Application deadline: February 1, 2016
Center for Curatorial Studies
Bard College, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
12504-5000
T +845 758 7598
[email protected]
The graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is one of the most established curatorial master’s programs worldwide. The program demonstrates a balance between theory and practice while offering a rigorous course of study in the key texts, terms, and research methods for the study of contemporary curating and its contested histories. Over the course of two years, students examine exhibitions and projects as sites of display, artistic production, aesthetic experience, and political action. Students are encouraged to develop their own research skills to assess both the critical and discursive functions of exhibitions, contemporary art, and legacies of curatorial practice. The program takes a broadly interdisciplinary and transcultural approach, drawing on many disciplines while providing practical training and experience within a museum setting. Every year the program culminates in individually curated thesis exhibitions and projects.
In addition to the individual thesis exhibitions, the program offers multiple opportunities for students to realize public presentations, curatorial projects, and exhibitions in the CCS Bard Galleries, Hessel Museum of Art, and in collaboration with partnering institutions, which includes most recently the Judd Foundation, Artist’s Space, The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), and P! Gallery, all located in New York City. Additionally, CCS Bard supports student scholarships, paid summer work placements, student exhibitions and publications, and an annually subsidized international research trip as part of the program.
The program has an internationally distinguished faculty, including curators and other museum professionals, scholars in the humanities and social sciences, artists, and critics. Since 1994, over 150 curators, critics, artists, and cultural practitioners from all over the world have presented lectures, taught seminars, and delivered workshops with CCS Bard students. CCS Bard alumni include more than 250 figures working prominently in the field in the U.S. and internationally, including such places as The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the New Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, Artforum, and the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles).
Exemplary resources available to students include the Marieluise Hessel Collection, the extensive holdings of which are held in the Hessel Museum of Art at CCS Bard. Also on site is the recently completed 3,600-square-foot Archives, Special Collections, Visible Storage, and Collection Teaching area, designed by artist Liam Gillick. The new space will provide a unique study area with access to the more than 2,500 artworks in the Marieluise Hessel Collection and the Bard College Collection, rare and limited edition publications, as well as archives and manuscripts. Additionally, students have access to the CCS Bard Library and Archives, which contains over 30,000 books and periodicals, including an extensive collection of exhibition catalogs and monographs on individual artists.
Current Graduate Committee:
Ann Butler, Lauren Cornell, Christoph Cox,Tom Eccles, Lia Gangitano, Liam Gillick, Chrissie Iles, Paul O’Neill, Ingrid Schaffner, and Jeannine Tang
Recent visitors include:
Luis Camnitzer, Galit Eilat, Charles Esche, Anselm Franke, Koyo Kouoh, Chris Kraus, Pablo Helguera, Miguel A López, Raimundas Malasauskas, Bob Nickas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Brian O’Doherty, Philippe Pirotte, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Gregory Sholette, Christine Tohmé, and What, How and for Whom
Interested students must apply to the Master of Arts program online by the February 1 deadline.
For more information about the MA program, the application process, or applying for scholarships, please visit our website. Many frequently asked questions about the program are also answered here.
Interested students are also encouraged to contact CCS Bard at T +1 845 758 7598 or [email protected].
