Newsmakers

Ahead of their first solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Carolyn Lazard ’10 spoke with Frieze about their work and how they incorporate Blackness, queerness, disability, and collectivity into their aesthetic. A cofounder of the art collective Canaries, “a network of women and gender non-conforming people living and working with autoimmune conditions and other chronic illnesses,” Lazard sometimes feels uncomfortable with the idea of individuation, of focusing on one artist over another. “The truth is that my work comes out of a long lineage of Black, disabled, and queer people making art,” they say. “My practice doesn’t exist in a vacuum: it is made in relation to the work of other artists who have come before me, and those whose work I learn about day to day.” 
 
Lazard’s work, which spans different mediums, progressed from a love of avant-garde cinema, which they first came into contact with at Bard. Recently, Lazard has experimented with providing multiple ways of presenting a single artwork, both visual and non-visual. “Access has this capacity to break through the boundaries of medium, because of the way it makes art necessarily iterative,” they say. “Through access, a single artwork might exist as a description, as a notation, as sign language, as a transcript or as a tactile object—depending on what people need.” Still, though these categories inform their work, they are resistant to the market trends which seek to define artists, especially Black artists, by a singular trait or identity. “Most museums seem committed to receiving Black art, Black aesthetics, and Black politics—provided it’s on the museum’s terms,” they say. “It’s a complex time to be a Black artist, but when has it not been?”
 
Read More in Frieze
 
Learn More about Carolyn Lazard: Long Take

Translating Caroline Shaw’s “Partita for 8 Voices” for the stage, Justin Peck collaborated with Shaw and Eva LeWitt ’07 to create Partita, a new ballet for the New York City Ballet. While developing Partita, Peck discovered Sol LeWitt, Eva’s father, was an inspiration for the original score, which led him to her work, which he described as having “a dimensionality and theatricality” integral to this new adaptation. For LeWitt, the ballet spoke to her sense of her own work, especially her use of gravity. “That’s so linked to dance, to humans moving through space, and to the voice too,” LeWitt says. “Those gravitational universes are important to all our art forms.” Partita, performed by eight dancers in sneakers, featured set design by LeWitt, whose “vibrantly colored hanging fabric sets” served as the backdrop for the ballet when it premiered January 27, 2022.
 
Full Story in the New York Times

After posting a weekly food plan for low-income families to Instagram in connection with her work to ease food insecurity, Claire Phelan ’11 connected with fellow chef Shana Maldonado. The two have gone on to create Sobremesa, a pop-up community table that serves seasonal six-course dinners in Buffalo, New York, as reported in Buffalo Spree. The concept for Sobremesa was to encourage connection, says Phelan, an alumna of the Human Rights Program at Bard. “Sobremesa has two goals—serve up beautiful, delicious, and unusual small plates and help people connect,” Phelan says. “People open up over shared meals in a different, intimate way, and we’re very invested in encouraging these conversations.” Alongside Maldonado, Phelan hopes to continue to offer community-focused meals and events, with plans for a pay-what-you-can brunch and cooking lessons in the works.
 
Full Story on Buffalo Spree

Multiple Bard faculty members, both former and present, as well as several alumni/ae will be featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Works by Rindon Johnson MFA ’18, Duane Linklater MFA ’13, and Jon Wang MFA ’19 will be featured alongside those by current and former faculty Nayland Blake ’82, Raven Chacon, Dave McKenzie, Adam Pendleton, and Lucy Raven MFA ’08. David Breslin, co-organizer of this edition of the Biennial, spoke with the New York Times about the curation of work that spoke to the social and political conflict that has taken place since the last Biennial in 2019. “Our hope is that this show permits a taking stock, a way of seeing what we’re maybe not at the end of, but in the middle of,” Breslin says, “and how art can help make sense of our times.” Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept will open on April 6, 2022 and will run through September 5, 2022. This year marks the 80th edition of the exhibition, the longest-running of its kind.

Full Story in the New York Times
Read More on whitney.org

Photojournalist, documentarian, and activist Steve Schapiro ’55, who died on January 15, 2022, leaves behind a body of work that began with his capturing of the civil rights movement and continued through the current political era. “Over a six-decade career, Mr. Schapiro trained his camera’s eye on an astonishing array of people across the American landscape as he sought to capture the emotional heart of his subjects,” writes Katharine Q. Seelye in a remembrance of Schapiro for the New York Times. His work, which has been featured in magazines and museums alike, focused on a diversity of subjects, from movie stars to migrant workers. His photographs of James Baldwin’s 1963 tour of the South illustrated later editions of The Fire Next Time. After his death was announced, tributes to Shapiro poured out online, including remembrances from Barbra Streisand and Ava DuVernay. He graduated from Bard in 1955 with a degree in literature. He was a transfer student to Bard, which he found “more suitable for free spirits like himself.”
 
