Bard College is a
private liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...
in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the
Hudson River
The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
and
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...
within the
Hudson River Historic District and is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
.
Founded in 1860, the institution consists of a liberal arts college and a
conservatory. The college offers undergraduate and graduate programs. The college has a network of over 35 affiliated programs, institutes, and centers, spanning twelve cities, five U.S. states, seven countries, and four continents.
History
Origins and early years
During much of the nineteenth century, the land since owned by Bard was mainly composed of several
country estates. These estates were called Blithewood, Bartlett, Sands and Ward Manor/Almont.

In 1853,
John Bard and Margaret Bard purchased a part of the Blithewood estate and renamed it Annandale. John Bard was the grandson of
Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor, a founder of
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's
medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
, and
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
to
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
. John Bard was also the nephew of John McVickar, a professor at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. The family had strong connections with the
Episcopal Church.
The following year, in 1854, John and Margaret established a
parish school on their estate in order to educate the area's children. A wood-frame
cottage
A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...
, known today as Bard Hall, served as a school on weekdays and a
chapel
A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
on weekends. In 1857, the Bards expanded the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
by building the Chapel of the Holy Innocents next to Bard Hall. During this time, John Bard remained in close contact with the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church. The church suggested that he found a
theological college
A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...
.
With the promise of outside financial support, John Bard donated the unfinished chapel, and the surrounding , to the diocese in November 1858. In March 1860, "St. Stephen's College" was founded. In 1861, construction began on the first St. Stephen's College building, a stone
collegiate Gothic dormitory called Aspinwall, after early
trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...
John Lloyd Aspinwall, brother of
William Henry Aspinwall. During its initial years, the college relied on wealthy benefactors, like trustee
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
, for funding.
The college began taking shape within four decades. In 1866, Ludlow Hall, an administrative building, was erected. Preston Hall was built in 1873 and used as a refectory. A set of four dormitories, collectively known as Stone Row, were completed in 1891. And in 1895, the
Greek Revival Hoffman Memorial Library was built. The school officially changed its name to Bard College in 1934 in honor of its founder.
Growth and secularization
In the 20th century, social and cultural changes amongst New York's
high society would bring about the demise of the great estates. In 1914, Louis Hamersley purchased the fire-damaged Ward Manor/Almont estate and erected a
Tudor style mansion and gatehouse, or what is today known as Ward Manor.
Hamersley expanded his estate in 1926 by acquiring the abandoned Cruger's Island estate. That same year, after Hamersley's combined estate was purchased by William Ward, it was donated to charity and served as a retirement home for almost four decades.
By the mid-1900s, Bard's campus significantly expanded. The Blithewood estate was donated to the college in 1951, and in 1963, Bard purchased of the Ward Manor estate, including the main manor house. The rest of the Ward Manor estate became the
Tivoli Bays nature preserve.
In 1919,
Bernard Iddings Bell became Bard's youngest president at the age of 34. His adherence to classical education, decorum, and dress eventually clashed with the school's push towards
Deweyism and secularization, and he resigned in 1933.
In 1928, Bard merged with
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, serving as an undergraduate school similar to
Barnard College
Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
. Under the agreement, Bard remained affiliated with the Episcopal Church and retained control of its finances. The merger raised Bard's prestige; however, it failed to provide financial support to the college during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
.
So dire was Bard's financial situation that in 1932, then-Governor of New York and College trustee
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
sent a telegram to the likes of
John D. Rockefeller Jr.,
George Eastman and
Frederick William Vanderbilt requesting donations for the college.
On May 26, 1933,
Donald Tewksbury, a Columbia professor, was appointed dean of the college. Although dean for only four years, Tewksbury had a lasting impact on the school. Tewksbury, an educational philosopher, had extensive ideas regarding higher education. While he was dean, Tewksbury steered the college into a more secular direction and changed its name from St. Stephen's to Bard. He also placed a heavy academic emphasis on the arts, something atypical of colleges at the time, and set the foundations for Bard's Moderation and Senior Project requirement.
