Newsmakers

Sculptor and painter Tschabalala Self '12 was profiled in the New York Times and Elle Decor to commemorate her piece “Art Lovers” being included on the facade of the New Museum in NYC. “Art Lovers” was unveiled at the museum’s reopening earlier this year, at which Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij '08 spoke. This follows her 2024 London’s Fourth Plinth Commission win, when her sculpture “Lady in Blue” was displayed in Trafalgar Square.

Speaking to Gazelle Mba for the New York Times series Solo Show, Self says she imagines the couple in "Art Lovers" as “museum patrons, possibly admiring one of their favorite works.” To Elle, she expressed that public art “allows everyone to have some transcendent second with the artwork, even when they’re not anticipating it.”

Bard alumna Sonita Alizadeh ’23, a Rhodes Scholar and human rights activist, was profiled in Forbes magazine. Born under Taliban rule, Alizadeh faced the threat of child marriage at the ages of 10 and 16 before finding her voice through music. She has since performed on global stages and collaborated with artists and organizations that share her mission, and she has also addressed world leaders and worked with NGOs such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to push for change. “Today, Sonita’s message is simple but profound: never underestimate the power of your voice,” writes Mandeep Rai for Forbes. “Dreams, she insists, are the ultimate weapon. Her journey is more than a story—it is a committed call to action, urging women to support one another and the world to take responsibility for girls in Iran, Afghanistan, and beyond.”
 

Works by two Bard College alumni/ae, Ei Arakawa-Nash MFA '07 and Lotus L. Kang MFA ’15, will be featured in the 2026 Venice Biennale, which will run from May 9 to November 22. Arakawa-Nash, a performance artist and member of Fac Xtra Retreat (FXR), a collective of seven LA–based Asian American artists, will represent Japan at the Biennale. He is collaborating with other FXR members on a performance project coproduced by the Getty Center and the Japanese Foundation for the Biennale’s Japan Pavilion. “Ei Arakawa-Nash and FXR bring together irreverence, generosity, and collective experimentation in ways that feel both intimate and expansive,” said Sarah Cooper, performance programs specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “These performances contribute to the wider story of Asian diasporas in Greater Los Angeles … while embodying his distinctive alchemy of humor and truth that unsettles fixed roles, challenges social and institutional norms and honors the multiplicities we all hold.”

Sculptor Lotus L. Kang MFA ’15 has been commissioned to produce a major new installation for the inaugural Bulgari Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Kang’s artistic practice utilizes sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation to communicate themes drawn from industrial and architectural forms, familial and social histories, poetry, and non-human figures. “Known for her complexly layered environments that meld organic, structural and metabolic languages, Lotus L. Kang’s works give poetic form to reflections on themes spanning inheritance, impermanence, memory, and translation,” writes ArtDaily. “Working fluidly between sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation, she frequently draws on unfixed, unstable materials and forms in her practice, giving evocative, often expansive shape to questions of ‘becoming.’” 

Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a graduate program for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. Bard MFA takes place over two years and two months, with students in residence on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus.  

Actress and Bard alumna Lola Kirke ’12 was profiled in the New York Times following her role in the 2025 film Sinners and the release of her book Wild West Village: Not a Memoir. Kirke discussed her childhood in New York City and her family relationships, as well as her work since moving to Nashville in 2020 including her country album Trailblazer. Kirke says all of her work is about embracing the imperfect. “‘Should I conform? Or is what makes me special the ways in which I don’t conform? I am much more interested in the latter,” she says.

Kirke studied in the Film and Electronic Arts Program at Bard, which encourages interest in a wide range of expressive modes in film and electronic arts including animation, narrative and non-narrative filmmaking, documentary, performance, and installation practices. The program emphasizes imaginative engagement and the cultivation of an individual voice that has command over the entire creative process.

Diya Vij ’08, Bard alumna and a vice president at Powerhouse Arts, has been named as the Mamdani administration’s leader of New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Vij, who was profiled in the New York Times, is a veteran of creative communities throughout the city and was praised by Mamdani as a “visionary and deeply thoughtful leader who understands that art is not ornamental to this city—it is essential to it.” The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is the largest municipal funder of culture in the country, supporting 1,000 nonprofit cultural organizations and providing $245 million in funding in the last fiscal year to give access to art and culture for all New Yorkers. “I’m excited to apply my political lens to strengthening the systems that make open, accessible, and sometimes radical cultural activities possible,” Vij said. 

