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Directed, filmed, and edited by Masha Zabara '21
Thanks from Bard
Directed, filmed, and edited by Masha Zabara ’21
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Your Gift Supports:
100% of Students
100% of Faculty and Staff
100% of Classrooms
100% of Facilities
Photo by Chris Kayden
Faculty at the Top of Their Fields
Members of the Bard faculty inspire our students in the classroom. They are thought leaders investigating the most critical questions in their fields. Bard faculty awards and honors have included: the French Legion of Honor, GRAMMY awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, Kennedy Center Honors, MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, the National Book Award, National Science Foundation Grants, the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prizes, Rhodes Scholarships, the Royal Society of Literature, and Tony awards.
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At Bard, students get the best of both worlds: an excellent liberal arts education and one of the finest arts schools in the country. Arts students study and work with active, distinguished professionals in their fields. All of the arts programs unite a study of craft with history, theory, and criticism. From the Frank Gehry–designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts to the László Z. Bitó '60 Conservatory Building, world-class facilities support top-level artistic training in the context of a liberal arts education.
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Bard College Fund | Financial Aid
The availability of financial support can considerably enhance the educational experiences and opportunities for many talented students who might otherwise be unable to access higher education. One way the Bard College Fund supports Bard students is through scholarships, awards, and prizes, which help enable them to pursue their academic and professional dreams without the burden of financial constraints. This aid reduces their economic pressures and fosters an environment of inclusivity and diversity within Bard's campus. Bard is continually grateful for the generous contributions from its donors, as each donation plays a significant role in sustaining Bard's successes. Every contribution, regardless of size, makes a significant difference in the lives of students.
NEWSROOM
The Fisher Center at Bard, in Partnership With the Civis Foundation, Establishes the Civis Hope Commissions, an Endowed Fund That Will Support New Performing Arts Works Exploring the Subject Of Hope
The first three commissions bring together outstanding contemporary artists who will respond to artworks from the past and develop three timely stories of young women who dare to challenge the status quo.
The Fisher Center at Bard, in Partnership With the Civis Foundation, Establishes the Civis Hope Commissions, an Endowed Fund That Will Support New Performing Arts Works Exploring the Subject Of Hope
The Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College. Photo by Peter Aaron ’68/Esto
Projects supported by the Civis Hope Commissions will be developed, produced, and premiered at the Fisher Center at Bard, a landmark Frank Gehry-designed performing arts center on the campus of Bard College, and will subsequently tour nationally and internationally.
The Civis Hope Commissions will be supported by a gift of $2.5 million from Civis, doubled by matching funds at Bard College to create an initial endowment for this program of $5 million. With the establishment of this Fund, Fisher Center LAB’s track record of artistic excellence and Bard College’s educational mission are united with the ideals of Civis, a foundation that supports artistic and cultural expressions investigating what it means to live amongst others.
Inaugural Commissions Announced
The Fisher Center at Bard, today, announced the first three Civis Hope Commissions, which Fisher Center LAB—the Fisher Center’s residency and commissioning program—will develop, produce, and premiere. (The LAB will also tour productions nationally and internationally, so they reach the broadest possible audiences.)These first three commissions bring together outstanding contemporary artists who will respond to artworks from the past and, in doing so, develop three timely stories of young women—Treemonisha, Catherine Holly, and Yentl—who dare to challenge the status quo. These commissions will be produced over the next three years, with announcements of dates to follow.
The first commission is Jubilee, a new musical by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog), inspired by Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. It joins the lineup of SummerScape 2025, the “hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure” (The New York Times), as a semi-staged, first-glimpse preview. Replete with dancing bears and bags of luck, and set on the day after the Emancipation Proclamation, Jubilee joyfully asks what the world might become when all people are truly free. Parks has drawn inspiration from Joplin’s 1910 ragtime opera to create a magical, hilarious, and timely fable about a young woman who leads her community out of adversity and into a new way of being. This summer’s public readings of Parks’ libretto will offer audiences a rare opportunity to engage directly with the development of a major new musical, which the Fisher Center will premiere as a full production in the near future, once a composer has been chosen to write music for the project.
