News & Events

Bard College presents renowned psychologist Laurie R. Santos, who will deliver the 10th Andrew J. Bernstein ’68 Memorial Lecture. Santos, associate professor at Yale University and director of Yale Comparative Cognition Laboratory (CapLab), will give a talk, “The Evolution of Irrationality: Insights from Primates,” on Thursday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College. This event is free and open to the public. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2535

From February 9 to 12, faculty and administrators of undergraduate institutions in the Bard network met at Bard College Berlin to discuss collaboration, to enhance and deepen relations, and to share best practices. Representatives from Al-Quds Bard, American University of Central Asia, Bard College in Annandale, Bard College Berlin, Bard College at Simon's Rock, European Humanities University (Vilnius), and Smolny College participated. The project is supported by the International Higher Education Support Programme of the Open Society Foundation, and by Bard College's Center for Civic Engagement.

http://www.berlin.bard.edu/news/view/archive/2014/february/article/bard-college-berlin-hosts-meeting-of-the-bard-undergraduate-network/

The Landscape and Arboretum Program at Bard College and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) are offering noncredit continuing education classes on gardening at Bard College this winter and spring. Open to the public, these classes feature some of the top names in the horticulture industry and cover a wide array of topics.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2529

Liberty League Commissioner Tracy King announced that 234 winter sport student-athletes have qualified for the league's All-Academic Teams in their respective sports. Twenty Bard student-athletes are on the list. To be recognized as a member of the All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must be a sophomore or higher with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.20.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2014/2/27/MBB_0227140925.aspx

The Big Read comes to Dutchess, Columbia, and Ulster Counties through a unique partnership between Bard College and the Germantown, Kingston, Red Hook, Rhinecliff, and Tivoli libraries. Beginning in March 2014, The Big Read spans six weeks of activities, performances, and discussions exploring Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marilyn Robinson’s Housekeeping.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2533

On Monday, March 10, at Bard College, Raquel Partnoy, Alicia Partnoy and Ruth Irupé Sanabria—three generations of women from a remarkable Argentinian family whose lives were brutally and forever changed by state terrorism during the military rule in Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s—will share their art, writing, memories, and commentary on the continuing struggles for justice in Argentina.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2525

The Graduate Vocal Arts Program of The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents two professionally staged one-act operas, including the world premiere of Payne Hollow by Shawn Jaeger, conducted by Carl Christian Bettendorf; and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, conducted by James Bagwell. The production is directed by Nicholas Muni and features the talented singers of the Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the musicians of the Conservatory Orchestra. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s scholarship fund. Evening and matinée opera performances will take place in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on March 14 and March 16.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2527

This semester, the Bard Math Circle will be hosting the Purple Comet Math Meet for middle school students. Unlike other mathematics competitions at the middle school level, the Purple Comet gives students the opportunity to work collaboratively in teams of up to six. The contest covers topics seldom included in the normal curriculum, including set theory and elementary number theory, and poses exceptionally challenging problems. A series of practice sessions in the spring will culminate in the final contest, which will take place during the first week of April.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2530

Gov. Cuomo took a bold step on prison education last week when he announced new support in 10 state prisons for college degree programs modeled on the Bard Prison Initiative. Education in prison has proven cost effective—dramatically reducing recidivism rates by giving former prisoners the tools they need to find jobs and be successful after their release. (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/opinion/gov-cuomos-bold-step-on-prison-education.html?_r=0

After sold-out performances at the Fisher Center with her tour-de-force No Child . . . , Nilaja Sun returns to Bard to develop Pike Street, a new play about a Lower East Side family during the “storm of the century.” Her work-in-progress residency will culminate in this open rehearsal. The performance is directed by Ron Russell and presented by Live Arts Bard, Bard College’s residency and commissioning program for the performing arts. It takes place in the Fisher Center’s Theater Two on Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m., followed by a discussion with the artists.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2526