Mira Dancy ’01, painter and Bard College alumna, was featured in the Financial Times in an article about how artists are still navigating the effects of the Los Angeles fires a year later. Dancy spoke about how for her, the devastation of the fires is an artistic dividing line. The paintings in her studio were damaged permanently, and she vividly remembers the hills glowing red around her house, which was left uninhabitable after the disaster. “There is just no way I can go back to work on a painting that I was making before the fire,” Dancy told the Times. “My whole world changed.” Her latest exhibit, Mourning’s Orbit, opens at Night Gallery during Frieze week, and takes emotional stock of the last year while her family had to relocate between hotels and homes for nearly a year. The paintings reference places that had been damaged in the fires which she has visited in the aftermath, yet relay an element of hope despite the devastation. “I feel that these paintings are a little bit of an antidote to those images of burned houses,” Dancy says.  

Cecilia Alemani MA-CCS ’05 has been announced as the curator of the first nomadic iteration of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, taking place through 2027, reports Artsy. The prize, founded in 2005, supports women artists at pivotal points in their careers. In its new nomadic model, artists will travel to a different country for each edition, during which the winning artist will present the work at a partner institution. Alemani, who previously served as the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and curated the New York City High Line, said the award is “evolving into a full-fledged tool of cultural diplomacy and international dialogue.” She noted that the nomadic iteration of the prize comes at a “time of fragmentation,” and this new model signifies the award’s commitment “to building the kind of solid, lasting ties that are essential not only for the blossoming of individual careers, but for the growth and reinvention of the entire ecosystem of contemporary art.”

Henry Mielarczyk ’25 contributed to the winter issue of the Stennis Center for Public Service’s Public Service Review. He interviewed Ben Rich, chief of staff to Congressional Representative Nellie Pou, about the legacy of his former employer Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., a lifelong resident of New Jersey who established the first federal program to deliver grant money directly to firefighters. Rich said working for his hometown representative meant, “I was able to better understand the needs of the district because I knew it intimately.” He says his approach as chief of staff is still to execute good policies and “make sure [they] help people.”

Mielarczyk was recently elected to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee as its youngest member. He currently works with the New York State Assembly as a graduate scholar, and is a student in the Levy Master of Science program. Last summer, he joined the Stennis Program for Congressional Interns.

The Open Society Foundations today welcome Bard College’s successful completion of a landmark endowment challenge first issued in 2021 by Open Society Founder George Soros. By meeting the challenge, Bard has established the first endowment in its history, positioning the College to sustain and expand its mission as an independent institution of higher education centered on the liberal arts and sciences and dedicated to the public interest for generations to come.

The challenge invited Bard to match a $500 million commitment from Open Society by raising an additional $500 million from other donors, securing a $1 billion endowment to support the college’s undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty, student scholarships, the arts, and international engagement. Bard’s success marks a significant moment for an institution long recognized for its commitment to educational access, academic rigor, and public service. It also reflects Open Society’s historical support for higher education and the role of critical thinking in public life.

At a time when American democracy is under strain and colleges and universities face growing political and financial pressure, Bard’s endowment underscores the importance of investing in independent higher education as a cornerstone of democratic life.

“Higher education is essential to the future of American democracy,” said Alex Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations. “Bard will continue to be a place where critical thinking flourishes and students learn why the liberal arts are more important to freedom and the rule of law than ever in today’s embattled moment.”

Located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Bard College has played a leading role in advancing liberal arts and sciences education and expanding access to higher education. Its programs include the Bard Prison Initiative, which provides college education to incarcerated students; Bard Early Colleges, which enable public high school students to earn college degrees tuition free in supportive environments; and a wide range of international partnerships focused on expanding educational opportunity for underserved communities.

“Bard is profoundly grateful to George Soros, Alex Soros, and the Open Society Foundations,” said Leon Botstein, president of Bard College. “The response of our donor community, which has given and pledged over $500 million to meet the OSF challenge, affirms George Soros’s belief in Bard and its mission. This outpouring of support endorses Bard’s excellence and innovation and bodes well for the future of the College.”

