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June 2025 News for Bard Families & Friends |
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Bard's 165th Commencement, May 24, 2025 |
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Dear Families,
We celebrated the class of 2025 at the end of May during commencement weekend and welcomed back all the Bard alumni/ae who returned to campus for their reunions. Despite some chilly, wet weather, we had a fabulous time congratulating the next generation of Bardians setting out to make their mark on the world. We wish them all the best and invite them back to Annandale any time to visit their Bard family! To view the recorded 2025 commencement ceremony, click here. Photos taken during commencement and reunion weekend can be viewed here.
To make a gift in honor of your Bard student, please visit Bard’s giving page and be sure to include your student’s name and graduation year in the gift notes.
The College is embarking on a new construction project in Athletics and Recreation and we are asking all families for their support. The communal and team locker rooms in the Stevenson Athletic Center will be completely renovated, improving the spaces for Bard’s varsity athletes as well as the wider Bard College community. All gifts and pledges made by Bard families, alumni/ae and friends of the College will be matched by the College. Please help us with this fundraising effort by using this giving form, which also offers naming opportunities. If you have any questions, please contact Mackie Siebens ’12, Assistant Director of Development for Family Programs, at [email protected].
I am happy to announce that three Bard alumni/ae have won prestigious Fulbright Scholarships! This is a tremendous achievement as the program is extremely competitive. Maia Cluver, a joint Art History and Visual Culture and Human Rights major who graduated from Bard in 2022, has been selected for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Jordan for this upcoming academic year. Cecilia Giancola, who graduated from Bard this year with a major in Historical Studies, has been awarded a Fulbright independent study/research grant to India. Oskar Pezalla-Granlund, who graduated from Bard in 2024 with a major in Art History and Visual Culture, has received a Fulbright independent study/research grant to Spain. Congratulations to all three of these award winners!
Bard's campus is beautiful and busy all summer. If you are nearby, join us for Bard’s own SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival. Don’t miss the world premiere of Pam Tanowitz’s new dance, Pastoral, Susanne Bartsch’s wild return to the Spiegeltent or the new opera production, Dalibor. There is something for everyone with opera, dance, cabaret, and the 35th Bard Music Festival, Martinů and His World. Tickets can be purchased here at the Fisher Center’s website. We hope to see you in Annandale this summer!
Sincerely,
Mackie Siebens ’12
Assistant Director of Development, Family Programs
845-758-7316
[email protected]
P.S. If you would like to send us your feedback on Bard’s 165th Commencement Weekend but have not done so yet, please submit your comments by using this survey link.
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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 |
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Family Leadership Council
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. |
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Clark Wolff Hamel ’17. Photo Courtesy of PFLAG
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Clark Wolff Hamel ’17 Named by City & State as a 2025 Pride Trailblazer
Clark Wolff Hamel ’17 was named one of City & State’s Pride Trailblazers of 2025. The recognition highlights leaders of businesses and nonprofits in New York ensuring social services are available to the LGBTQ+ community. Wolff Hamel is the executive director of PFLAG NYC, New York City’s leading organization that supports the families of LGBTQ+ young people.
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“Why Eliminating the NEA Would Be a Disaster For Our Country:” Pauline Chalamet ’14 for the Hollywood Reporter
Pauline Chalamet ’14, actress, producer, and Bard alumna, writes for the Hollywood Reporter about the vital importance of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and how eliminating it would be devastating to small and rural arts organizations. Chalamet, who recently lobbied Congress on behalf of arts funding, discusses how it supports initiatives such as local jazz festivals, museums exhibitions, arts education, and community theater, which enrich cultural identity and stimulate local economies that would otherwise lack access to major donors or sponsorships.
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Ariel Stess ’08.
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Ariel Stess ’08 Wins the Yale Drama Series Award for 2025
Bard alum and Obie Award–winning playwright Ariel Stess ’08 has won the Yale Drama Series Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious playwriting awards, for her play, KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA. Stess will be honored with a staged reading of her winning play at Yale Schwarzman Center, conferral of the $10,000 David Charles Horn Prize, and publication of her play by Yale University Press.
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A group of students at the recent Brothers@ gala in New York City. Photo by Seamus Heady
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Brothers@ Celebrated 10th Anniversary with NYC Gala
Members of Brothers@, the initiative dedicated to building a community supportive of Black students and students of color, celebrated the group’s 10th anniversary with a gala in New York City this April. Attendees reflected on and celebrated a decade of transforming the lives of young men across the country, and the event was marked by powerful stories and heartfelt speeches.