On Wednesday, February 19, 23 local high school and middle school students participated in the 15th annual American Mathematics Contest 10 at Bard College. The students competed for local, regional, and national awards as individuals and for their schools. The nationwide contest aims to spur interest in mathematics and develop talent through problem solving competitions. In 2013, more than 220,000 students from 4,200 schools participated in the AMC 10 and AMC 12 contests. This is the first year that the AMC 10 has been offered at Bard College, as a Bard Math Circle program. The Bard Math Circle is a collaborative effort between Bard math faculty and students to bring math enrichment activities to Hudson Valley youth.
http://www.bardmathcircle.org/2014/02/mid-hudson-valley-students-participate.html

A new Bard High School Early College will be opening in Cleveland this fall. The Cleveland Plain Dealer visited Bard Early College New Orleans to get a taste of the program, which the author describes as a "lifeline for students discouraged and bored by standard high school classes."
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/02/sneak_peek_from_new_orleans_ba.html

Begun as a student initiative in 2012, the Bard College Farm now grows more than 30 crops and includes beekeeping and the largest cranberry bog in the Hudson Valley. The farm has expanded into a larger campus program that aims to educate students about food systems, connect Bard to the regional agricultural community, and bring more food from local sources to campus.



http://www.bard.edu/news/video/

The roots of Austro-German Romanticism will be explored at the 2014 annual Bard SummerScape festival, which once again offers a sensational summer of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret, keyed to the theme of the 25th anniversary season of the world-renowned Bard Music Festival, Schubert and His World. Highlights include the first American revival in 100 years of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Euryanthe and the world premiere theater production Love in the Wars, an adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea by the Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville. The festival runs June 27 – August 17.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2524

The Bard Graduate Center in New York City now offers live-streaming and archival video of their popular seminar series and symposia. Their events explore the decorative arts, design history, and material culture in depth, featuring thought leaders in the field. Click below to find this season's schedule, and to view video of past events.
http://www.bgc.bard.edu/news/multimedia/academic.html

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents “An Evening with Anna Deavere Smith” on Saturday, February 15. Widely acclaimed as one of the most provocative writers and performers of our time, Anna Deavere Smith is as celebrated for her investigative “documentary style” theater (Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992) as for her starring roles on The West Wing and Nurse Jackie. Join her for an intimate evening in which she shares portraits of real people she has embodied over the past two decades.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2517

On January 30, Bard College Berlin hosted "The 8th Round Table on Higher Education" in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. The event gathered global scholars and embassy officials to discuss the promise and the challenges of civic engagement in university education. Participants considered the social goals of education in a transnational framework, the kinds of valued knowledge in this setting, and the role of the humanities in the new global education environment.
http://www.berlin.bard.edu/news/events/eventsview/archive/2014/january/article/january-30-round-table-on-higher-education-in-cooperation-with-the-us-embassy/

The Fisher Center and Live Arts Bard present Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Romeo & Juliet, February 21–23. “Tell us the plot of Romeo and Juliet.” Thus began a series of phone calls to friends, the exact transcripts of which are performed with vigor and charm by Nature Theater of Oklahoma. As the respondents fumble through the characters and plot points, we realize that when memory lets us down, a necessary creativity takes over. The result is an irreverent and daring romp through Shakespeare’s best-loved play, where our fallible recollections take center stage.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2523

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the American Symphony Orchestra on Friday, February 21, and Saturday, February 22, at 8 p.m. The program features Joan Tower’s Stroke; Erkki Melartin’s Concerto in D Minor, for violin and orchestra, Op. 60 (1913), with Conservatory Concerto Competition winner Dongfang Ouyang ’15; and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61. The concert will be conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, with a preconcert talk by Christopher H. Gibbs, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College, beginning at 7 p.m.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2522

UPDATE: Statement from the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office (PDF)

To Bard Students, Faculty and Staff:

It is with sadness and profound regret that I inform the community that at midnight February 1 several students who were walking along the shoulder of 9G just north of the Tivoli intersection were struck by a hit and run driver. The driver, a local resident, was later located and detained by the police. The police have not yet released the names of the victims but it is likely that there were two fatalities. I wanted to inform the community as quickly as possible while we gather more details. We will send updates as soon as we have them. I want to encourage students to reassure their parents as we wait for further details and news of the tragedy becomes public. The first priority is to permit the police to contact the families of the victims.

