New Keith Haring Wing at CCS Bard to Open October 2025

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY (August 27, 2025)—In October 2025, the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) will inaugurate its new Keith Haring Wing, a 12,000-square-foot addition to its Library and Archives. The expansion responds to the continued growth of CCS Bard’s research center and collections, encompassing art and archival holdings, which have seen an infusion of materials from key contemporary art figures, including gallerist Gavin Brown, scholar and art historian Eddie Chambers, and curator and art historian Robert Storr. The addition more than doubles the current capacity of CCS Bard’s Library and Archives, significantly increasing the number of students, scholars, and researchers it can support.

Supported by a $10M capital project, the Keith Haring Wing is named in recognition of a lead $3M gift from the Keith Haring Foundation, which builds on the organization’s longstanding partnership with CCS Bard. This includes the Keith Haring Chair in Art and Activism, a faculty position that has brought prominent scholars, activists, and artists to teach at Bard for the past decade, and was fully endowed in 2022. Additional lead support for the project is provided by the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, along with major gifts from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, and a private foundation.

“The expansion of the CCS Bard Library and Archives is an investment in our core educational mission and the many people who make up the CCS Bard community,” said Tom Eccles, Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. “It is in this spirit that we thank the Keith Haring Foundation, the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, and other supporters whose contributions have had an indelible impact on the intellectual life of CCS Bard.”

The Keith Haring Wing, designed by the award-winning firm HWKN Architecture with C.T. Male Associates serving as executive architect, is a two-story masonry structure that complements the existing CCS Bard facility, characterized by minimalist, light-filled interiors. Open ceilings and large windows introduce natural light deep into the expanded library, fostering an inviting and productive atmosphere for research and study.

"Returning to the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College to design the Keith Haring Wing has been a deeply meaningful experience. This contextual addition allowed us to re-engage with our earlier work through a modern lens while pushing the architecture forward, introducing light, openness, and new opportunities for artistic expression. It’s rare for a building to grow alongside its community in this way, and we’re proud that our design reflects continuity, honoring the spirit of Bard College,” said Matthias Hollwich, Founding Principal of HWKN Architecture.

The new wing features an expansive open reading space, the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Reading Room, situated next to open research stacks that can accommodate more than 30,000 additional volumes. The new 30-seat Pontus Hultén Classroom, made possible by a generous gift from the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Collaborative Study Room will enable CCS Bard to host a wider range of courses, workshops, and study groups, deepening ties with the undergraduate Art History and Visual Culture program and other college departments. With six new offices, the expansion will also support visiting faculty and researcher positions that engage leading global scholars with the research collection and Bard community, while 6,000 square feet of new storage space below the library will help accommodate the continued growth of CCS Bard’s art and archival collections.

The Pontus Hultén Classroom is named in tribute to the curator and museum director Pontus Hultén (1924-2006) for his pioneering role in transforming the modern art museum into the cultural focal point that it is today. Coinciding with the Keith Haring Wing opening, and the Centre Pompidou exhibition Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén in the Grand Palais in Paris, CCS Bard has co-published the first full-scale biography of Hultén with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther and Franz König, Köln. “Pontus Hultén —Commander of Modern Art” by Claes Britton is available for purchase at the link.

The CCS Bard Library and Archives
The CCS Bard Library and Archives are a crucial resource for students in CCS Bard’s graduate program, undergraduate students from across Bard College, as well as art historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars from around the world. Over the past 30 years, the CCS Bard Library has grown from a modest graduate program library into a premier research center for the study of contemporary art and culture, with more than 50,000 volumes and a wide range of primary materials documenting the history of contemporary art and the practices of exhibition-making since the 1960s. The CCS Bard Archives also serve as the institutional repository for the Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, complementing and enriching the Hessel Museum of Art’s rich permanent collection.

From the Fluxus-era projects of curator John G, Hanhardt to performance-based curatorial works by Ian White and feminist genderqueer collective LTTR, the CCS Archives contains over 40 distinct archival collections, which are extensively contextualized by Special Collections, encompassing over 7,000 rare exhibition-related and artist-produced publications. Following a 2015 expansion that added a dedicated space for the archives and an innovative Collection Teaching Gallery, the demand for access to CCS Bard’s collections, and space for research and teaching within the library, have continued to grow.

Capital Campaign Support
The $10M capital campaign is made possible with lead support from the Keith Haring Foundation and the Marieluise Hessel Foundation. Major support is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, and a private foundation, along with additional support from the CCS Bard Board of Governors and the Center's community of patrons, supporters, members, and friends.  In-kind support is provided by ROI Office Interiors.

About the Keith Haring Foundation
Keith Haring (1958-1990) generously contributed his talents and resources to numerous causes during his life. He conducted art workshops with children, created logos and posters for public service agencies, and produced murals, sculptures, and paintings to benefit health centers and communities impacted by systemic inequity. In 1989, Haring established a foundation to ensure that his philanthropic legacy would continue indefinitely.

The Keith Haring Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit entities that engage in charitable and educational activities. In accordance with Keith’s wishes, the Foundation concentrates its giving in two areas: the support of organizations which enrich the lives of young people and the support of organizations which engage in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and care. The Foundation additionally maintains a collection of Haring’s art and archives and supports exhibitions, programming, and publications that serve to contextualize and illuminate the artist’s work and philosophy. www.haring.com.

About HWKN Architecture
HWKN is an award-winning, New York-based global architectural innovation firm led by Matthias Hollwich, alongside partners Jessica Knobloch, Dorin Baul, Robert May, and Olga Snowden. Founded in 2008, HWKN partners with cities, developers, and clients to maximize the impact and value of their development assets. The firm’s diverse portfolio includes buildings and neighborhoods alike, from retail spaces and popup-installations to residential and commercial schemes in the United States, Middle East, and Europe, with collaborating offices in Munich, Miami, Berlin, Riyadh, and London. HWKN creates unforgettable architecture by designing from the outside in, shaping spaces that turn buildings into social activators, identity markers, and happiness enhancers. The creative strategy is extended into the inside of the building, introducing new operational typologies. Here the future of real estate is taking shape, creating buildings for generations to come. Honored in Fast Company’s ranking of the world’s top 10 most innovative architects of 2024 for the firm’s AI work, the design team shapes the future for people, communities and investors. For more information, visit: www.hwkn.com.

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is the leading institution dedicated to curatorial studies, a field exploring the conditions that inform contemporary exhibition-making and artistic practice. Through its Graduate Program, Library and Archives, and the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard serves as an incubator for interdisciplinary practices, advances new and underrepresented perspectives in contemporary art, and cultivates a student body from diverse backgrounds in a broad effort to transform the curatorial field. CCS Bard’s dynamic and multifaceted program includes exhibitions, symposia, publications, and public events, which explore the critical potential of the practice of exhibition-making.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Resnicow and Associates
Juliet Sorce / Chelsea Beroza / Emma Gold / Onnie Woods
Tel: +1 212-671-5158 / 5165 / 5168 / 5170
Email: [email protected] 
 

This event was last updated on 08-26-2025

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