Friday, October 21
Registration
Visit the registration desk to check in, receive a schedule of events, sign up to attend classes and tours, and get general information about Bard and the campus. Join families of current students, faculty, and alumni/ae for refreshments. If you arrive after 6:00 pm, you can check in on Saturday between 8:30 am and noon.
Lobby, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Bard Summer Research Poster Session
One of the most successful extracurricular research experiences for students at Bard is the Bard Summer Research Institute (BSRI), which supports campus-based projects in empirical/quantitative fields including biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental studies, mathematics, physics, and psychology. Typically, students spend eight weeks in residence in June and July undertaking individual research projects designed and mentored by Bard faculty. We invite you to join the BSRI students as they present their research and engage in conversation about their experience.
Lobby, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Self-Guided Walkthrough of Current Exhibitions
Dara Birnbaum: Reaction
Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, the first retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States, presents a wide and in-depth view of Birnbaum’s extraordinary practice, charting the indelible contributions she has made to the global histories of video, Conceptual, performance, and appropriation art. The exhibition’s title, Reaction, echoes Birnbaum’s career-long position toward mass media: across form and method, she has persistently elaborated a vision of art as an empowering force to disrupt quiet acquiescence to authority. Including works from 1975 to 2011, Reaction focuses on major installations, many not seen in the US for years, as well as key single-channel videos and archival materials that expand on her singular approach to art-making.
Martine Syms: Grio College
The heart of higher education is traditionally understood to beat through its curriculum: an immersive experience largely framed by courses, tied to a required number of credits, that crystallizes a student’s broader interests into a degree. Martine Syms’s Grio College, on the other hand, expands the notion of a “curriculum” into something far more manifold: a ceaseless and itinerant education that encompasses our whole intellectual life, one built from the theories, thinkers, culture, music, ideas, and teachers that influence us, formally and informally, over time. Grio College is the fictional school in Syms’s feature film The African Desperate (2022), in which an artist attends a heady and heated MFA program in a pastoral setting (much like Syms did herself). Lending this exhibition its title, Grio College here serves as the context for this staging of the artist’s work from the past five years (2017–2022), a prolific period of activity and development.
Hessel Museum of Art
Faces of the Struggle: Frontispiece Portraits in African American Literature (1834 to 1949) — Rare Book Collection of Alvin Patrick, Marist ’86
Focus on frontispieces includes first-edition books by Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and many others.
Stevenson Library Vitrines
Fund for Visual Learning Auction and Art Sale
Join us for a benefit auction and sale of artwork by faculty, staff, students, and friends to benefit the Fund for Visual Learning (FVL). The FVL was established in 2014 to improve the quality of and access to materials and educational resources for deserving students taking studio arts classes. A 24-hour online auction will begin at 5:00 pm on Friday, October 21. Art for sale will be displayed until 5:00 pm on Saturday, October 22. Any unsold work will be available for purchase online from October 23–25 at the starting bid price.
Fisher Studio Arts Building
Dinner
Enjoy dinner with other Bard families and alumni/ae. $14 per person; students may use their meal plan cards. Tickets can be purchased at registration or at the door.
Kline Dining Commons
Celebrate 18 Years of La Voz - Cultura y Noticias Hispanas del Valle de Hudson
A benefit concert and party celebrating Latino culture in the Hudson Valley and honoring members of the La Voz community, with live music, specialty foods, dancing, karaoke, and more. All proceeds go to support La Voz, the award-winning, free Spanish language magazine serving the 140,000 Latinos living in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskill regions. La Voz was founded by Mariel Fiori ’05 and Emily Schmall ’05 in 2004 as a Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) student project at Bard College. $20 suggested donation.
Multipurpose Room, Bertelsmann Campus Center
Wyland Stephenson ’25 Presents His Moderation Concert in Music Composition
This concert is an original piece of musical theater based on John Koenig’s “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” and will feature 20 students from Bard's Theater and Performance and Vocal Arts programs.
Olin Hall, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Shabbat
The Jewish Students Organization and Rabbi Joshua Boettiger ’97 invite families and alumni/ae to a Bard Shabbat experience in the Beit Shalom-Salaam House of Peace meeting room. All are welcome to attend an informal Shabbat (Sabbath) service followed by kiddush and a vegetarian Shabbat dinner with students, faculty, and staff. Advance reservations required. If you would like to attend, RSVP to [email protected] by October 11.