Multiple student services are being made available over the next two days where students can gather for information and support. These services are as follows:

Saturday, February 1
Residence Life Office open now until noon
Counseling Services, noon - 5:00 p.m.
Chaplaincy available in the Chapel, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Campus Center George Ball Lounge, 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 2
Residence Life Office 11:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Counseling Services, noon - 5:00 p.m.
Chaplaincy available in the Chapel, noon - 5:00 p.m.
Campus Center George Ball Lounge, 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.

As always, an administrator and counselor-on-call are available and can be reached through Security at 845-758-7460.


Leon Botstein
President

If you are a Delta Air Lines passenger at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, you may find yourself captivated by a striking series of images in the new international terminal. Paper airplanes whizzing over a field of dandelion seed heads, a tiny airplane and cotton clouds in the palm of a hand, an azure sky and a map of the world—students, staff, and faculty in the Bard Photography Program created these pieces, and they will be on display in the new Sky Club through August.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=89

The Center for Curatorial Studies and the Human Rights Project at Bard College are pleased to announce the Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism. Made possible through a five year-grant of $80,000 per year, the Keith Haring Fellowship is a cross-disciplinary, annual, visiting fellowship for a scholar, activist, or artist to teach and conduct research at both the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Human Rights Project at Bard College.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2516

Bennett Sims, Writer in Residence at Bard College, will read from his work on Monday, February 24. Sims received the 2014 Bard Fiction Prize for his debut novel, A Questionable Shape. In this penetrating story set in Baton Rouge, about a son looking for his undead father, Sims transcends traditional zombie narrative to deliver a wise and philosophical rumination on the nature of memory and loss. Sims is at Bard for the spring 2014 semester.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2518

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles, Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of The Bard College Conservatory of Music’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, won the Grammy Award for best classical vocal solo, one of three Grammy Awards awarded to Winter Morning Walks, the monumental collaboration between Upshaw and jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album also won for best contemporary classical composition and best engineered album, classical, and also was cited as one of the projects by David Frost, who won the Grammy for producer of the year, classical.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2515

Bard College will host a U.S.–Russia Joint/Dual Degree Conference from Thursday, January 30, to Saturday, February 1. The conference, funded by the Eurasia Foundation, will bring together institutions of higher education that have existing or emerging joint and/or dual degree partnership programs in the United States and Russia. The conference aims to further cooperation among institutions and to begin steps toward the development of a professional network of institutions with shared interests.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2514

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College and Catskill Jazz Factory present Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band featuring vocalist Claudette Sierra on Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fisher Center’s Theater Two. Fusing strands of Afro-Cuban, funk, jazz, gospel, and contemporary classical music, SYOTOS boasts stars from the ensembles of Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and Ray Barretto.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2512

Dean Michèle Dominy visited universities in Israel earlier this month as part of a delegation of nine college administrators invited by Project Interchange, a nonprofit educational institute of the American Jewish Committee. The seminar was designed to examine the complex issues facing Israel and the region at a time when many campuses are giving attention to the pursuit of peace in the Middle East. Participants in the delegation met with Jewish, Arab Israeli, and Palestinian senior officials, and also with nongovernmental organizations, media, and community and university leaders. The programming explored academic and student exchanges, research collaboration, and technology transfer. Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University were among the sites visited. Participants also traveled to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian leaders.
http://projectinterchange.org/?seminar_id=7882

The weeklong Bard Works program began on Sunday, January 19, offering opportunities for students to gain valuable career tools as they near graduation. Juniors and seniors participate in a series of workshops, networking events, and other professional development activities. With the support of mentors from the campus community and beyond, students hone their business etiquette and job searching skills, work on public speaking and workplace leadership, and explore how to translate their undergraduate education to the global marketplace.