The second commission is the world premiere of an opera based on Tennessee Williams’ play Suddenly Last Summer, his Southern Gothic one-act play set in the Garden District of New Orleans in 1936 that tells the dramatic story of the wealthy Venable family, and a young woman’s struggle to speak truth to power. Suddenly Last Summer is composed by MacArthur Fellow and “pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times) Courtney Bryan and directed by Tony nominee Daniel Fish (whose acclaimed Oklahoma! was commissioned and premiered at Bard SummerScape before being presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse and eventually transferring to Broadway and the West End). Fish co-writes the libretto with Fisher Center Artistic Director and Chief Executive Gideon Lester.
The third commission will give new form to a work by a second American literary legend: Isaac Bashevis Singer’s whimsical and mysterious story Yentl the Yeshiva Boy is given thrilling theatrical life in a new musical conceived by acclaimed theater and opera director Barrie Kosky and two-time Tony-winning writer playwright, performer, and author Lisa Kron. Fun Home lyricist/book-writer Kron likewise pens the book and lyrics for this new adaptation, with music composed by frequent Kosky collaborator Adam Benzwi, adapting and transforming melodies from the American and European Yiddish theater and music hall traditions, as well as the emotionally resonant canon of Hasidic choral music. Kosky, “one of the busiest and most brilliant, not to mention entertaining, directors working… today” (New York Times), stages the world premiere adaptation of Singer’s story of a teenage girl in a Polish shtetl who, in order to be true to herself, decides to live as a boy and pursue her forbidden dream of studying Torah.
More About the Civis Hope Commissions
The launch of the Hope Commissions coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the inspiring, if flawed, charter that called for an end of tyrannical monarchy, and in July 1776, declared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”This approaching anniversary offers a chance to reflect anew on the words of the Declaration, and to ask: How can we help expand the meaning of these words to apply more equitably to all people? What do we dream the US might become in its second 250 years? What does ‘hope’ mean for us now? Inspired by James Baldwin, who wrote, "To encounter oneself is to encounter the other," and “Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other," the Civis Hope Commissions will explore how we engage with others, how we embrace “the other,” as part of “we the people,” and how we retain hope for American democracy that embraces all.
“From ancient times, theater and the performing arts have always functioned as a laboratory of hope,” says Fisher Center Artistic Director and Chief Executive Gideon Lester. “Artists help us to imagine new ways of being in the world, and art can awaken our consciousness. In some of the most turbulent chapters of human history, live performance has been a vital source of hope, resistance, transformation, and joy. Thanks to the generosity of T. Eric Galloway and the Civis Foundation, generations of audiences and students will be able to explore this eternal relationship between art and hope.”
“We are profoundly grateful to Eric Galloway and Civis Arts and Letters for their visionary philanthropy,” said Leon Botstein, President of Bard. “The subject of this new program, and the generosity of its endowment, will help secure the vital role that the arts must play in highlighting the virtues, rights and privileges of a democracy by sustaining a vibrant, shared public sphere, which is the hallmark of freedom.”
“Given our commitment to advancing ‘the common good,’ Civis applauds how Bard and the Fisher Center have embraced the Hope Commissions,” said T. Eric Galloway, President of Civis. “We believe more than ever in the power of performance to activate our shared connection and to spark cross-boundary conversations that lead to personal fulfillment through, not despite, others.”
Fisher Center LAB, which develops, produces, and premieres the commissions, has established an international reputation for its new works and revivals that offer bold interpretations of documents from the past, reinventing them for the future. From Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! to SCAT!, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s dream of the Great Migration, to Pam Tanowitz’s meditation on T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and the Biblical Song of Songs, to Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury’s dance-theater adaptation of Sufjan Stevens’ album Illinoise, the Fisher Center LAB’s commissions have long reached into the past to weave compelling and urgent visions that speak to our times and face the future. The distinguished Bard Music Festival and the Fisher Center’s opera program also focus on the reexamination and reclamation of past works for contemporary audiences—creating a context-rich program across all disciplines of the performing arts on the campus of one of this country’s most prestigious liberal arts institutions.