While Tewksbury never characterized Bard's curriculum as "
progressive," the school would later be considered an early adopter of progressive education. In his 1943 study of early progressive colleges, titled ''General Education in the Progressive College'',
Louis T. Benezet used Bard as one of his three
case studies.
During the 1940s, Bard provided a haven for intellectual refugees fleeing Europe. These included
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century.
Her work ...
, the political theorist,
Stefan Hirsch, the
precisionist painter;
Felix Hirsch, the political editor of the ''
Berliner Tageblatt''; the violinist Emil Hauser; the linguist
Hans Marchand; the noted psychologist Werner Wolff; and the philosopher
Heinrich Blücher.
Arendt is buried at Bard, alongside her husband Heinrich Blücher, as is eminent novelist
Philip Roth.
In 1944, as a result of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, enrollment significantly dropped putting financial stress on the college. In order to increase enrollment, the college became co-educational, thereby severing all ties with Columbia. The college became an independent, secular, institution in 1944. Enrollment more than doubled, from 137 students in 1944, to 293 in 1947.
Late twentieth and early twenty-first century
Donald Fagen and
Walter Becker's experiences at Bard prompted them to write the 1973 song "
My Old School" for their rock group,
Steely Dan.
The song was motivated by the 1969 drug bust at Bard in which the college administration colluded. The DA involved was
G. Gordon Liddy of
Watergate notoriety. Fagen wrote another Steely Dan song, "
Rikki Don't Lose That Number", about novelist, artist and former Bard faculty spouse
Rikki Ducornet.
In 2020, Bard College and
Central European University became the founding members of the Open Society University Network, a collaborative global education initiative endowed with US$1 billion. As part of this new initiative, the college received a US$100 million gift from the
Open Society Foundations which ranks among the largest financial contributions to a U.S. institution in recent history. In 2021, philanthropist
George Soros made a $500 million endowment pledge to Bard College. It is one of the largest pledges of money ever made to higher education in the United States.
In June 2021, Bard College was declared an "
undesirable organization" in Russia, becoming the first international higher education organization to be branded with this designation. Bard president Botstein hypothesized that this tag was due their association with and funding from the
Open Society Foundations which was also classified as undesirable in Russia and
related conspiracy theories about George Soros.
College leaders
At various times, the leaders of the college have been titled president, warden or dean. They are listed below:
#
George Franklin Seymour (1860–1861)
#
Thomas Richey (1861–1863)
# Robert Brinckerhoff Fairbairn (1863–1898)
# Lawrence T. Cole (1899–1903)
# Thomas R. Harris (1904–1907)
# William Cunningham Rodgers (1909–1919)
#
Bernard Iddings Bell (1919–1933)
# Donald George Tewksbury (1933–1937)
# Harold Mestre (1938–1939)
# Charles Harold Gray (1940–1946)
# Edward C. Fuller (1946–1950)
#
James Herbert Case Jr. (1950–1960)
# Reamer Kline (1960–1974)
#
Leon Botstein (1975–present)
Campus
The campus of Bard College is in
Annandale-on-Hudson, a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
in
Dutchess County, New York, United States, in the town of
Red Hook. It contains more than 70 buildings with a total gross building space of and was listed as a census-designated place in 2020. Campus buildings represent varied
architectural style
An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...
s, but the campus remains heavily influenced by the
Collegiate Gothic and
Postmodern styles.
Bard's historic buildings are associated with the early development of the college and the history of the Hudson River estates (
see Bard College History).
During a late twentieth-century building boom, the college embraced a trend of building signature buildings designed by prominent architects like
Venturi,
Gehry, and
Viñoly.
In January 2016, Bard purchased
Montgomery Place, a estate adjacent to the Bard campus, with significant historic and cultural assets. The estate consists of a historic mansion, a farm, and some 20 smaller buildings. The college purchased the property from Historic Hudson Valley, the historical preservation organization that had owned Montgomery Place since the late 1980s. The addition of this property brings Bard's total campus size to nearly along the Hudson River in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
In late 2023, Bard purchased 260 acres of land adjacent to the
Montgomery Place campus in
Barrytown, which used to be the campus of the
Unification Theological Seminary. The property, originally owned by the
Livingston and later
Aspinwall families, features a mansion designed by
William Appleton Potter. It was acquired by the
De La Salle Brothers in 1928, who completed a large
seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
and
normal institute there in 1931. In turn, the property was sold in 1974 to the
Unification Church
The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...