Bard participated in the nationwide Martin Luther King Day of Service on Saturday, January 18. More than 300 first-year students—who are on campus for three weeks of Citizen Science courses—marked the occasion by participating in volunteer activities and trainings on campus and at 25 sites in the Hudson Valley. Organized by the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard, events included a social justice workshop for Bard students in the Campus Center, several campus activities for local Girl Scouts led by Bard students, a recycling day for electronic waste in Red Hook, and a junior detectives event at the Tivoli Library.

On Sunday, January 19, Bard's Office of Student Activities held it’s inaugural first-year lecture series, Bard Talks, inspired by the widely known TED Talks conferences. Six students presented on a range of topics that showcased social and political issues of global concern, as well as ways to engage with those issues on campus. Topics addressed included malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, food initiatives at Bard, climate change, organ trafficking, and information security. Bard Talks took place in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Day of Service and the Citizen Science program. The event was well attended by students and faculty at the Bito Auditorium in the Reem-Kayden Center.

Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum, codirector of Afterall Publishing, and curator of the 2014 Sao Paulo Bienal, is the recipient of the 2014 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. The award, which includes a prize of $25,000, will be presented at a gala celebration and dinner on April 2 in New York City. Esche is the seventeenth recipient of the award.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2510

During the weekend of February 14–16, Bard College will host the third annual Northeast regional C2C Fellows Sustainability Leadership Workshop. Directed by Eban S. Goodstein, director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy (Bard CEP) and dean of the Bard MBA in Sustainability, the three-day workshop offers training to college students and recent graduates aspiring to become sustainability leaders in politics and business.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2509

Bard College sophomore Troy Simon spoke at a White House forum on expanding college opportunity, introducing First Lady Michelle Obama and receiving recognition from the first lady as well as President Barack Obama. Simon joined educators, policy experts, elected officials, and other student leaders on Thursday, January 16, for a series of panels and speeches that addressed lack of access to higher education in the United States for poor and minority students. President Obama announced an expanded national college access initiative at the event, with more than 100 colleges and 40 institutions participating.

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/michelle-there-are-so-many-kids-me

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to support residencies for six choreographers over four years as part of Live Arts Bard (LAB). LAB, a program of the Fisher Center, provides residencies for American artists and ensembles making work that spans and transcends the fields of theater, performance, dance, music, film, and live art. The Mellon Foundation grant significantly expands the program’s capacity to integrate choreographers into the life of the College, with opportunities for choreographers to work with students in a variety of arts and non-arts disciplines.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2508

Biology faculty member Bruce Robertson has coauthored a paper showing that perennial grasses can effectively be used as biomass crops while preserving species and ecosystem services. While corn leads biomass crops by yield, that high production comes at a high price for the environment. This research is part of Professor Robertson's ongoing collaboration with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at Michigan State University.

Read the article in PNAS.

Learn more about the story from the National Science Foundation.

Bard College announces a new scholarship for students wishing to study economics. Marshall & Sterling Insurance has given $20,000 to the College in order to fund the first year of the Marshall & Sterling Scholarship for Undergraduate Economics Majors. This scholarship supports Bard’s ongoing commitment to a need-blind admissions policy.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2507

The Bard College women's soccer team has won a Silver Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The award recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior, and adherence to the laws of the game. The Ethics Award follows on the heels of the NSCAA Academic Award the team received in November for having a team GPA of 3.0 or above.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2014/1/2/WSOC_0102144957.aspx

On Friday, December 20, outgoing New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made what was likely the last speech of his career as mayor at Bard High School Early College Queens. Bloomberg visited schools in the borough, emphasizing the gains made in the city's public education system during his administration. At BHSEC he met up with Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who was on his own farewell tour. Bloomberg highlighted BHSEC as a model school, with his office noting on Twitter that the school's graduation rate is 96 percent, compared to 68 percent in all of Queens. Mayor Bloomberg called the students "some of the luckiest kids in the world." BHSEC students receive their high school diploma and associate's degree for free in four years. Read more about the visit below.

