graduate program in curatorial studies

CCS Bard is distinguished by its singular resources: the Hessel Museum of Art, dedicated to innovative and experimental approaches to curating; the CCS Bard Library, one of the leading contemporary art research collections focusing on post-1960s art in the US; and the CCS Bard Archives, which contain archives and manuscripts from preeminent curators, inventive commercial art galleries, artist-run spaces, artists’ initiatives, and artists. Together, these resources support one of the world’s most forward-thinking teaching and learning environments for contemporary art research and the study of contemporary curatorial practices.

Curriculum: Academic Research and Curatorial Practice The two-year graduate program at CCS Bard offers seminars in art and exhibition history and cultural and social theory with an intensive focus on the formation of museums, biennials, alternative spaces, postcolonial theory and history, Black studies, queer and feminist studies, ecology and infrastructure, media theory and technology, and embodiment and performance studies, among other areas. The academic curriculum is balanced with an emphasis on curatorial practice and designed to deepen students’ understanding of the true tasks of curating in practice.