|
August 2025 News for Bard Families & Friends |
|
|
|
Bard MFA Class of 2026 Thesis Exhibition at UBS Gallery, July 2025. Photo Credit: Roman Hrab |
|
Dear Families,
Our next class of Bardians arrives tomorrow, Friday, August 8, and a new cohort of transfer students will join the community on Friday, August 22. We can’t wait to welcome all new Bardians to campus and help them settle into their L&T programs! Be sure to follow @bardfamilynetwork and @bardcollege on Instagram to get a glimpse of the action.
With new student arrival front of mind this month, the Center for Civic Engagement and Election@Bard are excited to welcome your Bard student voter to campus. Both will be tabling at check in on arrival day and will be available to walk new students through their voter registration options. Student voters should have the last four digits of their social security number and (if possible) their Bard PO Box number (it’s in the MyAnnandale portal) handy when visiting the voter registration table.
All returning students will arrive on campus on Saturday, August 30 and we’re looking forward to the heartwarming reunions of friends coming back together after summer adventures away. Fall classes begin on Monday, September 1.
Remember, you can always find important dates by visiting the academic calendar on Bard’s website. Please save the date for Family and Alumni/ae Weekend: October 24-26, 2025. Details about all of the events taking place that weekend will follow in the fall.
Also looking ahead to the fall, Bard Athletics and Recreation will be hosting its third annual golf tournament in support of Bard Athletics on Friday, October 10 at the Red Hook Golf Club. Registration is live and available by completing this form.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Conservatory of Music and Leon Botstein’s 50th year as President of Bard College. To celebrate, the Conservatory of Music will be performing at Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center on Wednesday, October 29 and a reception will follow the performance. More information about how to purchase tickets will be available in the September issue of the Annandale Insider.
The 35th Annual Bard Music Festival, Martinů and His World, kicks off tomorrow, Friday, August 8. In eleven themed concerts featuring its boldest and most adventurous programming to date, the festival’s 35th season examines the life and times of Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959), one of the most fascinating and prolific composers of the 20th century, whose music is nonetheless largely unfamiliar to U.S. audiences today.
Also a summer highlight, over 60 students participated in the Bard Summer Research Institute (BSRI) this year, working with 17 faculty for eight weeks in June and July. If you and your student are already thinking about plans for summer 2026, your student can visit the link above to learn more about this program.
As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
Looking forward to the upcoming academic year!
Best Wishes,
Mackie Siebens '12
Assistant Director of Development for Family Programs
[email protected]
845-758-7316
P.S. As a reminder, there are some wonderful exhibits to see at the Hessel Museum of Art on campus. If you find yourself in Annandale this month or into the fall, these exhibits are Stan Douglas: Ghostlight and All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group.
|
|
Dates to Remember
To view the full 2025–2026 academic calendar, click here.
Friday, August 8, 2025 | Arrival Day, Check-in, and Financial Clearance for First-Year Students
Monday, August 11, 2025 – Wednesday, August 27, 2025 | Language and Thinking Program
Friday, August 22, 2025 | Arrival Day, Check-in, and Financial Clearance for Transfer Students
Monday, August 25, 2025 – Wednesday, August 27, 2025 | Transfer Student Language and Thinking Program
Thursday, August 28, 2025 – Friday, August 29, 2025 | Matriculation Days - Advising and Class Registration for First-Year and Transfer Students
Saturday, August 30, 2025 | Arrival Day for All Returning Students Check-in, and Financial Clearance for Returning Students
Monday, September 1, 2025 | First Day of Fall Classes
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 | Drop/Add Period Ends 5 pm
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 | Late Drop Period Ends
Monday, October 13, 2025 – Tuesday, October 14, 2025 | Fall Break |
|
|
|
Janice and Rob Mielarczyk, New Co-Chairs of Bard's Family Leadership Council |
|
Family Leadership Council
This academic year we welcome our new Co-Chairs of the Family Leadership Council, Janice and Rob Mielarczyk, parents of Henry Mielarczyk '25, now a graduate student at Bard completing an MS in Economic Theory and Policy.
Members of the Family Leadership Council (FLC) play a leadership role in the Bard community through a range of activities. FLC members develop and participate in on-campus and regional recruiting and mentoring events, promote and provide career opportunities for students, and participate in peer-to-peer fundraising. Parents on the FLC play a role in the success of the Bard College Fund through annual gifts. The Family Leadership Council meets twice each year: once during Family Weekend in the fall and once in the spring. These meetings are open so all Bard families are welcome to attend.
