Institutional Support

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Bard College Awarded Grant through NYSERDA’s FlexTech Program

Bard College was recently awarded a $162,561 grant by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Flexible Technical Assistance Program. This award will cover 60% of the cost of three projects integral to moving Bard’s Climate and Energy Master Plan forward. The grant will cover a detailed lighting audit of 56 buildings on Bard’s main campus, a feasibility study investigating converting the Library to geothermal heating and cooling, and the creation of a focused infrastructure improvement plan for 20 campus buildings totaling 431,000 square feet. Bard College will work with LaBella Associates and McKinstry Essention, LLC on these projects.

As part of the Climate and Energy Master Plan, Bard has developed a long-term road map for energy upgrades to move toward a net-zero campus and to phase out the use of fossil fuels. Bard is committed to expanding the use of geothermal systems and updating lighting fixtures to help achieve this goal. The consultants for the projects supported by this grant will audit various buildings on campus to recommend upgrades to lighting, heating and cooling systems, and other infrastructure improvements. These upgrades will help lay the foundation to transform Annandale into a net-zero energy and carbon-neutral campus ready to face the challenges presented by climate change. The College currently has a goal of the main campus reaching net-zero energy and carbon neutrality by 2035.

NYSERDA has supported several past projects including, the development of an Energy Master Plan, a project evaluating the feasibility of a small hydropower system on campus, and a website documenting the process of exploring sustainable micro hydropower using the Saw Kill, among others. More information can be found in Bard’s News and Notes at the link here.

For more information about sustainability initiatives at Bard, visit bos.bard.edu/energy-facilities-and-climate.

More about NYSERDA FlexTech
The NYSERDA Flexible Technical Assistance (FlexTech) Program Offers cost-shared technical services to help businesses operating in New York State make smart energy decisions. A dedicated team of engineers, technology experts, and energy consultants work with customers to create a customized assessment that identifies specific opportunities for reducing energy consumption and costs. For more information, visit https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/FlexTech-Program.

 

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Bard College Awarded NYS Higher Education Capital Matching Grant (HECap)
 

Through a recent application to the New York State Higher Education Capital Match Program (HECap), Bard College was awarded a $146,000 grant for video communication technology equipment acquisition and upgrades across campus. This award was part of $57.2 million in funding designated to support critical infrastructure improvements at Ney York’s private not-for-profit colleges and universities. A total of 35 colleges and universities across the state received an award through HECap.

The rapid move to connected learning in March 2020 stressed the need for the College to have a robust digital infrastructure and appropriate classroom equipment in place. This grant will provide vital support for purchasing new video conferencing and live-streaming equipment and classroom upgrades that will enhance student and faculty learning and teaching experiences for years to come. Additionally, it will support upgrades to Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center, replacing outdated audio-visual equipment and improving a central meeting space on campus.

In addition to the current need for online learning and social distancing due to the pandemic, Bard’s pioneering use of connected-learning approaches in virtual international exchanges through network classes has necessitated video conferencing and live-streaming equipment upgrades. This new classroom equipment will help to ensure students are able to engage with their professors and each other in seminar-style discussions as seamlessly as possible. Upgrades to the digital infrastructure across campus will also enable Bard to offer more virtual and hybrid events and learning opportunities to students and the public.

This project will have a significant impact on Bard’s students, faculty, staff, and visitors and will allow the College to more effectively serve its students and protect the continuity of instruction through extraordinary events. Digital infrastructure upgrades will have an immediate effect on faculty course design, student projects, collaborative efforts, academic exchange, and public events. In the long-term, this grant will help support Bard in fulfilling its mission to provide a challenging academic program; a supportive environment that fosters a collaborative exchange of ideas in the classroom, studio, and laboratory as well as the ambition to achieve excellence; and access to world-class scholarship and research.

More about HECap Awards
The New York State Higher Education Capital Match Program (HECap) provides matching grants to private, not-for-profit colleges and universities for projects that enhance educational opportunities for New Yorkers, create construction jobs, and drive investment in communities across the state. Under the Governor's leadership, the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program has enabled campuses across the state to make critical investments in their infrastructure and equipment while creating construction jobs.

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Blithewood Garden Featured in New NYS DEC Handbook

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New Program, New Funder: Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation

Bard College was recently awarded a $15,500 grant by the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation through the New ERA Women Writers Program to create and host a writing workshop for girls and young women in the Kingston, NY, area. Girls Write Kingston is a new program for young women, ages 13-18, developed collaboratively by Bard and local community partners. The program focuses on writing and offers young women the chance to practice and refine their modes and strategies for communication with a broad public audience while also helping them develop skills necessary for college and the workforce.

Girls Write Kingston is designed to empower young women to see themselves as writers, develop confidence in their writing, and encourage them to see writing as an essential tool for self-expression, advocacy, and action. Workshops have been designed and developed by Bard’s Institute for Writing and Thinking (IWT) in partnership with the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County and the AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center. The program is unique, as the course itself will be tailored to the needs and interests of the young women who participate. What they write about will also be determined by the group’s interests, and writing for advocacy will be a major focus of the program.