Beit Shalom-Salaam, Basement of Resnick Commons A
Saturday, October 22
Registration
If you missed registration on Friday, please stop by to check in, and sign up to attend a class or take a tour.
Lobby, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Family Leadership Council Meeting
Members of the Family Leadership Council (FLC) play a guiding role in the Bard community through a range of activities. They develop and participate in on-campus and regional recruiting and mentoring events, promote and provide career opportunities for students, and take part in peer-to-peer fundraising. FLC families contribute to the success of the Bard College Fund through annual gifts of $1,500 or greater. The council meets two times each year—once during Family Weekend and once in the spring. If you are interested in joining the FLC and attending the meeting, please call Lindsay Davis Carr ’06, assistant director of development, family programs at 845-758-7152.
Room 202, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Tour of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
The Fisher Center at Bard is a premier professional performing arts center and a hub for research and education that serves artists at all stages of their careers. Once you've seen the stunning façade of the Frank Gehry–designed building, you'll want to take this guided backstage tour. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Sosnoff Theater lobby, Richard B. Fisher for the Performing Arts
Tour the Grounds of Montgomery Place
Enjoy a tour of the Montgomery Place grounds, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus and overlooking the Hudson River. Montgomery Place is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was owned by members of the Livingston family from 1802 until the 1980s. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic Hudson Valley in whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the property. Meet on the Visitors Center porch. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
The Montgomery Place Campus
Fund for Visual Learning Auction and Art Sale
Art gallery is open. For more information, see the schedule for Friday at 4:00 pm.
Fisher Studio Arts Building
Academic Classes
Sign up at registration to take a class. A list of classes will be available in October.
Faces of the Struggle: Frontispiece Portraits in African American Literature (1834 to 1949) Rare book collection of Alvin Patrick, Marist ’86
For more information, see the schedule for Friday at 4:00 pm.
Stevenson Library vitrines
Bard College Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors Meeting
Quarterly meeting of the volunteer leadership board of the Bard College Alumni/ae Association. Alumni/ae guests who are interested in the work of the board are welcome to attend. For more information on the Bard College Board of Governors email [email protected].
Bitó Auditorium, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Admission Campus Tour
Enjoy a tour of campus led by one of our student tour guides. The tour begins with an information session by an admission counselor and ends with a Q&A session. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Meet at Hopson Cottage
The Bard Jazz Faculty & Bard Music Presents:
A Concert of Music from the Great American Songbook
Mike De Micco - guitar; Akua Dixon - cello; John Esposito - piano; Greg Glassman - trumpet; Larry Ham - piano; Jessica Jones - sax; Gwen Laster - violin; Erica Lindsay - sax ; Peter O' Brien - drums; Pamela Pentony - voice; Eric Person - sax; Steve Raleigh - guitar; Angelica Sanchez - piano; Rich Syracuse - bass; Francesca Tanksley - piano
Bard Hall
Tour of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
For more information, see the schedule for Saturday at 9:00 am. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Sosnoff Theater lobby, Richard B. Fisher for the Performing Arts
Tour the Grounds of Montgomery Place
For more information, see the schedule for Saturday at 9:00 am. Meet at the Visitors Center Porch. Space is limited; Sign up at registration.
The Montgomery Place Campus
Blithewood Garden Open House
You are invited to stroll through the historic Blithewood Garden and take in the views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. Meet Bridget Maple ’05, Bard's formal gardener, who will be on hand to answer your garden questions.
Blithewood Garden
Blithewood Mansion Open House
Visit this historic Hudson River mansion, now home to the Levy Economics Institute, and explore its collection of German and Austrian paintings from the turn of the 20th century. The paintings were a bequest to Bard College from Dr. Edith Neumann.
Blithewood Mansion
Self-Guided Walkthrough of Current Exhibitions
Dara Birnbaum: Reaction
Martine Syms: Grio College
For more information, see the schedule for Friday at 4:00 pm. Gallery tours will also be offered at the start of each hour from 12:00 to 4:00 pm, with the last tour ending at 5:00 pm. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Hessel Museum of Art
Saturday Brunch
Enjoy brunch with other Bard families and alumni/ae. $14 per person; students may use their meal plan cards. Tickets can be purchased at on-site registration or at the door.