The Civis Hope Commissions will secure this legacy for future generations, providing generous development and production support in perpetuity for Fisher Center LAB’s major artistic commissions in theater, dance, and live arts. Civis, through its collaboration with the Fisher Center, hopes to imagine and, in doing so, make a future in which all can pursue true happiness more possible.
About Civis Foundation
Civis advances the common good by supporting Arts & Letters initiatives that foster awareness of and responsibility for our interdependent future. Guided by a commitment to civic awareness and responsibility, we invest in work that aspires to demonstrate how turning encounters with the other into authentic relationships is foundational to a sustainable, just, and equitable society. We pursue our work directly and in collaboration with others whose missions align with ours.About the Fisher Center at Bard and Fisher Center LAB
The Fisher Center is a premier professional performing arts center and a hub for research and education that demonstrates Bard College’s commitment to the performing arts as a cultural and educational necessity. To support artists, students, and audiences in the examination of artistic ideas, the Fisher Center develops, produces, and presents performing arts across disciplines through new productions and context-rich programs that challenge and inspire.Home is the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry and located on the campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley. This world-class theater building will be complemented by a new studio building designed by Maya Lin, scheduled to open in 2026. More than 200 events and 50,000 visitors are hosted at the Fisher Center each year, and over 300 professional artists are employed annually. As a powerful catalyst of art-making regionally, nationally, and worldwide, the Fisher Center produces 8 to 10 major new works in various disciplines every year. The Fisher Center offers outstanding programs to many communities, including the students and faculty of Bard College, and audiences in the Hudson Valley, New York City, across the country, and around the world. Building on a 165-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders.
Through Fisher Center LAB, the Center’s acclaimed residency and commissioning program, artists are provided with custom-made support toward their innovative projects, and their work has been seen in over 100 communities around the world. Resident choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s 2018 Four Quartets was recognized as “the most important work of dance theater so far this century” by The New York Times. In 2019, the Fisher Center won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for Daniel Fish’s production of Oklahoma!, which began life in 2007 as an undergraduate production at Bard and was produced professionally by the Fisher Center in 2015 before transferring to New York City. Illinoise, a 2023 Fisher Center world premiere from artists Sufjan Stevens, Justin Peck, and Jackie Sibblies Drury, was recognized with a Tony Award for Best Choreography following its tour and transfer to Broadway.
The Fisher Center is generously supported by Carolyn Marks Blackwood and Gregory H. Quinn, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, Felicitas S. Thorne, Andrew E. Zobler, the Advisory Board of the Fisher Center, Fisher Center members and general fund donors, the Educational Foundation of America, the Smokler/Hebert Family Fund, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Fisher Center LAB is funded by the Lucille Lortel Foundation and the Fisher Center's Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold and additional funding from The William and Lia G. Poorvu Family Foundation. The Pam Tanowitz Creation Fund is supported by the Friends of Pam with leadership gifts from an anonymous donor, Angela Bernstein CBE, and Lizbeth and George Krupp. Major development support for the Fisher Center’s Hope Commissions is received from the Fisher Center’s Hope Commissions Fund, endowed by the Civis Foundation and Bard College.
Post Date: 04-01-2025
Bard College Senior Blanche Darr ’25 Wins Prestigious Watson Travel Fellowship
“Learning to play music in a variety of settings and traditions will allow me to meet students with a wider ear for their musical vocabularies, experiences, and goals."
Bard College Senior Blanche Darr ’25 Wins Prestigious Watson Travel Fellowship
Blanche Darr ’25.
