Master of Arts Program

Forms and Downloads

• Download Catalogue
• Download 2011 application guidelines
• Apply Online

Program Overview

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 making, 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.

The Center initiated its graduate program in curatorial studies in the fall of 1994. 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.

Photo: Students at CCS Bard benefit from small classes and group critiques. Center: Liam Gillick critiques student exhibtions. Right: Ragnar Kjartansson performs Folksong as part of a graduate thesis exhibition curated by Markus Thor Andresson. Photos: Karl Rabe (left and right); Lisa Quinones.

Public Programs

CCS Bard also sponsors gallery tours, public lectures, conferences, artist talks and other programs in conjunction with its exhibitions and courses taught in the graduate program.  The purpose of these programs is to foster new forums for the discussion of important issues related to the contemporary visual arts and culture and to encourage new scholarship and exhibition initiatives that can contribute to the development of the graduate curriculum.

To request a hard copy of the Graduate Catalogue, please call (845) 758-7598 or email ccs@bard.edu

Photo: From left to right: Hito Steyerl gives a lecture in the Hessel Museum; Kirstine Roepstorff discusses her work with visitors; Martin Creed speaks with Bard students about his exhibition at CCS Bard: Feelings. Photos: Karl Rabe (left, center); Pete Mauney (right).