. Bard intended to use the space to provide new studios for the Center for Human Rights and the Arts and administrative offices for the
Open Society University Network (OSUN), of which Bard is a founding member. However,
Bard College at Simon's Rock announced that it would be moving into the property in fall 2025. The purchase of the property brings Bard's total acreage to 1260 acres (510 ha).
The area around the campus first appeared as a
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
(CDP) in the 2020 Census, with a population of 358.
The college has an amount of housing for faculty members. School-age dependents in this faculty housing are in the
Red Hook Central School District (the CDP is within this school district).
File:Stone Row Dorm.jpg, Stone Row, a dormitory built in 1891
File:Bard College - IMG 7991.JPG, The Chapel of the Holy Innocents, built in 1857, serves several denominations on campus.
File:Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation Bard College.jpg, Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation
File:Tewksbury Hall Dorm.jpg, Tewksbury Hall, a dormitory
File:The Ravines.jpg, The Ravines, dormitories
File:Alumni Houses.jpg, Alumni Houses, dormitories
File:Resnick Village Dorms Bard College.jpg, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Commons, a residential village with dormitories
File:Cruger Dorm Bard College.jpg, Cruger Hall, a dormitory
File:Bard College - IMG 8005.JPG, Hessel Museum, museum of contemporary art
File:Blithewood Garden on Bard College campus.jpg, Blithewood Garden, Italianate walled garden
File:Ward Manor Dorm.jpg, Ward Manor, built in 1918 and now used as a dormitory
File:Fisher Center at Bard.jpg, Fisher Center at Bard, performance hall designed by Frank Gehry
File:Montgomery Place 2008.jpg, Montgomery Place, a historic mansion purchased by the college in 2016
File:North front of Blithewood.jpg, Blithewood Manor, a historic estate housing the Levy Economics Institute dating to 1899
Academics
Rankings and awards
In its 2025 edition of college rankings, ''
U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Bard 71st overall, 5th in "Most Innovative Schools", tied at 33rd for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied at #38 in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", tied at #19 in "First-Year Experiences", and 19th for "Best Value" out of 211 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" in the United States. In 2024, ''
Washington Monthly'' ranked Bard 50th among 194 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.
Bard's Master of Fine Arts program was ranked one of ten most influential Master of Fine Arts programs in the world by ''Artspace Magazine'' in 2023.
Bard has been named a top producer of U.S.
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
Scholars. Many Bard alumni have also been named
Watson Fellows,
Critical Language Scholarship recipients,
Davis Projects for Peace winners,
Rhodes Scholars,
Marshall Scholars, and
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...
fellows, among other postgraduate awards.
Undergraduate programs
In the undergraduate college, Bard offers
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
and
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degrees. There are 23 academic departments that offer over 40
major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary
concentrations. The college was the first in the nation to offer a
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
major. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:
*Social Sciences (140)
*Fine/Studio Arts (106)
*English Language and Literature/Letters (81)
*Biological and Physical Sciences (80)
In the three weeks preceding their first semester, first-year students attend the Language and Thinking (L&T) program, an intensive, writing-centered introduction to the liberal arts. The interdisciplinary program, established in 1981, aims to "cultivate habits of thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration." The program covers
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
,
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
, and
religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
. In 2011, the core readings included works by
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century.
Her work ...
,
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
,
Frans de Waal,
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...
,
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades&n ...
,
M. NourbeSe Philip, and
Sophocles
Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...
.
The capstone of the Bard undergraduate experience is the Senior Project, commonly referred to as SPROJ amongst its students. As with moderation, this project takes different forms in different departments. Many students write a paper of around eighty pages, which is then, as with work for moderation, critiqued by a board of three professors. Arts students must organize a series of concerts, recitals, or shows, or produce substantial creative work; math and science students, as well as some social science students, undertake research projects.
