Bard Alum Carolyn Lazard ’10 Named 2023 MacArthur Fellow

Bard alum Carolyn Lazard ’10 has been named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Lazard, an interdisciplinary artist who uses the experience of chronic illness to examine concepts of intimacy and social and political dimensions of care, is one of this year’s 20 recipients of the prestigious “genius grant” awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

NRO artists Jackson Polys, Adam Khalil ’11, and Zack Khalil ’14, and Creative Time curator Diya Vij ’08. Image courtesy the collective

The World’s UnFair: Public Exhibition by New Red Order, Cofounded by Alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14, Profiled in the New York Times

“Give it back.” These are the first words seen by visitors to The World’s UnFair, the newest multimedia work by New Red Order (NRO), a “public secret society” cofounded by brothers and Bard alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14. World’s Fairs “have historically presented a theory of progress, technological advancement, imperial advancement,” Jackson Polys, who cocreated NRO with the Khalil brothers, told the New York Times. The World’s UnFair, by contrast, subverts expectations with an animatronic beaver who speaks about private land ownership and satirical real estate ads featuring “comically small” portions of land given back to Native groups.

Elazar Sontag ’20. Photo by Jasmine Clarke ’18

Bard Alum and Bon Appétit Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag ’20 Discusses the Best New Restaurants of 2023 on CBS Morning Show

Bon Appétit has just published its picks for the best 24 new restaurants of 2023. Breaking with industry tradition, the food magazine let every restaurant on its list know they had been selected before the publication was released. “Running a restaurant is already challenging enough, and we want this to really be net positive,” said Bon Appétit Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag ’20. “We want the restaurants to be able to not just celebrate it, but actually grow from it."

BHSEC Manhattan, 2022. Photo by Natalie Keyssar

Bard Early College to Offer Virtual Courses for Florida High School Students

Starting this month, Bard Early College will offer three tuition-free virtual college courses to high school students in Florida. Participating students who complete the program will receive three transferable college credits from Bard for each course, as well as a Bard College transcript. “These virtual courses, offered exclusively to students in Florida, cover educational topics that are under threat or actively blocked in the state, and Bard Early College aims to make these subjects available to the students who wish to study them,” said Dumaine Williams ’03, vice president for Early College at Bard.

2024 Bard Fiction Prize winner Zain Khalid. Photo by Roxana Kadyrova

Annual Bard Fiction Prize Is Awarded to Zain Khalid

Author Zain Khalid has received the Bard Fiction Prize for his first novel, Brother Alive (Grove Press, 2022). Khalid’s residency at Bard College is for the fall 2024 semester, during which time he will continue his writing and meet informally with students. Khalid will give a public reading at Bard during his residency.