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Led by conductor Leon Botstein, concertmaster of the Nürnberger Symphoniker Anna Reszniak and The Orchestra Now (TŌN) perform in Nuremberg’s Congress Hall. Photo by Anton Doppelbauer
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Marking 80 Years Since the End of WWII, Leon Botstein and TŌN Perform in Germany at the Invitation of Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra
Led by conductor and Bard College President Leon Botstein, The Orchestra Now (TŌN) performed in Germany, at the invitation of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, for a historic World War II memorial concert of remembrance, diplomacy, and artistic defiance. On the evening of May 8, at the exact hour marking 80 years since the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, Botstein led TŌN in a program of rare symbolic and political power featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn, who was banned under the Third Reich.
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(L–R): Maile Okamura, Marc Crousillat, Lindsey Jones, Christine Flores. Fisher Center LAB Commission/World Premiere
Pam Tanowitz’s Pastoral. Photo by Maria Baranova
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The Fisher Center at Bard Presents the World Premiere of Pam Tanowitz’s Pastoral, a Collaboration with Visual Artist Sarah Crowner and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Caroline Shaw, June 27–29
The Fisher Center at Bard presents Pam Tanowitz’s Pastoral, opening SummerScape 2025 (June 27 – August 17). For Pastoral, Tanowitz collaborates with artist Sarah Crowner and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw to create a work that muses on and transforms Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major.
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May Supporters
Thank you to Bard families and friends who supported Bard in May. We are grateful for your generosity to the College! #donorsmakedegreespossible
Anonymous (2) • Daniel Giancola and Carey Johnson • John A. Ravitz and Berry Ravitz • Fateh Alchy and Nadia Alchy • Tomas Wise • Michael G. Henry and Nessa J. Richman • Christian Kelly and Jennifer Kelly • Paul V. Mifsud and Sarah Mifsud • Kimberly L. Haas • Rand Whipple and Anne Dowd • Scott S. Wise and Elizabeth H. Parkinson • Bonnie T. Goad and Daniel Donohue • Jane A. Brien '89 and Stewart Verrilli • Judith Joa • Maggie Cammer and Joan Snyder • Stephen Hopkins and Erin Castle • James D. Bush • Wendie D. Malick • Catriona Shafer and Gurdon R. Miller • Peter J Sarfaty • Jessica Hough '99 • Michael Wing and Kristen A. Wing • Martin D. Green and Lizelle Green • Frank Komola • Jeffrey Gerber and Alisa Peet • Ilya Levinson and Martine Benmann • Marc Wintjen and Debra Wintjen • John D. Coequyt and Alexandra C. Page • Andy Goldstein and Paula Goldstein • Donald Kimelman and Gay Kimelman • David Grier and Nancy Pearson • Douglas Baz and Jill Lundquist • Lee Houghton and Amy Prince • Carl W. Leighton and Eva H. Leighton • Michelle Barkan • Jesse Browner '83 and Judith Clain • Stylianos Moschapidakis and Helen Moschapidakis • Michael P. Altopp and Whitney L. Altopp • Ian D. Landau and Deborah A. Levine • Chris H Lonn • John D. Shyer and Marsha A. Shyer • Gregory Fields and Rozanna Leo-Fields • Richard Dower and Laura E. Dower • Dan Junkins and Minette Junkins • Justin C. Sprinzen and Nicole H. Sprinzen • LouAnn Smith • Jamie A. Von Klemperer and Alison M. von Klemperer • Peter W. Greenwald and Gail M. Newman • Mark A. Bird and Elizabeth G. Bird • Eve Landau and Jay Landau • Phillip R. Hereso and Susan M. Smyth • Stacy Hubbard • Friaan Hakim • Hugo K. VanGeem and Jennifer P. VanGeem • James Macdonald and Karen Rizzo • Kevin Miller • Edward A. Friedman • David M. Traub and Carrie C. Traub • David W. Jacobowitz '65 and Linda Rodd • Anthony N. Thomann and Lauren M. Beatty • Don Hurowitz '65 and Elizabeth Hurowitz • Jason T. Robison and Anne S. Robison • Andrew Greenhill • Fei Liu • Robert Odegard and Christina Odegard • Brandt Junceau '81 and Ingrid Von Werz • Ann Greenhill • Osama Mogannam and Anne Walker • Scott Mikita • Jane Kim • David Meikle
To give to Bard today, visit giving.bard.edu/bcf! |
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