Undergraduate admissions
For the academic year 2022-2023, Bard's acceptance rate stands at 46%. Out of the total 6,482 students who applied, 2,982 were admitted to the school. For the 2022–2023 academic year 447 students enrolled representing a yield rate of 15%. Admission trends note a 25% increase in applications in the 2022–2023 academic year. Bard does not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores in order to apply. As an alternative, applicants may take an examination composed of 19 essay questions in four categories: Social Studies; Languages and Literature; Arts; and Science, Mathematics, and Computing, with applicants required to complete three 2,500-word essays covering three of the four categories. For admitted students who submitted test scores, 50% had an SAT score between 1296 and 1468 or an ACT score between 28 and 33, with a reported average GPA of 3.79. Admissions officials consider a student's GPA a very important academic factor. Honors,
AP, and
IB classes are important, an applicant's high school class rank is considered, and letters of recommendation are considered very important for admissions officials at Bard.
Graduate programs
Bard College offers a range of postgraduate degree programs, including the
Bard MFA,
Bard Graduate Center,
Center for Curatorial Studies, Center for Human Rights and the Arts, Center for Environmental Policy, Bard MBA in Sustainability,
Levy Economics Institute, the Master of Arts in Teaching, and the Master of Arts in Global Studies.
Bard MFA
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a nontraditional graduate school for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. The program takes place over two years and two months, with students residing on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus. Notable artists and writers that have been affiliated with the Bard MFA as faculty and visiting artists include
Marina Abramovic,
Eileen Myles,
Paul Chan,
Robert Kelly,
Tony Conrad
Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...
,
Okkyung Lee,
Yto Barrada,
Carolee Schneemann,
Lynne Tillman, and
Ben Lerner.
Bard Graduate Center
The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. Established in 1993, the institute offers a two-year MA program and a PhD program that began in 1998. The institute's facilities include a gallery space at 18 West 86th Street and an academic building with a library at 38 West 86th Street.
Center for Curatorial Studies
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) established in 1990, is a museum and research center dedicated to the study of contemporary art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. In 1994, CCS Bard launched its (MA) Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies program. The center also hosts public events throughout the year including lectures and panel discussions on topics in contemporary art.
The museum, spanning an area of 55,000 square feet, offers a variety of exhibitions accessible to the general public throughout the year. It houses two distinct collections, the CCS Bard Collection and the Marieluise Hessel collection, which has been loaned to CCS Bard on a permanent basis. Artists such as
Keith Haring
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the Graffiti in New York City, New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual l ...
,
Julian Schnabel,
Wolfgang Tillmans,
Stephen Shore, and
Cindy Sherman, among numerous others, are featured within these collections.
The CCS Bard Library is a research collection for contemporary art with a focus on post-1960s contemporary art, curatorial practice, exhibition histories, theory, and criticism. in 2023 historian
Robert Storr donated over 25,000 volumes to the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, nearly doubling the total collection size to 63,000 volumes.
In 2022 CCS Bard received $50 million from a $25 million donation from the Gochman Family Foundation to form a Center for American and Indigenous Studies at CCS Bard and a matching donation of $25 million from
George Soros. This followed two 2021 gifts of $25 million, one from Marieluise Hessel and a matching donation from Soros.
Center for Human Rights & the Arts

The Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and human rights. The center is affiliated with the
Open Society University Network (OSUN). The center's flagship initiative is the Master of Arts program in Human Rights & the Arts. The center includes initiatives such as resident research fellowships, research grants, artist commissions, public talks, and accessible publications.
Center for Environmental Policy
The Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) at Bard College is a research institution offering a range of graduate degree programs focused on environmental policy, climate science, and environmental education. The CEP offers a series of graduate degrees including the Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Master of Education. In addition to these individual degree programs, CEP offers dual-degree options that allow students to combine their environmental studies with programs in law or business.
