subsidized loan 

while the student is enrolled; the student begins repaying the loan principal 

and paying interest six months after he or she ceases to be enrolled. A 

student may qualify for an unsubsidized loan regardless of need. The student 

is responsible for paying interest on the unsubsidized loan while he or 

she is enrolled. Interest payments begin accruing sixty days after the loan 

is disbursed. As with the subsidized loan, repayment on the loan principal 

begins six months after the student ceases to be enrolled. Payments on 

interest and principal of an unsubsidized loan may be deferred, but interest 

will accrue and compound. The federal processor requires that a student 

first apply for a subsidized loan before applying for an unsubsidized loan. 

A student may borrow up to $8,500 annually through the basic Federal 

Stafford Loan program. A graduate student may be eligible for a supplemental, 

unsubsidized loan (in addition to his or her basic subsidized or unsubsidized 

loan) for an amount up to $12,000 annually over and above the 

$8,500 for which he or she may be eligible in the basic Stafford program, 

provided that the total amount of assistance does not exceed the cost of the 

graduate program. An origination fee of 3 percent is deducted from the proceeds 

of all loans and a loan warranty fee of 1 percent may be deducted. 

The procedures for filing for a loan will be explained when the student is 

notified about eligibility. 


Loans are disbursed in two equal payments, one each semester, provided 

all Financial Aid Office requirements have been fulfilled. Electronic disbursements 

are credited to a student’s account when they are received. Check 

disbursements are sent to the Student Accounts Office; the student must sign 

the loan check before it can be credited to his or her account. If the check is 

not signed within a designated period, the Student Accounts Office is obliged 

to return it to the lender for cancellation. In such a case, the student becomes 

responsible for the entire account balance and is charged a $100 penalty fee 

(for late payment and duplication of the loan disbursement procedure). 

Federal GradPLUS Loans 

Graduate students can now access the Federal PLUS Loan program to 

cover the portion of the cost of education not covered by other financial aid. 

This loan is guaranteed by the federal government and may be deferred 

while the student is enrolled at least half-time. A credit check is required. 

These loans are disbursed in the same way as the Federal Stafford Loan. 

New York State Tuition Assistance Program 

The New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) provides nonrepayable 

grant assistance of up to $550 to New York State residents attending 

a New York State school. Awards are based on the net New York State 

taxable income and the number of full-time college students in the family. 

Applications and further information about the program can be obtained 

from the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (NYSH- 

ESC), 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12255 or www.hesc.com. A student 

applying for a New York State TAP award must submit the FAFSA and 

the New York State TAP application. 

MEDICAL RECORDS AND HEALTH INSURANCE 

All students are required to complete a health packet prior to arrival at 

Bard, which includes documentation of a recent physical examination and 

complete immunization records. New York State law requires that all students 

born after January 1, 1957, provide proof of immunization against 

measles, mumps, and rubella. Additionally, students must be provided 

information about meningococcal meningitis and must either document 

having received the vaccine or sign a waiver declining it. For information 

about immunization requirements and health insurance, call the Student 

Health Service at 845-758-7433. 

ACCOMMODATIONS AND MEAL PLANS 

There is limited campus housing for graduate students. Apartments and 

houses for rent can be found near the Bard College campus, and the 

Center maintains a list of real estate agents who can assist students in 

finding housing. 

During the academic year graduate students may purchase a prepaid 

credit card that can be used at the Bard College dining facilities. 

ACCREDITATION 

The Center for Curatorial Studies program of study leading to a master 

of arts degree in curatorial studies is registered by the New York State 

Education Department, Office of Higher Education and the Professions, 

89 Washington Avenue, 2 Mezzanine West, Education Building, Albany, 

NY 12234; 518-474-3862; website highered.nysed.gov. Bard College 

is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle 

States Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the 

Association of American Colleges, College Entrance Examination Board, 

American Council of Education, Union for Experimenting Colleges and 

Universities, Associated Colleges of the Mid-Hudson Area, and Educational 

Records Bureau. 

Educational Rights and Privacy Act 

Bard College complies with the provisions of the Family Educational 

Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. This act assures students attending a 

postsecondary institution that they will have the right to inspect and review 

certain of their educational records and, by following the guidelines provided 

by the College, to correct inaccurate or misleading data through 

informal or formal hearings. It protects students’ rights to privacy by limiting 

transfer of these records without their consent, except in specific circumstances. 