Three Bard College alumni/ae will be among the 56 artists and collectives selected to participate in this year’s Whitney Biennial, the 82nd installment of the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States. Works by multimedia artist Sula Bermudez-Silverman ’15, sculptural artist Cooper Jacoby ’11, and artist and filmmaker Jordan Strafer MFA ’20 will be featured in the exhibition series. The Whitney Biennial 2026, which opens on March 8, offers a vivid atmospheric survey of contemporary American art shaped by a moment of profound transition by inviting visitors into environments that evoke tension, tenderness, humor, and unease. Together, the works capture the complexity of the present and propose imaginative and unexpected forms of coexistence. “We are giving platforms to artists that we felt were making major contributions to the field,” curator Drew Sawyer told the New York Times.

The Ask, a podcast by Bard alumnus Waise Azimi ’05, brought Bard Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95, Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams ’03, and Associate Director of the Human Rights Project Danielle Riou to discuss the ongoing detention of Bard student Ali Faqirzada ’28. Alongside Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy for refugee programs at Human Rights First, the five discussed the ongoing efforts to advocate for Faqirzada’s return to his studies at Bard, the current legal and political environment for asylum seekers, and more. Speaking to the College’s support of Faqirzada, Du Mont said, “Nobody here at Bard thought twice about any of it. There was no question in my mind.”

To learn more about Faqirzada’s case and to share media coverage of his story, visit go.bard.edu/take-action. With initiatives like the Human Rights Program, the Center for Human Rights and the Arts, and the launch of GHEA21, Bard has a storied history of supporting academic freedom and human rights around the world. To learn more about how Bard supports displaced students and students in need, please visit cce.bard.edu/engaged-learning/the-sanctuary-fund.

American theater and opera director and cofounder of SITI Company Anne Bogart ’74 was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame on November 17. In order to receive the award, the only nationally recognized hall of fame honoring lifetime achievement in the American theater, the awardee must have given 25 years distinguished service to the American theater and at least five major production credits on Broadway. Bogart, who studied drama and dance at Bard and received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the College in 2014, teaches at Columbia University, where she is a professor and head of the directing concentration.

In December 2022, Bard’s Fisher Center presented the world premiere of SITI Company’s reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, codirected by Anne Bogart and Tony Award winner Darron L West. The work, commissioned by the Fisher Center, was the final production in SITI Company’s 30th anniversary “Finale Season.” 

Bard’s Theater and Performance Program offers an interdisciplinary, liberal arts-based approach to the making and study of theater and performance, and embraces a wide range of performance practices, from live art and interactive installation to classical theater from around the globe.

Composer and Bard alumnus Prokhor Protasov MM-Conducting ’20 has been announced as the winner of the Peace Symphony Concours, a conducting award conferred by County Hall Arts for works written as a musical representation of and inspiration for humanity's quest for global peace. “We appreciated Prokhor’s melodic gift and how his symphony explores humanity’s search for peace in a fractured world—tracing a journey from grief and cruelty toward hope and reconciliation across its four movements,” said County Hall Arts. The charity received 83 entries in total and commissioned a short-list of gifted composers, including Prokhor, to create symphonies to illustrate the pursuit of peace.

“I am deeply grateful for County Hall Arts’ trust and for the extraordinary opportunity to compose an orchestral work on such an important theme—one which I feel a personal connection to,” Protasov said. “At a time when division and indifference prevail, the values of humanity, reconciliation, and compassion cannot be overstated. I hope that my art may offer consolation and support to those seeking it.”

The mission of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

On Monday, November 17, Bard College Margaret and John Bard Society members, staff, and students gathered in New York City for this year’s annual luncheon. The special occasion serves as a heartfelt recognition of the generous contributions made by members through their estate plans. Their forward-thinking and commitment to Bard College's mission not only enrich the lives of current students but also ensure a vibrant future for generations to come. Bard is deeply appreciative of the generosity and foresight that the members of the Margaret and John Bard Society have, and their belief in Bard’s mission and their commitment to future planning are instrumental in fostering a nurturing environment for both students and faculty alike.

“It is always wonderful to welcome and bring together so many generations of Bardians,” said Debra Pemstein, vice president of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs. “Margaret and John Bard Society members help the College plan for a vibrant future with their generosity.”
 

Bard College alumna Leslie Kean ’73 has coauthored an article in the New York Times about The Age of Disclosure, a film in which 34 former and current senior members of US government, military and intelligence groups discuss what they can disclose about unidentified aerial phenomena, also known as UAP or UFOs. The controversial documentary—which debuted at South by Southwest earlier this year to mixed reactions—was screened for a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives, who later discussed their support for legislation to increase transparency. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, did not attend but sent a statement calling for greater transparency and saying she would work to “reduce the stigma around reporting, strengthen our national security, and ensure UAP records are being properly disclosed.”