Levy Economics Institute
Levy Economics Institute is a public policy think tank focused on generating public policy responses to economic problems. Through research, analysis, and informed debate, the institute aims to enable scholars and leaders from business, labor, and government to collaborate on common interest issues.
The institute's findings are disseminated globally through various channels, including publications, conferences, seminars, congressional testimony, and partnerships with other nonprofits. Its research encompasses a wide range of topics, including stock-flow consistent macro modeling,
fiscal policy
In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variab ...
,
monetary policy
Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...
and
financial structure,
financial instability,
income and wealth distribution,
financial regulation and governance, gender equality and time poverty, and immigration/ethnicity and social structure.
The Levy Economics Institute is particularly known for its research in
heterodox economics
Heterodox economics is a broad, relative term referring to schools of economic thought which are not commonly perceived as belonging to mainstream economics. There is no absolute definition of what constitutes heterodox economic thought, as it i ...
, with a focus on
Post-Keynesian and
Marxian economics. It is additionally recognized as the leading research center for the study of
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Notable individuals that have been affiliated with the Levy Economics Institute as professors, directors, and economists include
Joseph Stiglitz,
Hyman Minsky,
William Julius Wilson,
L. Randall Wray,
Jan Kregel,
Bruce C. Greenwald,
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou,
Lakshman Achuthan,
Warren Mosler,
Stephanie Kelton,
Bill Mitchell, and
Pavlina R. Tcherneva.
Endowment
Bard has access to multiple, distinct endowments. Bard, along with
Central European University, is a founding member of the
Open Society University Network, endowed with $1 billion from philanthropist
George Soros, which is a network of universities to operate throughout the world to better prepare students for current and future global challenges through integrated teaching and research. Bard maintains its own endowment of approximately $412 million. In July 2020, Bard received a gift of $100 million from the
Open Society Foundations, which will dispense $10 million yearly over a period of ten years. In April 2021, Bard received a $500 million endowment challenge grant from George Soros. Once matched, on a five-year timeline, Bard will have an endowment of more than $1 billion.
Programs, centers, and associated institutes
Bard has developed several graduate programs and research institutes, including the
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, the
Levy Economics Institute which began offering a Masters of Science in Economic Theory and Policy in 2014, the
Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, the
Bard College Conservatory of Music, the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies in Manhattan, the Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT), the
Bard College Clemente Program, and the
Bard Graduate Center in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
.

In 1990, Bard College acquired, on permanent loan, art collector Marieluise Hessel's substantial collection of important contemporary artwork. In 2006, Hessel contributed another $8 million (USD) for the construction of a 17,000-square-foot addition to Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies building, in which the collection is exhibited.
The
Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) provides a liberal arts degree to incarcerated individuals (
prison education) in five prisons in New York State, and enrolls nearly 200 students.
Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1994, BPI is one of only a small number of programs of its kind in the country.
Bard awards the Bard Fiction Prize annually to "a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application". The prize is $30,000 and an appointment as writer-in-residence at the college.
The
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century.
Her work ...
Center for Politics and Humanities is located at Bard College. The center hosts an annual public conference, offers courses, runs various related academic programs, and houses research fellows.
In February 2009, Bard announced the first dual degree program between a
Palestinian university and an American institution of higher education. The college entered into a collaboration with
Al-Quds University involving an honors college, a master's program in teaching and a model high school.
In accordance with AlQuds-Bard requirements, students are not allowed to decide their major during the first year of their studies; instead, as a liberal arts college, students are advised to diverge in different classes that would allow them to decide what program they would like to take interest in as in the following year. Students are encouraged to look upon different classes to help them decide the subject they would mostly enjoy studying. Bard gives students the opportunity to dissect different programs before committing to a specific major. As a policy, throughout a student's undergraduate years, they must distribute their credits among different courses so that they can liberally experience the different courses Bard has to offer.
In June 2011, Bard officially acquired the
Longy School of Music in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, and in November 2011, Bard took ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany, to become
Bard College Berlin.
In 2013, Bard entered into a comprehensive agreement with
Soochow University in
Suzhou
Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce.
Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...
, China, that will include a joint program between the
Soochow University School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, exploration leading to the establishment of The Bard College Liberal Arts Academy at Soochow University, and student exchange.
In 2020, Bard announced that through the new Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Advanced Achievement Scholars program the college will offer admission to high school juniors within 120 miles from the college based on an essay process based on the popular Bard Entrance Exam, first launched in 2013.
Student life
Over 120 student clubs are financed through Bard's Convocation Fund, which is distributed once a semester by an elected student body and ratified during a public forum. Bard College has one print newspaper, the ''
Bard Free Press'', which was awarded a Best in Show title by the
Associated Collegiate Press in 2013. In 2003, the ''Bard Free Press'' won Best Campus Publication in ''
SPIN Magazine
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps as ''SPIN'') is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. ...
's ''first annual Campus Awards. Student-run literary magazines include the semiannual ''Lux, The Moderator,'' and ''Sui Generis'', a journal of translations and of original poetry in languages other than English. ''The Draft'', a human rights journal, the ''Bard Journal of the Social Sciences,'' ''Bard Science Journal'', and ''Qualia'', a philosophy journal, are also student-published.
Other student groups include: the International Students Organization (ISO), Afropulse, Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Caribbean Student Association (CSA), Asian Student Organization (ASO), Bard Musical Theatre Company (BMTC), Black Student Organization (BSO), Anti-Capitalism Feminist Coalition, Body Image Discussion Group, Self-Injury Support and Discussion, Bard Film Committee, Queer Student Association, Trans Life Collective, The Scale Project, Student Labor Dialogue, Bard Debate Union, Bard Model UN, Surrealist Training Circus, Bard Bike Co-Op, Bard Bars, Bard POC Theater Ensemble, and
college radio station WXBC. WXBC was founded in 1947. In 2006, WXBC was nominated for "Station of the Year" and "Biggest Improvement" in the
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...
College Radio Awards.
Bard also has an independent music scene. The college's Old Gym was once a popular location for concerts and parties in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2004, the Old Gym was shut down and in spring 2006 transformed into a student-run theater. Many activities that once took place there, occur in the smaller SMOG building. SMOG is primarily used as a music venue featuring student-run bands.
Athletics

Bard College teams (nicknamed the ''Raptors'') participate as a member of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
's
Division III. The Raptors are a member of the
Liberty League. Prior conference affiliations include the
Skyline Conference and the former Hudson Valley Athletic Conference. Women's sports include
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
cross country,
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...
,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
&
diving,
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
,
track & field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...
,
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
and
squash. Men's sports include
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
, basketball, cross country, soccer, squash, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.
Bard College Rugby Football Club fields men's and women's teams that compete in the Tristate Conference, affiliated with
National Collegiate Rugby. Additional
club sports include:
ultimate frisbee,
fencing
Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
, and
equestrian.
Alumni and faculty
Notable alumni
Notable alumni of Bard include fraternal songwriters
Richard M. Sherman and
Robert B. Sherman, comedian and actor
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
(1968);
Walter Becker and
Donald Fagen of
Steely Dan (1969);
actors
Blythe Danner (1965),
Adrian Grenier,
Gaby Hoffmann
Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She made her film debut in ''Field of Dreams'' (1989) and found success as a child actress in ''Uncle Buck'' (1989 ...
,
Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' and gained further recogn ...
(did not graduate)
Jonah Hill (did not graduate),
Ezra Miller (did not graduate),
Griffin Gluck (did not graduate) and
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman (September 21, 1931 – November 23, 2012) was an American actor, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera ''Dallas'', and the handsome astronaut Major Anthon ...
(did not graduate); filmmakers
Gia Coppola,
Todd Haynes (MFA),
Sadie Bennings (MFA), and
Lana Wachowski (did not graduate); photographer
Herb Ritts; actor and director
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born 5 February 1948), known professionally as Christopher Guest, is a British-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy ...
