Bard College - Programs and Associated Institutes

Programs and Associated Institutes

Bard has developed several innovative graduate programs and research institutes, including the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, the Levy Economics Institute, 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. The college's Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts was designed by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, and was completed in the spring of 2003.

The Bard Prison Initiative provides a liberal arts degree to incarcerated individuals (Prison education) in five different prisons in New York State, and currently enrolls nearly 200 students. Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1994, the BPI is one of only a small number of programs in the country of its kind.

Bard College is also affiliated with Bard College at Simon's Rock, the nation's oldest and most prestigious early college entrance program; Bard High School Early College, which has campuses in Manhattan, Queens, and Newark; as well as Bard Center for Environmental Policy. Bard also helped construct a curriculum for Smolny College, Russia's first liberal arts college, with St. Petersburg State University. Additionally, the college hosts the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) Program in New York City, which is focused on the specialized study of human rights law, international relations ethics, civil society, humanitarian action, and global political economy. Students attend seminar classes in the evenings and work at a substantive international affairs internship during the day. BGIA publishes BardPolitik, a semiannual international affairs journal featuring contributions for students and academics.

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 masters program in teaching and a model high school.

Recently, Bard College acquired, on permanent loan, art collector Marieluise Hessel's substantial collection of important contemporary artwork. Hessel also contributed $8 million (USD) for the construction of a new wing at Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies building, in which the collection is exhibited.

In March 2010, Bard established an official partnership with American University of Central Asia located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The partnership will allow students of American Studies, Anthropology, Economics, European Studies, International and Comparative Politics, Journalism and Mass Communications, Psychology, Sociology and Software Engineering programs to receive liberal arts degrees fully accredited in the US.

In June 2011, Bard officially acquired the Longy School of Music and in November 2011, Bard took ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin, Germany.