Bard College has concluded a month-long celebration honoring our exceptional Student Scholars and the generous donors who support their educational journeys. In line with National Scholarship Month, the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs shared inspiring testimonials from our students, illustrating how their Bard experiences have profoundly shaped both their academic and personal lives. A standout moment of the month was the Annual Scholarship Reception, where faculty and staff united to applaud the significant influence scholarships have on our students’ lives. One student spoke of the opportunities given to them at Bard, saying, "Everybody here has really enriched me and helped me in my journey and my educational journey—my journey as a person—and I’m just very grateful overall.”

Speeches from faculty and institutional leaders, including President Leon Botstein, reinforced the critical importance of philanthropy in enriching the educational landscape at Bard. This gathering served as a powerful reminder of our shared commitment to education and the incredible impact of generosity, creating a night filled with gratitude, and connection.

Learn more about Giving at Bard:
giving.bard.edu/donor-impact/
giving.bard.edu/scholarships/
giving.bard.edu/stories-of-impact/

A Bard College Music Program faculty member and three Conservatory of Music alumni/ae have been nominated for the 2026 GRAMMY Awards. Gwen Laster, visiting artist in residence, is nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Lights on a Satellite recorded with Sun Ra Arkestra. Devony Smith VAP ’14, is nominated in the category of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for her album In This Short Life with pianist Danny Zelibor. Julia Bullock VAP ’11, is also a featured artist on the album Schubert/Beatles, nominated in the same category. Eri Nakamura CPF ’15, a member of the Neave Trio, is nominated in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album, La Mer: French Piano Trios. The 2026 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 68th GRAMMY Awards, will take place on Sunday, February 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. 

The Bard College campus is awash in music—by all accounts, one of the school’s most distinctive features. The Music Program, one of the largest programs on campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, and the Bard Conservatory aims to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

When Bard Baccalaureate student and Afghan asylum seeker Ali Faqirzada ’28 was detained on October 14 after a routine hearing in New York, officials from Bard College and the Episcopal Diocese mobilized their networks to help. Dionne Searcey for the New York Times reports on these ongoing efforts. “The only chance of rescuing this individual from injustice is to make it visible,” President Leon Botstein told the Times. “If you stand for the truth and for learning and all the virtues of a serious education and an examined life and you believe in the idea of justice, you have to act.” 

Immediately following his detainment, Bard Vice President for Strategy and Policy and Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95 and Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams ’03 visited Faqirzada at Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in New Jersey where he is being held. “I would describe it as feeling like a member of the family had been taken,” said Du Mont, a US veteran of the Afghan War.

The College, alongside Human Rights First and the Episcopal Diocese of New York, has worked to enlist bipartisan federal, state, and local elected officials in efforts to organize and advocate for Faqirzada’s release. Two Bard alumni/ae at the law firm Quinn Emanuel have offered pro bono legal services to represent Faqirzada in his asylum case.
 

In a conversation with Jack Stripling on College Matters, a podcast produced by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate Kenneth Stern ’75 discussed what he saw as the “weaponization of the definition” of anti-Semitism that he helped to create. “I’m not ever saying don't combat speech or contest speech that you don’t like,” Stern said, “but I’m saying don’t use instruments of the state to suppress what teachers can teach and what students can hear.” College, ideally, should be a place where you go “to spend the rest of your life recalibrating how you think about things,” Stern said. “We want to make you critical thinkers. We want to encourage you to try on ideas.” Policing, through university policy, what can and can’t be said diminishes this essential capacity of higher education, Stern argued. “I want to create the environment on a campus in particular where people can have productive discussions.”

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH) works to increase the serious study of human hatred, and ways to combat it. The Center supports faculty and students throughout the Bard network who want to study and/or combat hatred and its various manifestations. BCSH brings scholars from diverse disciplines to Bard College and all of its campuses to speak about the human capacity to hate and demonize others. The Bard Center for the Study of Hate was established in 2018 with a generous endowment from the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation and is a program of Bard’s Human Rights Project.