Full Story in the New York Times

Opus 40, the 57-acre sculpture park created by the late Harvey Fite ’30, former Bard professor and alumnus, will begin 2022 with a combined $650,000 in grant awards. With these new grants, Caroline Crumpacker, executive director of Opus 40, has prioritized preserving the park and ensuring its success. The upkeep of Opus 40 would not be possible without this grant money, says Jonathan Becker, Opus 40 board president and Bard executive vice president, vice president for academic affairs, and director of the Center for Civic Engagement. "The (Mellon) Foundation’s grant, combined with the National Parks Service/Save America’s Treasures grant announced in September, will allow for a truly historic conservation effort and will secure the preservation of Fite’s sculpture for generations to come,” Becker said in a statement.

Full Story in the Times Herald-Record

Selected by actress Tilda Swinton, artist Cao Fei, and architect David Adjaye, Marie Schleef ’14 was named one of 10 recipients of the first Chanel Next Prize. The biennial prize awards Schleef with €100,000, devoted to a project of her choosing. Schleef’s work as a theater director and multimedia artist centers the female experience and challenges notions of the male gaze. Yana Peel, Chanel’s global head of arts and culture, said in a statement: “We extend Chanel’s deep history of cultural commitment—empowering big ideas and creating opportunities for an emerging generation of artists to imagine the next.” Also included with the prize is access to a network of mentors over the course of the next 20 months.
 
Full Story on ARTnews

Bard alumnus Bartek Starodaj ’12 MS ’12 was tapped by the city of Kingston, New York, as the new director of housing initiatives, as reported in the Daily Freeman. Starodaj, who lives in Kingston, will be tasked with implementing the Tiny Home Project and a citywide rezoning project, among other responsibilities. “As the new housing director,” Starodaj says, “I look forward to leading a collaborative coalition of residents, activists, and government officials to synergize short- and long-term housing efforts across our great city.”

Full Story in the Daily Freeman

Inspired in equal parts by the pandemic, his grandmother, and Julie and Julia, Bard conservatory alumnus ​​Barrett Radziun MM ’13 found sweet fame on Instagram with his account @thetenorchef, writes the Star Tribune. While a graduate student at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Radziun started baking for his fellow musicians, only to turn the passion into a side business. Now a performer and professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce, when his classes went online, he set about baking every recipe in Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person, documenting his progress on Instagram. “I think part of the reason people have been interested is that because, just like when I found the Bon Appetit channel, it’s beautiful and it feels really positive and uplifting," Radziun says. "I hear from people and they'll say ‘I just wanted to let you know that your posts have been a really bright spot in my life.’”

Full Story in the Star Tribune

The Posse Foundation profiled Tareian King ’16, alumna of the Human Rights Program and Posse Scholar, speaking with her about her work with law firm Geni and Kebe in Senegal. While completing her JD at Pace University, King worked for the Open Society Foundations, DLA Piper, the Mission of Senegal to the United Nations. For King, her new role represents the culmination of her ambitions. “Traveling outside of America felt like a dream prior to attending Bard,” King says. “The Posse Foundation provided me with a summer stipend to intern at the Legal Resources Center in Johannesburg, South Africa. That was my first time in Africa, and it happened because of Posse.”

Full Profile on possefoundation.org

Reading a novel by a river is a peace Amanie Issa ’18 does not take for granted. After graduating from Al-Quds Bard College, Issa was awarded a scholarship to study international human rights law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in NUI Galway. After witnessing upheaval and trauma firsthand, her time in Ireland has felt like a reprieve. Now working remotely as a legal consultant focusing on women’s economic and social development for the World Bank, she hopes to stay in Galway to pursue a doctoral degree. Still, even with her newfound sense of comfort, Issa can’t help but keep her fellow Palestinians in mind. “I’ve had that feeling of peace that others are yearning for while their school is demolished or they’re kicked out of their house,” Issa says. “Every person in the world deserves to have that feeling.”

Full Story in the Irish Times

Art icon and powerhouse DJ Huxtable talks about process, representation, internet culture, and the future of nightlife in New York City.

BPI alumnus Jule Hall spoke powerfully about college behind bars during the Race and Justice Summit at the Atlantic Festival in Washington, D.C.

Poet Layli Long Soldier reflects on the relatively unknown official apology issued to indigenous people on behalf of the U.S. government in 2009.

Exhibitions of Sacabo’s Tagged series of photogravure prints open in Atlanta and New Orleans later this month.