Interested in joining or have questions? Contact Mackie Siebens '12, Assistant Director of Development for Family Programs, at [email protected] or 845-758-7316. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bohuslav Martinů. Photo: courtesy of Bohuslav Martinů Centre, Polička
|
Opening August 8, Bard Music Festival Explores Life and Times of Foremost 20th-Century Czech Composer in “Martinů and His World”
On Friday, August 8, the Bard Music Festival returns with an intensive two-week exploration of “Martinů and His World.” In eleven themed concert programs, the festival’s 35th season examines Bohuslav Martinů, the 20th century’s foremost Czech composer, by considering him as A Musical Mirror of the 20th Century (Weekend One: August 8–10), and investigating the stand he took Against Uncertainty, Uniformity, Mechanization (Weekend Two: August 14–17).
|
|
|
Photo courtesy of Smolny College.
|
Bard College and Smolny Beyond Borders Program Cited in the Moscow Times: “What Happens When Your University is Banned in Russia”
In 2021, Bard College became the first institute of higher learning to be banned in Russia when it was placed on a list of “undesirable organizations,” a designation that declares such organizations to be a national security threat and has since been applied to a growing number of universities that includes Yale and Brigham Young, writes Charlie Hancock for the Moscow Times. “Scholarship and learning are not autocratic enterprises—they are inherently committed to freedom and disputation and dissent,” President Leon Botstein told the Moscow Times.
|
|
|
The BHSEC Baltimore youth ambassadors.
|
2025 Youth Ambassadors of BHSEC Baltimore Receive Governor’s Citation
The 2025 youth ambassadors of Bard High School Early College Baltimore have received a Governor’s Citation for their help in bridging exchange between the US state of Maryland and the Anhui Province in China, two regions that celebrate the 45th anniversary of their sister-state relationship this year. The Governor’s Citation for the BHSEC Baltimore ambassadors was bestowed by Wes Moore, governor of Maryland and the son of Bard College alumnus William Westley Moore Jr. ’70.
|
|
|
President Leon Botstein.
|
President Leon Botstein Interviewed About Hannah Arendt for PBS
Bard President Leon Botstein was interviewed for PBS about philosopher Hannah Arendt, whom he first met as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and stayed in contact with throughout her life. “I was fascinated by the originality of her insights, the improvisational brilliance of her mind, and the distinctive quality of her language, all of which reflected her uncommon capacity to contextualize texts and events brilliantly,” said Botstein.
|
|
|
Peter Criswell ’89.
|
Peter Criswell ’89 Discusses Ulster’s Creative Community in Hudson Valley One
Peter Criswell ’89, the chair of the county legislature for Ulster County, was interviewed by the Hudson Valley One about the arts scene in Kingston. The article discusses how the county’s art scene has room to grow, and how challenges like rising costs and gentrification contribute to artist displacement.
|
|
|
July Supporters
Thank you to Bard families and friends who supported Bard in July. We are grateful for your generosity to the College!
#donorsmakedegreespossible
Anonymous (4) • Gaby Loredo • Davis Fox • Mary Burns and Robert Burns • Tomas Wise • Juliet Bashore • Kimberly L. Haas • Rand Whipple and Anne Dowd • Kathleen Carroll • Thomas Tarpey and Carolyn King • Bonnie T. Goad and Daniel Donohue • Jane A. Brien '89 and Stewart Verrilli • Judith Joa • James Reilly and Kathryn Reilly • James D. Bush • Herbert A. Donovan • John Burke and Sarah A. Hahn • Frank Komola • Karl-Walter Lindenlaub and Lee Lindenlaub • Ilya Levinson and Martine Benmann • Martin B. Mosbacher and Andrea Mosbacher • Racliffe F. Williams and Angela M. Newman • Gregory (Greg) Fields and Rozanna Leo-Fields • Richard Dower and Laura E. Dower • Dan Junkins and Minette Junkins • Richard Bassler and Stephanie Bassler • Jamie A. Von Klemperer and Alison M. Von Klemperer • Peter W. Greenwald and Gail M. Newman • Caitlin F F. Curtin • Larry Black and Natasha Sweeten • Clayton Saccomanno and Kari Saccomanno • Edward A. Friedman • Debra Sonkin • David W. Jacobowitz '65 and Linda Rodd • Michael A. Thiemann and Catherine A. Thiemann • Jason T. Robison and Anne S. Robison • Aldo Daniel Real Gonzales • Amy C. Herman and Seth Herman • Helene Tieger '85 and Paul Ciancanelli • Andrew Gluck and Julia Gluck • Kristi Wallace Knight • Robert A. Kirchmeier • Gregory H. Quinn and Carolyn M. Blackwood • Robert E. Spadaccia • Christopher T. Whipple and Melanie D. Falick • Kathleen Augustine • Jane Kim • David Meikle
To give to Bard today, visit giving.bard.edu/bcf! |
|
|
|
|