Blanche Darr ’25, an anthropology major and violinist in the Bard College Conservatory, will spend a year expanding her musical vocabulary for her Watson project, Reimagining Music-Making as a Way of Life. She will travel to Kenya, Indonesia, India, and Germany to examine barriers to music-making such as access, cost, and elitism, and, by joining international music education programs, explore ways to overcome them. “Learning to play music in a variety of settings and traditions will allow me to meet students with a wider ear for their musical vocabularies, experiences, and goals,” Darr writes in her proposal. “In the United States, music-making is something that is usually only for those with time, money, and some supposed talent. I wish to challenge this idea, looking at music-making around the world that is more participatory, improvisational, and connected to communities. I hope that this will provide me with a deeper understanding of the ways that people can make music integrated in daily life.”
A Watson Year provides fellows with an opportunity to test their aspirations and abilities through a personal project cultivated on an international scale. Watson Fellows have gone on to become leaders in their fields including CEOs of major corporations, college presidents, Emmy, Grammy and Oscar Award winners, Pulitzer Prize awardees, artists, diplomats, doctors, entrepreneurs, faculty, journalists, lawyers, politicians, researchers and inspiring influencers around the world. Following the year, they join a community of peers who provide a lifetime of support and inspiration. For more information about the Watson Fellowship, visit: https://watson.foundation.
Post Date: 03-20-2025
More News
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Bard Faculty Member Receives 2024 Project Grant from the Architectural League of New York and NYSCA
Bard Faculty Member Receives 2024 Project Grant from the Architectural League of New York and NYSCA
Betsy Clifton, lecturer in Architecture at Bard College, and Jesse McCormick, former visiting lecturer in Architecture at Bard, have received a 2024 Independent Project Grant from the Architectural League of New York and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) in support of their project, Toxic Assets, Seeing Like a Land Bank. Through an exhibition hosted in collaboration with the architecture collective Citygroup, Toxic Assets will synthesize and translate the history, activity, politics, and potential futures of land banks to an architecture-allied audience. By interrogating the role of land banks in urban development, the project illuminates how these institutions shape the built environment and contribute to larger conversations about equity, policy, and spatial justice. This research and exhibition process has also provided an opportunity for two Bard undergraduate students, Anderson Fletcher ’26 and Noah Protas ’26, to engage with the project as an independent study.L–R: Jesse McCormick, former visiting lecturer in Architecture at Bard College; Betsy Clifton, lecturer in Architecture at Bard College.
Post Date: 03-11-2025
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Bard College Hosts Annual Margaret and John Bard Society Luncheon
Bard College Hosts Annual Margaret and John Bard Society Luncheon
On Monday, December 2, Bard College Margaret and John Bard Society members, staff, and students gathered in New York City for this year’s annual luncheon. This special occasion is dedicated to honoring and celebrating our esteemed donors who have made generous contributions through their estate plans. Their commitment to Bard College’s mission through future planning is not only inspiring but instrumental in defining the experiences and opportunities Bard can offer its students. Bard is deeply appreciative of the generosity and foresight that the members of the Margaret and John Bard Society have.2024 Annual Margaret and John Bard Society Luncheon. Photo by Patrick Arias
“This special annual gathering celebrates the generous alumni/ae, family, and friends who have chosen to support Bard through planned giving. Their commitment and philanthropy play a vital role in shaping the future of Bard College, ensuring that Bard can continue to provide a transformative education for generations to come. It’s a time to connect, share stories, and inspire each other with the legacy of support helping fulfill Bard's mission,” said Vice President for Development and Alumni/ae Affairs Debra Pemstein.
Post Date: 12-10-2024
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Bard College Celebrates Student Excellence at Annual Scholarship Reception
Bard College Celebrates Student Excellence at Annual Scholarship Reception
Bard College faculty, staff, and students gathered at Blithewood Manor for this year's Annual Scholarship Reception on Monday, November 11. This annual event honors students who have excelled in their studies and contributed to academic and campus life. The evening’s awardees, who were nominated by faculty from across the four divisions of the College, represent excellence in the arts; social studies; languages and literature; and science, mathematics, and computing.2024 Annual Scholarship Reception. Photo by Karl Rabe
“We are pleased to recognize this year’s Bard Scholars, who represent the very best of what we are and what we do,” said Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Studies David Shein. “These students, who were selected by their faculty and deans in recognition of their contributions in the classroom and to the campus community, have demonstrated not only excellence in their work but deep care and commitment to that work and to the life of the College. We are proud of them and look forward to seeing what they will do next.”