; songwriter
Billy Steinberg; theater director
Anne Bogart; screenwriter
Howard E. Koch; writer
David Cote; comedians
Adam Conoverand
Raphael Bob-Waksberg; fashion designer
Tom Ford (did not graduate), classical composer
Bruce Wolosoff; journalist
Ronan Farrow; writer and social theorist
Albert Jay Nock;
Adam Yauch of the
Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...
(did not graduate); and artists
Tschabalala Self,
and
Frances Bean Cobain (did not graduate).
File:Jonah Hill-4939 (cropped) (cropped).jpg, Jonah Hill, Actor (did not graduate)
File:Tom Ford cropped 2009.jpg, Tom Ford, Designer (did not graduate)
File:Becker & Fagen of Steely Dan at Pori Jazz 2007.jpg, Steely Dan, Rock Band (1969)
File:Chevy Chase at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.JPG, Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
, Actor (1968)
File:Ezra Miller by Gage Skidmore.jpg, Ezra Miller, actor (did not graduate)
File:Raphael Bob-Waksberg (51987861655).jpg, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, writer and producer (2006)
File:Lana Wachowski, Fantastic Fest, Cloud Atlas.jpg, Lana Wachowski, director and producer (did not graduate)
File:Gia Coppola 2016.png, Gia Coppola, director (2009)
File:Pulitzer2018-mia-farrow-20180530-wp.jpg, Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' and gained further recogn ...
, actress (did not graduate)
File:Adam Yauch crop.jpg, Adam Yauch, rapper (did not graduate)
Notable faculty
Among the college's most well-known former faculty are
Toni Morrison,
Heinrich Blücher,
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century.
Her work ...
,
Mary McCarthy,
Arthur Penn,
Nathan Thrall,
Vik Muniz,
Mitch Epstein,
Larry Fink,
John Ashbery,
Richard Teitelbaum,
Mary Lee Settle (part time),
Andre Aciman,
Orhan Pamuk,
Chinua Achebe,
Charles Burnett,
Bill T. Jones
William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), is an American Choreography, choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. J ...
, and
Alexander Soros. Notable current faculty, include
Stephen Shore,
An-My Lê,
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
,
Jeffrey Gibson Gilles Peress,
John Ryle,
Tan Dun,
Walid Raad,
Daniel Mendelsohn,
Thomas Chatterton Williams,
Hua Hsu,
Kobena Mercer,
Joseph O’Neill,
Ian Buruma,
Judy Pfaff
Judy Pfaff (born 1946) is an American artist known mainly for installation art and sculptures, though she also produces paintings and prints. Pfaff has received numerous awards for her work, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda ...
,
Joan Tower,
Walter Russell Mead,
Nayland Blake,
Nuruddin Farah,
Mona Simpson,
Sky Hopinka (MFA Faculty),
Masha Gessen (visiting writer),
Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalism, minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working class, working-class characters in small ...
(artist in residence),
Francine Prose (writer in residence),
Susan Weber,
Lauren Cornell,
Ann Lauterbach,
Valeria Luiselli, and
Tschabalala Self (visiting artist in residence).
File:Toni Morrison.jpg, Toni Morrison, novelist
File:Hannah Arendt auf dem 1. Kulturkritikerkongress, Barbara Niggl Radloff, FM-2019-1-5-9-16 (cropped).jpg, Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century.
Her work ...
, philosopher
File:Roy Lichtenstein.jpg, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...
, artist
File:Visita - Artista Plástico Vik Muniz (53515588190) (cropped).jpg, Vik Muniz, artist
File:John Ashbery Brooklyn Poet 2010 Shankbone.jpg, John Ashbery, poet
File:Stephen Shore at CO Berlin, 2016.jpg, Stephen Shore, photographer
File:Kyle-cassidy-neil-gaiman-April-2013.jpg, Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
, writer
File:3Nuruddin Farah.jpg, Nuruddin Farah, novelist
File:Jeffrey Gibson at Hirshhorn 2024.jpg, Jeffrey Gibson, artist
File:Masha Gessen 01a.jpg, Masha Gessen, Journalist
References
External links
*
Athletics website
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