Newsmakers

Simi Stone ’24, Bard College alumna, artist, and musician, published a piece in Hudson Valley One about becoming a painter. Stone, who was a studio arts major while at Bard, recounts how her artistic journey has evolved throughout her life, from when she was a child drawing florals on her belongings to working during her MFA at Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, from which she graduated this year. Throughout it all, she has returned to a consistent theme of nature inspired by her hometown of Woodstock. Drawing from personal and collective histories, her work transforms memory, grief, and resilience into immersive visual narratives where flowers, landscapes, and gestures become portals to the spirit. “Like many Woodstock artists, I process all aspects of my life through making art through painting, music, the written word, or whatever other medium,” Stone writes. “The outcomes may be unique, but they stem from one family, a single electron.”

The Studio Arts Program at Bard provides a breadth of expanded offerings while retaining a strong core of courses that provide a firm grounding in basic techniques and principles, in an era when much contemporary art cannot be contained within the traditional categories and technology is transforming the production of visual images.

Jacinta Creel Vallejo ’24, a Bard alumna who majored in physics and philosophy, has been accepted to the University of Edinburgh for an MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences. She has also received the Higgs Scholarship, awarded by the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy on the basis of academic merit. Creel Vallejo, who developed an interest in the field while working on her Bard SPROJ project with physicist Clara Sousa Silva, chose Edinburgh for its interdisciplinary approach. Creel Vallejo is particularly interested in how scientists can infer life on distant worlds from inherently incomplete data. “My ambition is to investigate the limits of biosignature detection by combining observational modelling with laboratory simulation of abiotic false positives, sharpening the criteria by which a detection claim can be trusted,” she said. 

The Bard Physics Program is dedicated to helping students at all levels gain a better understanding of the universe and how it works.

In a recent episode of Spectrum News NY1's You Decide, veteran journalist Errol Louis sat down with Bard Prison Initiative graduate Allen Porter ’26, whose double murder conviction was vacated after he spent more than three decades in prison, all while maintaining his innocence, to discuss his fight for justice, the role education played during his incarceration, and the challenges of rebuilding life after incarceration.
 
Porter earned his Bard degree while incarcerated through the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), a nationally recognized program that provides rigorous college education in prisons. During the interview, Porter reflected on maintaining hope throughout decades of wrongful imprisonment, the impact of earning a liberal arts education while incarcerated, and the challenges and opportunities that have accompanied his return home.
 
“Walking across the stage to get my Bard College diploma was an incredibly meaningful and emotional moment that I dreamed about throughout my time in prison, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Bard Prison Initiative,” said Porter. “This program gave me the unique opportunity to transform my life through the power of a liberal arts degree. I’m excited for where my education will take me now that I’m free.”
 
 

George Ball ’73, Bard alumnus and chairman of the seed and plant company Burpee, was interviewed by Forbes magazine about his company’s seed collections in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Burpee was founded 100 years after the founding of the US, and its annual seed catalog and mail order business reach thousands of customers each year. Inspired by the gardens of Thomas Jefferson and Martha Washington and including seed varieties from the time of the American Revolution, the collection represents the country’s history as well as the history of gardening in the US.

The business aims, in Ball’s words, to “help the plants [and] the gardeners thrive.” In addition to sales, Burpee promotes learning about gardening and plant research through grant initiatives. In 2024, Bard received a $1 million grant from the Burpee Foundation for the construction of a trial garden at Bard’s Montgomery Place campus to revitalize historic lawn beds and engage students in horticultural research. Now, on America’s 250th, Ball thinks their mission to popularize gardening is more important than ever: “One of the most patriotic things you can do is plant a garden,” he said.