Bloomberg's Last Day of School (WNYC)

Mayor makes final speech in Queens on school gains (Times Ledger)

Bloomberg lauds small schools on his final visit as mayor (Gotham Schools)

Chancellor Dennis Walcott's last day while schools in session (ABC)

On Monday, December 9, the inaugural Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum took place at Bard College. In the wake of the death of Nelson Mandela, the forum's focus shifted to examine “Africa’s Future: Mandela, Achebe, and Empowerment in Africa.” President John Dramani Mahama of the Republic of Ghana delivered the keynote lecture on the topic of “Women in Africa: How the Other Half Lives.” The Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum brings together international leaders and thinkers to discuss Africa’s challenges, in keeping with Professor Chinua Achebe’s life and work. (President Mahama's lecture begins at 1:06:44)


http://achebecenter.bard.edu/

Winter Morning Walks, a new album by Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of the Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, has been nominated for three Grammy awards including Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Vocal Solo.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2502

Lucy Flamm '15 is taking full advantage of her college experience. She has obtained funding for internships, started an arts club at Bard, and is studying abroad in London this year. Of Bard students she says, "People learn from each other because everyone is so open about what they’re interested in, and brave enough to challenge each other’s opinions and assertions."
http://www.bard.edu/news/profiles/?id=100

The Language and Thinking Program is an intensive introduction to the liberal arts and sciences with a particular focus on writing. It is attended by all incoming Bard students during the last three weeks of August. Says Zelda Bas '16: "I like to think of L&T as a VIP sneak peak into what college at Bard will be like ... you come to Bard and the whole campus belongs to the freshman class, so there's a very tight-knit community that's formed during that time."

The Library and Archives at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) has acquired the archives of John G. Hanhardt, noted film and media arts curator. The donation builds on CCS Bard’s initiative to build a unique research collection comprising the personal papers and archives of innovative and influential contemporary art curators, art dealers, critics, galleries and alternative art spaces.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2501

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents a full spring season of performing arts events, including jazz, opera, and orchestral concerts, and innovative dance and theater productions, from February through May. Highlights Include Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, American Symphony Orchestra concerts, An Opera Double Bill, An Evening with Anna Deavere Smith, Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Romeo & Juliet, and dance productions including Joanna Kotze’s it happened it had happened it is happening it will happen and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in residence.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2500

Construction has begun on a new baseball facility at Bard College. Bard restarted its baseball program last season after a 76-year hiatus. Now the college is getting a new field for its new team, thanks to a $2.2 million gift from an anonymous donor. The facility, to be named Honey Field, will give Bard ballplayers a field of their own, after playing home games last season at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill and at Gruner Field in Kingston.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/12/9/BB_1209132022.aspx

Hudson Valley Balinese Gamelan Orchestras will host their annual winter concert on Friday, December 6, at Bard College's Olin Hall. The program, featuring Balinese music and dance begins at 8 p.m. under the leadership of artistic director and Balinese master musician, I Nyoman Suadin.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2499

Ten graduate students from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard will curate Marginalia, a new exhibition drawing from the Marieluise Hessel Collection. Marginalia is the first of two exhibitions in an extended exercise in reading and re-reading the permanent collection. The exhibition will open on Thursday, December 12, with a reception from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
http://www.bard.edu/ccs/exhibitions/marginalia/

Environmental and urban studies major Jess Lambert '14 came to Bard from the small town of Liberty, New York. As a student representative for the Bard Sustainability Council, she’s committed to improving environmental practices on campus. "I’m glad I found a place that really recognizes the importance of pursuing the work you’re most excited about," she says. "That’s been really empowering for me."
http://www.bard.edu/news/profiles/?id=99

Bard alumnus and parent Pierre Joris '69 has won the Modern Language Association's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature. Joris, professor emeritus of the University at Albany, State University of New York, receives the award for his translation of Paul Celan’s The Meridian: Final Version–Drafts–Materials.

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the sublime comedy, Elephant Room. Three magicians. One show. Zero boring stuff. Sub-zero intelligence. It’s time to make it all add up in the Elephant Room. Elephant Room will be performed at the Fisher Center’s Theater Two, December 13–15.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2498