Many of the named scholarships are made possible by generous contributions from Bard donors. Thank you to all supporters for believing in the value of a college education, and for investing in the future of Bard students.
Further reading:
Learn More about Postgraduate Scholarships and Fellowships through Bard's Dean of Studies Office
Learn More about Scholarships, Prizes, and Awards at Bard
Post Date: 11-15-2024
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Bard Professor Felicia Keesing Receives Award From American Society of Mammalogists
Bard Professor Felicia Keesing Receives Award From American Society of Mammalogists
Felicia Keesing, the David and Rosalie Rose Distinguished Professor of Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College, is the recipient of the 2024 C. Hart Merriam Award from the American Society of Mammalogists. The award, given to eminent scholars in recognition of outstanding research in the study of mammals over a period of at least 10 years, honors Keesing for her scholarly contributions to the fields of disease ecology and community ecology, all while keeping the role of mammals in ecological processes front and center. As recipient, Keesing is invited to address the Society in a plenary session at the 2025 annual meeting, as well as to prepare a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Mammalogy.Felicia Keesing, David and Rosalie Rose Distinguished Professor of Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College.
Post Date: 09-11-2024
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Bard Professor Antonios Kontos Awarded $351,951 Grant from the National Science Foundation
Bard Professor Antonios Kontos Awarded $351,951 Grant from the National Science Foundation
Antonios Kontos, associate professor and director of physics at Bard College, has been awarded a research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Kontos’ proposal, titled “Stray Light Control for Cosmic Explorer,” has been awarded a total of $351,951 in funding over a period of three years, which will also cover student salaries, travel, and equipment.Antonios Kontos, associate professor and director of physics at Bard College.
“Try to imagine a telescope that can hear every collision between two stars in the universe. That is what we are creating with the Cosmic Explorer detector,” said Kontos. “This award will allow students at Bard the opportunity to contribute to this remarkable project over the next three years.”
Gravitational-wave astronomy, a subfield of astronomy focusing on the detection and study of gravitational waves emitted by astrophysical sources, has now opened a new window to the universe, which—along with conventional telescopes—significantly broadens our understanding of astrophysics and cosmology. The Cosmic Explorer project is a concept for a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory in the US, which will enable the detection of nearly every black-hole collision in the observable universe. The NSF award will allow a team of scientists and engineers to produce this initial conceptual design, and to develop technologies to facilitate the eventual realization of the Cosmic Explorer. The project will be undertaken in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology, which received a separate grant for the initiative.
The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and US territories. It was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the nation’s health, prosperity and welfare, and to secure the US national defense. Its investments account for about 25% of federal support to US colleges and universities for research driven by curiosity and discovery. NSF aims to keep the US at the leading edge of discovery in science and engineering, to the benefit of all, without barriers to participation.
Post Date: 09-10-2024
Endowment Challenge
George Soros and the Open Society Foundations have pledged $500 million for Bard’s unrestricted endowment.
This pledge ranks among the largest commitments to higher education in the United States in recent memory.
The pledge has challenged Bard to raise an additional $500 million over five years for its endowment. In April 2021, the College publicly announced that the first half of that amount, $250 million, was raised from trustees, alumni/ae, and friends, all of whom have made their own pledges due to their belief in Bard’s distinctive mission.
The pledge has challenged Bard to raise an additional $500 million over five years for its endowment. In April 2021, the College publicly announced that the first half of that amount, $250 million, was raised from trustees, alumni/ae, and friends, all of whom have made their own pledges due to their belief in Bard’s distinctive mission.