Poetry helped BHSEC Newark alumna Rashanna James-Frison BHSEC ’25 cope with the loss of her parents, and now she’s looking to share that feeling with other teens in Newark, New Jersey. “My first poem was actually to my biological father, that passed,” James-Frison told NJ.com. “It was just to remember him in a way, and also put how I was feeling about the situation on paper.” Now a first-year junior at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania after earning her associate’s degree at BHSEC Newark, James-Frison published her first book of poetry, The Black Unicorn: A Daughter From Newark. Hoping to share her experiences with the next generation of young women from Newark, she’s launched a campaign to assist in distributing 1,000 copies to eighth-graders.

Bard Early College is a multi-campus network with nine degree-granting campuses established to provide adolescents in American public school systems with the chance to go farther and faster than the status quo allows.

For Interview magazine, writer and director Jordan Tannahill spoke with Bard alumnus Arthur Tress ’62 about his new book of photography, The Ramble. The book is a collection of photographs from the 1960s of an “overgrown stretch of Central Park that’s served as a cruising ground for gay men for nearly a century,” Tannahill writes. The photographs, Tress says, weren’t initially taken with any kind of publication in mind, given their subject and the politics of the time. “Well, at that time, there really was no audience or publications that would show gay photography,” Tress said. “They were mostly for myself, but I had a sense that they were historically important.” Some of the photographs were taken “surreptitiously,” Tress said, but others were semiposed: “My work has always been a little bit of improvised, stage-directed imagery, especially in portraits, so it’s kind of a combination. I call it a sort of ‘poetic documentary.’” The Ramble, published by Stanley/Barker, will be released November 1, 2025.

Rolling Stone has named the song “Maps” by the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in which Bard alumnus Nick Zinner ’96 plays guitar and keyboard, as number two in their list of the 250 Greatest Songs of the Century So Far. “What remains in ‘Maps’ is pure feeling, so much so that the song has reappeared as musical inspiration for artists from Kelly Clarkson to Beyoncé over the years,” writes Rolling Stone about the band’s 2003 song. “Still, the original has held out strongest through the decades, speaking to anyone who has understood whispered pleas in the face of cruel timing and inevitable goodbyes — and what it means to hold on even when it hurts.” The list draws on 25 years worth of classics and hits from across the world.

Jessica Mah SR ’06, an entrepreneur and alumna of Simon's Rock at Bard College, was profiled in a piece by the San Francisco Examiner, which looks back on her history of exploring and building businesses, from when she was a young teenager through her latest venture. Her first major breakthrough came in 2009 when she cofounded the software inDinero to make accounting and financial management accessible for small businesses, and then again in 2012 when she was named as one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in the Enterprise Technology category. She later embarked on projects such as internshipIN, a platform that aimed to connect employers and aspiring interns, and Mahway, a women-led investment firm created to build world-changing companies. “Mah’s story is proof that the entrepreneurial path is open to anyone willing to think differently and persevere,” writes the Examiner. “She’s shown time and time again that early ideas can blossom into industry-shaking companies and that true innovators never stop building.”

Bard College alumni/ae Catherine Lamb MFA ’12, Berlin-based composer, and Ben Richter ’08, director of Ghost Ensemble, have released a new collaborative album called interius/exterius, which was engineered by Bard music faculty Matt Sargent and mixed at Bard’s recording studio. The work, which Igloo Magazine calls “a vast, resonant world of sound, where every listening reveals infinite layers of beauty,” is currently in first-round Grammy consideration in the categories of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and Best Engineered Album, Classical. “A stellar recording,” wrote Peter Margasak for Bandcamp’s Best Contemporary Classical roundup about Catherine Lamb x Ghost Ensemble’s LP. “This stands as one of more electrifying accounts of [Lamb’s] sound world. It’s thrilling to witness over the last few years how Lamb’s harmonic imagination and compositional voice have been reinforcing one another as they grow inexorably more refined and powerful.” The first round of Grammy voting ends on Oct 15.

The Naming Song, the newest novel by author and Bard alumnus Jedediah Berry ’99, was awarded the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award for fiction. The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize works by current Commonwealth residents in multiple categories. “I was so pleased to see my book included among a list of so many extraordinary writers’ works who I admire,” Berry said to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “Winning it was just an astonishing thing. I felt incredibly grateful.”

The Naming Song, also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, is a fabulist novel that takes place after an apocalyptic event makes names disappear. The novel’s protagonist works for “the Names Committee” as a courier, delivering names to their proper places. “I came to love these characters and the strange journey that they’re on in the book,” Berry said. “Living with that for so long and knowing that it’s finally out of the world is kind of a strange experience. It’s like finally introducing people to these old friends.”