Students have the right to file complaints with the Family 

Educational Rights and Privacy Office, U.S. Department of Education, 

Washington, D.C. College policy relating to the maintenance of student 

records is available on request from the Office of the Registrar. 

Notice of Nondiscrimination 

Bard College does not discriminate in education, employment, admission, 

or services on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, race, color, age, religion, 

national origin, or handicapping conditions. This policy is consistent with 

state mandates and with governmental statutes and regulations, including 

those pursuant to Title IX of the Federal Educational Amendments of 

1972, Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title IX of 

the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 

1990. Questions regarding compliance with the above requirements and 

requests for assistance should be directed to the Vice President for 

Administration, Bard College, PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 

12504-5000. 

Applicant Information | 31

BARD COLLEGE GRADUATE PROGRAMS 

Since 1975 Bard has developed a novel structure of “satellite” research 

institutes and graduate programs, including the Center for Curatorial 

Studies and the following six programs. 

The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the 

Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture 

www.bgc.bard.edu 212.501.3000 generalinfo@bgc.bard.edu 

Founded in New York City in 1993, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies 

in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture was established to encourage 

new levels of scholarship in the decorative arts, to improve the training of 

emerging professionals, and thereby to advance recognition of the decorative 

arts as primary expressions of human achievement. The BGC offers 

an intensive two-year master of arts program and a doctoral program in 

the history of the decorative arts, design, and culture. It has a research 

library and exhibition gallery, presents public programs, and publishes a 

semiannual journal. 

Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts 

www.bard.edu/mfa 845.758.7481 mfa@bard.edu 

Founded in 1981, the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts offers 

an interdisciplinary program in studies leading to the master of fine arts 

degree in six fields: film/video, music/sound, painting, photography, sculpture, 

and writing. For three intensive summer sessions, students live and 

work on the Bard campus; they continue independent work at home during 

the two intervening winters. 

International Center of Photography–Bard Program in 

Advanced Photographic Studies 

www.icp.org 212.857.0001 education@icp.org 

Founded in 2003, the International Center of Photography–Bard Program in 

Advanced Photographic Studies awards an M.F.A. degree in photography, 

in collaboration with the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. Based 

at the ICP facilities in Manhattan, the two-year graduate program offers a 


igorous exploration of all aspects of photography through an integrated 

curriculum of practice, history, and critical study that utilizes the resources 

of ICP’s curatorial team and museum collection. 

Bard Center for Environmental Policy 

www.bard.edu/cep 845.758.7073 cep@bard.edu 

The Bard Center for Environmental Policy was founded in 1999 to 

foster education, research, and public service on critical environmental 

issues. At the core of the Center’s activities is the one- or two-year 

program that leads to a master of science degree in environmental policy 

or a professional certificate in environmental policy. Internships form an 

integral part of the training. Graduates are prepared for environmental 

leadership in nonprofit organizations, government, and the private sector 

at the local, national, and international levels. 

The Master of Arts in Teaching Program 

www.bard.edu/mat 845.758.7145 mat@bard.edu 

The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at Bard College was 

founded in 2003 in response to an urgent need for change in public 

education. The core of this yearlong program is an integrated curriculum 

leading to a master of arts degree in teaching and a teaching certificate for 

grades 7–12 in one of four areas: English, mathematics, biology, or history. 

In combination with student-teaching experiences spread over the full 

academic year, and the active participation of mentor teachers and MAT 

faculty advisers, the program’s instructionally innovative courses provide 

the basis for critical reflection about educational practice. 

The Bard College Conservatory of Music 

www.bard.edu/conservatory 845.758.7196 conservatory@bard.edu 

Beginning in the fall of 2006, The Bard College Conservatory of Music 

offers two master of music degrees, one in vocal arts and the other in 

conducting. The two-year curriculum in vocal arts consists of four core 

seminars (“Dickinson, Goethe, and Verlaine”; “Singing and Song in the 

Global Era”; “Expanding the Workshop”; and “The Singer and the Stage”) 

and several workshops: voice, singer-composer, acting, Alexander 

Technique/yoga, phonetics and diction, vocal chamber music, opera, 

and career. The degree in conducting is a 15-month program through 

The Conductors Institute at Bard. It consists of two summer institutes 

and an academic-year course of study in the Bard Conservatory. 

