Newsmakers

The 2026 Venice Biennale, the renowned international cultural exhibition, will feature works by Bard faculty members and Center for Curatorial Studies alumnae. Walid Raad, professor of photography at Bard, is featured in the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, and will also participate in two mixed media installations in the Arsenale and in the Giardini, Postscript to the Arabic Edition and Far from quieting. Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard, and Ruba Katrib CCS ’07 are cocurators of the show Untitled (a gathering of remarkable people) in the National Pavilion of Qatar in the Giardini. Additionally, Josefina Barcia CCS ’24 is curating the Argentine Pavilion, Do Tuong Linh CCS ’25 is curating the Vietnamese Pavilion, and Dermis León CCS ’01 is cocurating the Chilean Pavilion.

The Venice Biennale is an international arts and cultural exhibition which has been hosted every two years in Venice, Italy, since 1895. Its 61st International Art Exhibition, Biennale Arte 2026, runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026.

Two Bard College seniors, Celeste Connell ’26 and Peter Fields ’26, and Bard alum Coulson Matto ’25, have received full scholarships to the Classics graduate program at University of Colorado Boulder. All three scholarships include full tuition, as well as stipends for teaching assistantships. “As well as being academically successful, all three have been fantastic student leaders in the Classics program,” said Lauren Curtis, associate professor of Classics at Bard. “Between them they have worked as tutors, organized program events, participated in faculty searches, and more. I couldn't imagine better ambassadors for Bard.” 

Connell’s area of interest lies in ancient literature's portrayals of social interaction, particularly in subjects like friendship, performance, education, exile, and alienation, with a focus on connecting Greco-Roman literature with other literary traditions. “Fully funded MA programs in the humanities are incredibly rare. Especially at a time like this, when many programs are drastically cutting funding due to federal pressure, I'm grateful beyond words to study at the exceptional program offered by CU Boulder, where Classics is thriving,” said Connell. 

Fields’ historical work on the notion of “Romanness” takes him into modern European intellectual history. He is pursuing his masters in Classics in the Latin language track, but is interested in studying ancient ethnography and the Roman imperial period. “I’m grateful to all of Bard’s Classics faculty for getting me to where I am today and excited to continue studying what I am so passionate about,” said Fields. 

Matto, who currently works as a Latin teacher in New York City, focuses on ancient gender and sexuality studies, and looks forward to learning more archaeology-influenced methodology at Boulder to inform the strong literary training received from Bard. “It's deeply meaningful to me to be accepted into this program,” said Matto. “Last year I also attempted to go through the graduate school admissions process, but hit a number of roadblocks because of federal budget cuts and program closures. It is immensely satisfying—and exciting!—to see two years of work pay off. I'm also very grateful to all of my advisors at Bard who helped me work within these circumstances and truly put so much effort into my success.” 

Bard’s Classical Studies Program seeks to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and visual and material cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world. The program approaches these ancient societies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including linguistics, art history, archaeology, anthropology, and philosophy, while also considering the long and complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome in art, language, politics, and culture from antiquity to the present day.

Two Bard College alumnae, MAT Alva Rogers ’12 and Sadie Wechsler ’07, have been awarded 2026 Guggenheim Fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Rogers was awarded as a fellow in Drama and Performance Art, and Wechsler was awarded as a fellow in the field of Photography. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants, 2026 Guggenheim fellows were tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise, and each receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under the freest possible conditions. Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, wrote that this “new class of Guggenheim Fellows is representative of the world’s best thinkers, innovators, and creators in art, science, and scholarship,” adding that the Foundation is “honored to support their visionary contributions.” 

MAT Alva Rogers ’12 is a dramatist, vocalist, puppeteer, and founder of Alva Puppet Theater. She creates theatrical work that fearlessly addresses the often hidden, unacknowledged emotional and physical labor of people of color, particularly women. Rogers’ work has been presented on stages including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, Seattle Repertory Theater, Actor’s Express Theater, The O’ Neill Puppetry Conference and others; exhibited in selected museums and festivals including the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, The New Museum and the Spoleto Festival, USA. She has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jim Henson Foundation, Meet the Composer, and received fellowships in performance and playwriting from The New York Foundation for the Arts and a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award.
  
Sadie Wechsler ’07 is an artist working primarily with photography. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and was included in Format Festival England and Beijing and Out of Sight Seattle. She has been included in group shows at SAD gallery, Johalla Gallery, Aperture Gallery, Belfast School of Art, Photoville, and Newspace Center for Photography, and has had solo shows at DeSoto Gallery and Gallery 4Culture. Wechsler has received the smArt Ventures Grant from the City of Seattle, Arts3C, and Make Learn Build Grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. She has been an artist in residence at PLAYA at Summer Lake, Anderson Ranch Art Center, the Arctic Circle Expedition, and the USCG Healy. Her work can be found in the collections of the Yale University Library, the Hammer Art Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Frye Art Museum, and the King County Portable Collection.