This project prioritizes supporting adolescent girls so that, as they mature, they are given the space and mentoring they need to develop their voices and confidence in their ideas. Participants will be able to share their writing, focus on self-expression, exchange constructive feedback, and participate in an end-of-session performance. The Girls Write Kingston program will also establish a youth-led literary space where students will be able to publish and share
their work. About the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation and the New ERA Women Writers Program The purpose of the New ERA Women Writers Program is to inspire women and girls to learn to write or to be supported in improving their current abilities. The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation believes that one of the most important skills in life that one can attain is learning to be an effective writer and communication. The Foundation supports programs that will provide women and girls with the knowledge and skills to express oneself through the at of writing and to encourage higher levels of training designed to assist women in delivering clear and persuasive arguments for change and equality.

About the AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center
The AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center works to promote literacy through teaching and learning about the African roots experience, including history and culture. The African Roots Center uplifts the history and culture of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color through programming for children, teens, and adults, and by making space available to community groups and organizations that share the Center’s commitment to the advancement of historical knowledge, cultural enrichment, and social justice.

About the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County
The YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County offers programs for all ages, seven days a week, to the community. The Y is a cause-driven nonprofit focused on three areas of impact: youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. Through its many different programs, the YMCA seeks to develop self-confidence, self-respect, and celebrate and embrace differences and similarities. The Y recognizes the worth of all persons and works for inter-racial and inter- group understanding, encourages members to develop capabilities for responsible leadership, and promote positive character development by challenging people to accept and demonstrate positive values of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility.

About Bard’s Institute for Writing and Thinking
For over thirty years, Bard's Institute for Writing and Thinking's (IWT) philosophy and practice has centered on the principle that writing is not merely a record of completed thought, but also an exploratory process that deepens learning across disciplines. In addition to working with teachers, IWT offers programs for students that focus on developing and cultivating thoughtful reading habits, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration–all accomplished through the regular practice of writing. IWT practices are part of the entire Bard network, which includes the eight Bard High School Early Colleges (BHSECs) in cities across the country. IWT also houses the National Writing & Thinking Network and the Young Writers Workshop, offering high school students an immersive three-week creative writing course that focuses on using informal, playful, and expressive writing to strengthen the skills of language and thinking.

 

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National Endowment for the Arts 2021 Awardees

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently announced that Bard College will receive three grant awards for the 2021 calendar year. The College received a total of $45,000 in grant funding from the NEA, which will support a conference hosted by the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), the Fisher Center's 2021 SummerScape opera, and Bard’s literary journal Conjunctions.

CCS received $20,000 for a conference scheduled to take place this year titled “Exhibiting Blackness Revisited: Arts of the African Diasporas and Continent on Display.” The conference will mark the 10 th anniversary of Bridget Cooks’ landmark book “Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum.” Within the present context in which institutions are confronting diversity, inclusion, and representation with renewed vigor, the conference will build on Cooks’ work to engage the recent history of exhibitions that focus on artists of African descent in the US and internationally. “Exhibiting Blackness Revisited” will focus on exhibitions of artists of African descent with an emphasis on research produced after the 2011 publication of “Exhibiting Blackness.”

CCS Bard Senior Faculty Nana Adusei-Poku, conceived of the idea for the conference and was chosen to organize this project for her expertise in art history, particularly with art of the African Diaspora. Adusei-Poku is Senior Academic Advisor and Luma Foundation Fellow at CCS Bard. She was previously Visiting Professor in Art History of the African Diaspora at The Cooper Union in New York City. She was Research Professor for Visual Cultures (2013- 2017) at the Willem de Kooning Academy, as well as Guest Lecturer at the University of the Arts, Zurich from 2012-2018. Her work has been published in Nka- Journal of Contemporary African Art, reflux, Kunstforum International, Flashart!, L’Internationale, and Darkmatter. She curated the event “Performances of No-thingness” at the Academy of Arts Berlin in 2018 and the program “Longing on a Large Scale” in conjunction with Todd Gray’s “Exhibition Eucledian Gris Gris” at Pomona College Museum of Art 2019-2020.

Bard’s literary journal Conjunctions also received a $10,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This grant will support the publication and promotion of two print and e-book volumes as well as a weekly online magazine in 2021. Each print issue typically centers on a provocative theme and includes groundbreaking fiction, poetry, narrative nonfiction, interviews, translations, and multimedia from 35+ authors. This spring, Conjunctions will celebrate its 40 th Anniversary–a rare achievement for a literary journal– and plans to release a special print issue.

A cornerstone of contemporary literature, Conjunctions has represented the best innovative writing since 1981. Conjunctions serves those who read dangerously and write fearlessly, publishing fiction, poetry, criticism, drama, art, interviews, and multimedia that challenge accepted modes of expression, experiment with language and thought, and marry visionary imagination with rigorous execution. The Journal is dedicated to supporting the careers of unknown authors while providing a space for seasoned writers to work outside audience expectations. Conjunctions bring writers and readers together in several event series, including biannual NYC launch readings and the Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series at Bard College, in which notable authors meet with students and give a free public reading. To serve authors beyond New York, Conjunctions offers a Cities Series and now holds events nationwide in Boulder, Iowa City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle.

About the NEA
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation. The NEA supports exemplary arts projects in communities nationwide through grantmaking, initiatives, partnerships, and events. Grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations, creative writers and translators, state arts agencies, and regional arts organizations in support of arts projects across the country.