Graduate Programs | 33

BOARDS AND ADMINISTRATION 

Center for Curatorial Studies 

Board of Governors 

Marieluise Hessel, Chair 

Board of Trustees 

David E. Schwab II ’52 Chair Emeritus 

Staff 

+ 

Leon Botstein 

Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Chair 

Tom Eccles Executive Director 

Kathryn Chenault 

Emily H. Fisher Second Vice Chair 

Norton Batkin Director of the Graduate 

Anne Ehrenkranz 

Mark Schwartz Treasurer 

Program 

Martin Eisenberg 

Elizabeth Ely ’65 Secretary 

Karl Lampson Associate Director for 

Maja Hoffmann 

Roland J. Augustine 

Administration 

Audrey Irmas 

+ 

Leon Botstein President of the College 

Marcia Acita Assistant Director of the Museum 

Marc Lipschultz 

David C. Clapp 

Letitia Smith Assistant to the Director of the 

Eugenio Lopez 

* 

Marcelle Clements ’69 

Graduate Program 

Melissa Schiff Soros 

Rt. Rev. Herbert A. Donovan Jr. Honorary 

Jaime Henderson Administrative and 

Ann Tenenbaum 

Trustee 

Development Coordinator 

Richard W. Wortham III 

Asher B. Edelman ’61 

Susan Leonard Librarian 

* 

Philip H. Gordon ’43 

Tatjana von Prittwitz und Gaffron Archivist 

Colleen Egan Assistant Registrar 

Michael Pilon Preparator 

Natalie Franz Student Services Assistant 

Atiba Celestine Security Manager 

Paul Giannuzzi Security Guard 

Robert Stier Security Guard 

Bard College 

Administration 

Leon Botstein President 

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Executive Vice 

President, Executive Director of The Bard 

Center, and President of The Levy 

* Barbara S. Grossman ’73 

Sally Hambrecht 

Ernest F. Henderson III 

Marieluise Hessel 

John C. Honey ’39 Life Trustee 

Mark N. Kaplan 

George A. Kellner 

Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65 

Graduate Committee 

Economics Institute 

Murray Liebowitz 

Norton Batkin Director of the Graduate 

Michèle D. Dominy Vice President and 

Peter H. Maguire ’88 

Program 

Dean of the College 

James H. Ottaway Jr. 

Rhea Anastas Faculty, Graduate Program in 

Robert L. Martin Vice President for Academic 

Martin Peretz 

Curatorial Studies 

Affairs and Director of The Bard College 

Stanley A. Reichel ’65 

Michael Brenson Independent Critic 

Conservatory of Music 

Stewart Resnick 

Lynne Cooke Curator, Dia Art Foundation 

Mary Backlund Vice President for Student 

Susan Weber Soros 

Joshua Decter Independent Curator, New York 

Affairs and Director of Admission 

Martin T. Sosnoff 

+ 

Tom Eccles Executive Director, CCS 

Thelma Golden Executive Director, Studio 

Museum in Harlem 

Ivo Mesquita Independent Curator, São Paulo 

James Brudvig Vice President for Administration 

Debra R. Pemstein Vice President for 

Development and Alumni/ae Affairs 

Norton Batkin Dean of Graduate Studies 

Erin Cannan Dean of Students 

Patricia Ross Weis ’52 

William Julius Wilson 

+ ex officio 

* alumni/ae trustee 

Peter Gadsby Registrar 

Kevin Parker Controller 

Denise Ann Ackerman Director of Financial Aid 

Viki Papadimitriou Bursar 


TRAVEL TO BARD 

Bard College is in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 

on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 

N 

NY 

Bard 

145 

Ravena 

87 

9 

90 

20 

miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest 

of Boston. 

• NYC 

23 

9W 

66 

By automobile 

From southern Connecticut, follow I-84 to the 

Taconic State Parkway, take the Taconic north to 

the Red Hook/ Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 

199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, 

turn right onto Route 9G, and drive north 1.6 miles. 

From northern Connecticut, take Route 44 to 

Route 199 at Millerton, drive west on Route 199, 

and proceed as from southern Connecticut. 

From Massachusetts and northern New England, 

take the Massachusetts Turnpike to Exit B-2 

(Taconic Parkway), take the Taconic south to the 

Red Hook/Route 199 exit, and proceed as from 

southern Connecticut. 

From New York City, New Jersey, and points south, 

take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to Exit 19 

(Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 

at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff 

Bridge to Route 9G; at the second light, turn left 

onto Route 9G and drive north 3.5 miles. 

From Albany, take the New York State Thruway to 

Exit 19 and proceed as from New York City. 

By train 

Amtrak provides service from Penn Station, 

New York City, and from Albany to Rhinecliff, about 

9 miles south of Annandale. Taxi service is available 

at the Rhinecliff station. 