As an English-language tutor in Beijing, Elia uses articles and images in the Times to deepen conversation skills, improve listening, and develop vocabulary and grammar.

Cashel, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease at age 7, is founder of Suffering the Silence, a nonprofit dedicated to overcoming the stigma of chronic illness.

When trans people transition, their voices often don't. Kawitzky and other NYU researchers are looking into how to change that.

Susso, a West African émigré, teaches at the International Community High School in the Bronx. He is the first NYC teacher to receive the award in 23 years.

Raphael Bob-Waksberg ’06 and cocreator Lisa Hanawalt talk about the origin story of their “depressingly good” animated series.

Moscoso, currently senior curator at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, will head the curatorial team for the UK’s largest contemporary arts festival.

Morley, whose “Brent, Bandit King” is narrated by a computer program known as the Facilitator, talks about AI, the gaming world, and his story’s path to publication.

Dalia Najjar ’14, general manager of Palestine-based Farouk Systems, has secured a $1 million agricultural grant for local producers/farmers to expand regional sourcing.

The Bard alum shares photographs from her summer on the road, taken in between shoots for two new movies and shows with her band.

As a Bard student, Letz traveled to five countries to study the effects of globalization on small farmers. Now she’s turned her passion for growing local and organic into the thriving Bluma Farm.

We don’t accept all-male panels on women’s issues, says Mustafa. So why do we still discuss refugee policy without refugees?

Wolff, who joined the recovery effort in New Orleans during her first year at Bard, returns to the city to lead its first family-focused agency.

The Block Museum of Art is devoting its first-floor gallery to Chan’s media work Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years of civilization.

McLean and Strack, who met at Bard and later married, have turned a shared love of literature into a successful singing and songwriting career.

“Trump implies that if Montenegro were not in NATO, then the United States could stay uninvolved in a war between Montenegro and Russia. This ignores both geography and history.”

First, writes Fiori, we have to recognize the latent marginalization of minority populations in the mainstream media.

Rozsa wrote his Senior Project on Carter’s famous Crisis of Confidence speech. Here, he interviews Carter about the prescience of that speech in the era of President Trump.

The Brownsville Community Culinary Center, cofounded by Bard alum Lucas Denton, helps young people create career opportunities for themselves while serving their community.

Bard alumnus John Yau talks to Martha Wilson, founder of Franklin Furnace, and artist William Villalongo about Johns’s life and work.

Susan Mernit ’74, CEO of Hack the Hood, introduces low-income students of color to careers in tech by hiring and training them to build websites for local businesses in their communities.

Bard alumna Lola Kirke talks with Nylon’s Sandra Song ahead of the release of her debut album in August.

“If we want to hold the powerful accountable,” says Farrow, “one of the best tools to do that is through reporting.”

Union organizer David Rolf ’92 is at the forefront of the shift in the labor movement, from a focus on organizing workers in manufacturing to those in the service sector.

Bard College held its one hundred fifty-eighth commencement on Saturday, May 26, 2018. At the commencement ceremony, Bard President Leon Botstein conferred 469 undergraduate degrees on the Class of 2018 and 164 graduate degrees.

Bard alumna Noor Gharzeddine’s Are You Glad I’m Here will be shown at the Brooklyn Film Festival on June 9–10.

“Farrow draws on both government experience and fresh reporting to offer a lament for the plight of America’s diplomats—and an argument for why it matters.”

Bard alumna Odetta Hartman continues to explore and reinvent American folk expression in her second album, Old Rockhounds Never Die.

Smith, an award-winning entrepreneur and tech evangelist, will deliver the address at the College’s 158th commencement on Saturday, May 26.

Conover, a Bard alum and creator of the TV comedy Adam Ruins Everything, says Wolf did what comedians are supposed to do: she told the truth, and no one should be apologizing.

Bard College and Simon’s Rock alumnus Ronan Farrow ’04 will receive the Point Courage Award, recognizing his advocacy for the future of the LGBTQ community in his work as a journalist.

Arthur Holland Michel '13 is a finalist for the Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, given to support the completion of significant works of nonfiction on topics of political and social concern.

Award-winning choreographer Arthur Aviles fell in love with dance as an undergraduate at Bard College, where he studied with Jean Churchill, Lenore Latimer, and Aileen Passloff.

Sohrab Mohebbi, a graduate of the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, will join SculptureCenter as head curator in April.

"Formed amid the fruitful live-music scene at Bard College," this Hudson Valley band "is slicing and dicing indie rock in its own image."

Inés Katzenstein will head MoMA’s Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research institute for the Study of Art from Latin America.