Graduate Alumni/ae

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Bard College Holds One Hundred Sixty-Fifth Commencement on Saturday, May 24, 2025

Bard College will hold its one hundred sixty-fifth commencement on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Bard President Leon Botstein will confer 485 undergraduate degrees on the Class of 2025 and 192 graduate degrees, including master of fine arts; doctor and master of philosophy and master of arts in decorative arts, design history, and material culture; master of science and master of arts in economic theory and policy; master of business administration in sustainability; master of arts in teaching; master of arts in curatorial studies; master of science in environmental policy and in climate science and policy; master of music in vocal arts and in conducting; master of music in curatorial, critical, and performance studies; and master of education in environmental education. Bard will also confer 53 associate degrees from its microcolleges. The program will begin at 2:30 pm in the commencement tent on the Seth Goldfine Memorial Rugby Field.
 
The Commencement address will be given by former Prime Minister of Haiti (2008–09) and President/Founder of Fondation Connaissance et Liberté (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty, or FOKAL) Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, who is also a professor at Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Honorary degrees will be awarded to Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, lawyer Jack Arthur Blum ’62, artist and performer Justin Vivian Bond, philanthropist and art collector Maja Hoffmann, journalist and scholar Josef Joffe, photographer Cindy Sherman, and endocrinologist Yaron Tomer.

Other events taking place during Commencement Weekend include Bard College award ceremonies. The Bard Medal will be presented to Penny Axelrod ’63; the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science to Jen Gaudioso ’95; the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters to Lisa Kereszi ’95; the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service to Angela Edman ’03; the Mary McCarthy Award to Joy Harjo; the László Z. Bitó ’60 Award for Humanitarian Service to Sasha Skochilenko ’17 and Bo Bo Nge ’04; and Bardian Awards to Peter Filkins, Mark Halsey, Peter Laki, Bradford Morrow, and Melanie Nicholson.

ABOUT THE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis was the prime minister of Haiti from 2008–09. Upon leaving office, she returned to the foundation she created in 1995, Fondation Connaissance et Liberté (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty, or FOKAL). She is FOKAL’s president, coordinating special projects in sustainable development and higher education. Pierre-Louis is also a professor at Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Queens College in New York, and honorary doctorates from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont and the University of San Francisco. In 2010, she was a resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Pierre-Louis has contributed to several books and publications about Haiti, and she is a founding member of the Haitian/Caribbean review magazine Chemins Critiques, in which she has published articles on politics, gender, economics, arts, and culture. She is board chair of Haiti’s prominent cultural institution Le Centre d’art, a position she also holds with the Centre de Promotion de la Femme Ouvrière and Caribbean Culture Fund. Among numerous other awards, she is the 2023 recipient of the French Legion of Honor.

Post Date: 05-01-2025

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CCS Bard Announces Lauren Cornell as Artistic Director and Mariano López Seoane as Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) announces the evolution of its leadership team through two appointments that further advance the institution’s role as a leading incubator for ideas in the curatorial field. Lauren Cornell, who has served as Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator since 2017, will assume the new role of Artistic Director, and Argentinian scholar and curator Mariano López Seoane will take the helm of CCS Bard’s renowned graduate program in curatorial studies, becoming Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art, a role made possible through a strategic partnership and core support from the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).

The transition takes place as CCS Bard prepares to open a major expansion of its library and archives, the Keith Haring Wing, which will significantly increase the Center’s capacity for research and teaching, as well as the accessibility of its collections.

“We are excited to welcome Mariano López Seoane as the new Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art, and for Lauren Cornell to assume the position of Artistic Director while remaining an important voice among our distinguished faculty,” said CCS Bard Executive Director Tom Eccles. “The synergy of the graduate program and Hessel Museum of Art, alongside our library and archives, make the Center for Curatorial Studies a uniquely dynamic art institution. These new positions will enhance and expand our programmatic capacities and core teaching mission.”

In her tenure as Director of the Graduate Program, Cornell has significantly broadened the scope of its curriculum and programming, and expanded the faculty to better reflect the complexities of the global art field, developing strategic partnerships with organizations such as Forge Project, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), and departments across the College, all of which have offered new areas of curricular innovation and pathways for graduate students. She has overseen the education of over 100 early-career curators who are now contributing to the international curatorial field.

As Chief Curator, she developed an innovative curatorial program at CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art, organizing career-defining surveys of Sky Hopinka, Martine Syms, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Dara Birnbaum, Nil Yalter (with Museum Ludwig, Cologne), Leidy Churchman, Erika Verzutti, and, with CCS Bard Executive Director Tom Eccles, Ho Tzu Nyen. Cornell also facilitated the development of touchstone exhibitions such as Black Melancholia, curated by Nana Adusei-Poku, and Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969, curated by Candice Hopkins, among other projects.

In her new role, Cornell will continue to oversee and enhance the Hessel Museum of Art’s program while seeking to grow its base of support and financial capacity, refining its acquisitions strategy, and working to further enhance its presence and reputation as a dynamic destination for contemporary art. In addition, she will continue her active role on the CCS Bard faculty, teaching courses within the graduate program.

López Seoane has been a member of the CCS Bard faculty since 2023. He currently leads the ISLAA Artist Seminar, an annual, research-intensive course that results in a student-curated exhibition drawing from the ISLAA archives and collections in New York, part of an institutional partnership designed to elevate Latin American art within the curatorial field.

ISLAA and CCS Bard’s ongoing collaboration has fostered new opportunities for graduate students to engage directly with Latin American artists, archives, and exhibition-making. The new ISLAA Fellowship position builds on ISLAA’s decade-long commitment to educational partnerships. Founded in 2011, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art supports advanced research, exhibitions, and publications on Latin American art in partnership with leading academic and cultural institutions. López Seoane will continue to teach the ISLAA Artist Seminar, among other courses, while overseeing all aspects of the CCS Bard graduate program.

López Seoane’s appointment affirms CCS Bard’s commitment to innovation and experimentation in curatorial practice, and a curricular emphasis on advancing global art histories. He earned his PhD from New York University, where he was also a visiting assistant professor, and has previously worked as a professor and curator in Buenos Aires and New York. His career has been defined by a deep engagement with cultural production, contemporary aesthetics, and critical theory in a global context. This can be seen in his extensive teaching experience, curatorial projects, and his published scholarship.

As director of the MA program on Gender Studies and Policies at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Buenos Aires, López Seoane led a graduate-level curriculum that bridged the humanities, social sciences, and contemporary culture. His prior teaching and curatorial experience have spanned multiple universities and major cultural institutions, including Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Università Roma Tre, Cultural Centre La Nau in Valencia, and MUNTREF Centro de Arte Contemporáneo.

The appointment of López Seoane as Director of the Graduate Program and ISLAA Fellow in Latin American Art is made possible through the generous support of ISLAA, whose collaboration has deeply enriched CCS Bard’s academic and curatorial programs. With the new ISLAA Fellowship, this collaboration will have even greater reach and impact.

Post Date: 04-23-2025