Ellenville 

17 

17K 

28 

Catskill 

State Park 

52 

84 

209 

New Paltz 

44 

Walden 

0 5 

Miles 

Kingston 

87 

Newburgh 

299 

32 

New York State Throughway 

9W 

Hudson River 

9 

9G 

Catskill 

Saugerties 

Bard 

44 

9 

Taconic State Parkway 

Hudson 

Annandale-on-Hudson 

Red Hook 

Rhinebeck 

Hyde Park 

Poughkeepsie 

Beacon 

Wappingers Falls 

55 

199 

84 

23 

Pawling 

Hillsdale 

22 

22 

Millerton 

44 

7 

By air 

Bard College is accessible from Kennedy and 

LaGuardia airports in New York City; and from the 

airports in Newark, New Jersey, and Albany and 

Newburgh, New York. 

Travel to Bard | 35

CALENDAR 

January 1 – February 1, 2007 

FAFSA to federal processor 

February 1 

Application for admission to Center, financial aid application to Center 

March 31 

Notification of admission 

March 31 

Notification of financial aid awards 

April 15 

New students’ decision to enroll and $500 tuition deposit; continuing students’ $200 tuition deposit 

June 1 

Federal Stafford Loan applications to Financial Aid Office 

August 1 

First payment (50 percent of account) due 

January 1, 2008 

Second payment (balance of account) due 

NOTES 

Be advised that the provisions of this catalogue are not to be regarded 

as an irrevocable contract between the student and Bard College or its 

officers and faculty. The College reserves the right to make changes 

affecting admission procedures, tuition, fees, courses of instruction, 

programs of study, faculty listings, academic grading policies, and general 

regulations. The information in this catalogue is current as of publication, 

but is subject to change without notice. 

Course offerings in the graduate program include seminars in art 

history, in theory and criticism, and on issues of curatorial and critical 

practice; practicums taught by curators, critics, and other arts professionals; 

and independent research courses and writing tutorials. Students are 

required to complete an internship with an artist, curator, or other arts professional 

between their first and second years; they also have opportunities 

in practicums and seminars to work with curators, scholars, and critics 

in the preparation of exhibitions and publications. 

Upon satisfactory completion of course work and other requirements 

of the graduate program, students are awarded the degree of master of 

arts in curatorial studies. 

This catalogue is published by the Bard Publications Office; Ginger 

Shore, director; Mary Smith, art director; Debby Mayer, editorial director; 

Mikhail Horowitz, editor; Francie Soosman, designer; Diane Rosasco, 

production manager. ©2006 Bard College. All rights reserved. 

Photo Credits 

©Peter Aaron/ESTO: page 2 (top middle, bottom left and middle); 

John Berens, New York: page 24; Mike Bouchet: page 18; courtesy of 

the artist: page 4 (all), 25; David Heald: page 17; Chris Kendall: page 3, 

6 (middle, right), 7, 27; Diana Nezamutinova BCEP ’06: page 33 (bottom 

left); Karl Rabe: page 1, 2 (top right), 5, 6 (left), 8, 9, 10 (left), 13 (left), 

14, 15 (left), 16 (right), 19, 20, 22, 26, 28, 32, 33 (top middle, bottom 

middle/Poughkeepsie Journal, reprinted by permission); Rafael Viñoly 

Architects: page 2 (top, left); Noah Sheldon: page 33 (bottom, right); 

Letitia Smith: page 10 (right), 11, 12, 13 (right), 15 (right), 16 (left); 

©Barry Stone: page 33 (top right); Ian Sullivan: page 33 (top left); 

Alex Webb/Magnum: page 2 (bottom, right) 

Art Credits 

Page 3, 6 (left, middle), 7–8, 16 (right), 18, 25, 27 Uncertain States of 

America, curated by Daniel Birnbaum, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Gunner Kvaran 

Page 32 Lawrence Weiner, Bard Enter, 2004, stainless steel and concrete, 

site-specific installation, CCS Bard Hessel Museum sidewalk and atrium floor 

Colophon 

Prepress and printing by Quality Printing Company, Pittsfield, Mass; typeset 

in Bertold Akzidenz Grotesk and CCS Display Font on Corniche Paper 


Center for 

Curatorial 

Studies 

and Art in 

Contemporary 

Culture 

Bard College 

Annandale-on-Hudson 

NY 12504-5000 

845.758.7598 

845.758.2442 Fax 

ccs@bard.edu

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