Bard College

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A Private College for the Public Good
Bard College seeks to inspire curiosity, a love of learning, idealism, and a commitment to the link between higher education and civic participation.
Meet Javen and learn about the Bard Conservatory, dance, Italian studies, and the Senior Project.

Academics

Academics at Bard focus on giving students a strong scholarly foundation with our core curriculum, then encouraging them to explore individual academic interests. The College seeks to engender in every student a wide curiosity and love of learning. Close contact with scholars who are teachers but also active in their disciplines is a constant, and the level of academic discourse in the classroom is high.

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Civic Engagement

Civic Engagement

“At Bard, we show up. We build, paint, dig, teach, play, sing, sweat. We show up in the middle of the night, work in the rain, crawl under the car, whatever it takes. This does not mean erasing the self. It means struggling with the tension between self and collective interests, and then acting compassionately.” —Paul Marienthal, Dean for Social Action; Director, Trustee Leader Scholar Program

Visit the Center for Civic Engagement

Watch: Lola, a joint major in film and studio arts, explores Avery, where film classes are taught at Bard.

Campus Life

The focus of student life at Bard College, both inside and outside the classroom, is on campus. From its historic Hudson Valley setting to its state-of-the-art science and arts facilities, the College offers an idyllic environment where students can enjoy a rich social life interwoven with their cultural and intellectual pursuits.

Learn More about Campus Life

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We embrace plurality, respect divergent viewpoints, and are committed to understanding the rich spectrum of experiences that comprise our community. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Bard seeks to materialize our commitment to plurality, dialogue, and rigorous study. We strive to create a learning environment that upholds the College’s mission to meaningfully include the voices, works, and ideas of communities and cultures historically marginalized in liberal arts and sciences education.

DEI Initiatives

Arts at Bard
Photo by Chris Kayden

Arts at Bard

Bard College offers the best of both worlds: a traditional liberal arts college with exceptional programs in the fine and performing arts. In small classes taught by notable faculty, students work closely with top professionals in their fields. All students, whatever their major, are encouraged to take advantage of the same high-level arts instruction and engagement; the discipline of cultivating one’s artistic abilities has wide-ranging collateral benefits.

Get to Know the Division of the Arts

Bard News and Events

Featured News

Associate Professor of History and Dean of Graduate Studies Christian Ayne Crouch speaks during a 2018 event dedicating new signage on campus designed to encourage critical reflection on Bard’s history. The installation of these historical markers took place in connection with the course Inclusion at Bard, an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences offering. 
Bard College Awarded $1.49 Million Grant from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times Initiative
The Mellon Foundation grant supports the “Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck” project, which asks: What would it look like to truly acknowledge the land beneath us, its history, and to collaborate with its continuing stewards? It affirms Bard’s tangible commitments to the principles and ideals of the College’s 2020 land acknowledgment by recognizing the need to address historical erasure and make space for marginalized epistemologies. Rethinking Place proposes a Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) approach to a revitalized American Studies curriculum. Through courses, annual conferences, reading groups, and workshops, the project will foster collaboration between faculty and students at Bard and across regional peer liberal arts colleges, engaging with the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians whose homelands these schools are in. More >
Inaugural Posse Arts Program scholars at the virtual awards ceremony. They will attend Bard College, CalArts, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
New Bard College Posse Arts Scholars Welcomed by President Leon Botstein, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Luis A. Miranda Jr., and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona at Virtual Awards Ceremony
The Posse Arts Program celebrated its inaugural class of scholars, including a cohort from Puerto Rico that will attend Bard this coming fall, at a virtual awards ceremony on January 24. Yadier Perez, one of 10 Posse Arts Scholars who will attend Bard, reflected on the significance of the award for his family. “I am thankful to Bard. You have given me the opportunity to show my brothers, my siblings, that pushing and fighting for your dreams can make them a reality.” More >

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Upcoming Events

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