Kline Dining Commons
Academic Classes
Sign up to take a class onsite at registration. List of classes will be available in October.
Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) Leadership Showcase
Meet students from around the globe who are linking the liberal arts and community leadership through coursework, research, and community projects ranging from voter advocacy to youth engagement. This showcase will feature a poster session and roundtable discussion of student work.
LOCATION TBD
Meet the Deans
Learn everything you need to know about life at Bard and beyond with this Q&A session. Join the dean team, including Associate Dean of Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities Molly Freitas, Associate Vice President for OSUN-Bard Network Programs and Academic Affairs and Dean of Studies David Shein, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of the Early Colleges Dumaine Williams ’03, and Dean of Students Hannah Zipple, to learn about the College’s academic program from the first-year experience to Senior Projects, extracurricular activities, student life, advising, and more.
Room 102, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
The Studio Arts Program Presents:
Ikebana: The Art of Flower Arranging Lecture and Demonstration
Michiko Baribeau 穂風 is a lifelong practitioner of the way of ikebana (ikenobo school) and also a Japanese tea ceremony master (omotosenke school). She formerly taught Japanese at Bard College. Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, is a practice of mindfulness. Cultivating ikebana means walking the meditative path (dao/do) to be in an intimate dialogue with the natural world: ka-do, the way of the flower. Ikebana teaches respect, the balance between control and letting go, the law of impermanence, and stresses the importance to see things as they are (thusness). Violetta White Delafield, former owner of Montgomery Place, was an award-winning practitioner of ikebana.
Room 104, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) Workshop: Empathic Communication and Resilience
“Empathic Communication and Resilience” is the name that Paul Marienthal, dean for social action and director of the TLS Program, gives to interpersonal communication that promotes honest talk and positive connection between people. Getting things right when important relationships are at stake requires specific skills and practices. This is a short introduction to the kind of interpersonal communication work done in the TLS program.
Room 213, Bertelsmann Campus Center
BardEATS with the Bard Farm and Pop-up Apple Tasting
Stop by the Schwab ’52 Atrium to learn about growing spaces and food systems on campus from current students. BardEATS (Education, Advocacy, Transparency, and Sustainability), a collaborative partnership among Bard students, dining services, faculty, and staff, is committed to making food systems on campus more sustainable and equitable. Learn about the program as you enjoy apples from Montgomery Place Orchards.
Ruth and David Schwab ’52 Atrium, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Study Away Opportunities
An overview of study away opportunities. Learn about Bard’s programs in New York City, Berlin, Bishkek and Vienna, Open Society University Network online courses and student mobility, tuition exchanges, the International BA designation, and other options for international and foreign language study. This event will also be livestreamed.
Olin Hall, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Alumni/ae Harvest Lunch
All alumni/ae are invited to a special lunch in the Faculty Dining Room at Kline Commons. Join President Leon Botstein and fellow Bardians, including members of the Bard College Board of Governors, alumni/ae, and members of the Senior Class Council. Take this opportunity to meet students, and hear about what’s new on campus. The lunch is prepared specially for this weekend and features food from local purveyors. Alumni/ae and guests should go through the line at Kline, then join us in the Faculty Dining Room. Hard and soft cider, beer, coffee, and dessert are included. Tickets are $14 per person.
Faculty Dining Room, Kline Dining Commons
Decorate the Dilapidated Dodecahedron!
Enjoy exploring symmetry and color with the Bard Math Circle! We'll decorate the dodecahedron with colorful ribbons and engage in other insightful math puzzles, games, and activities. Open to everyone who needs a splash of color, as well as a creative and analytical mathematical moment at the start of Family and Alumni/ae Weekend. Fair weather only.
Meet at the dodecahedron, the large metallic sculpture between Albee, Rose, Olin, and Campus Security
Meditation Walk at Montgomery Place
Join Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron, PhD, Buddhist chaplain and visiting assistant professor for humanities, Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, CCS ’99, for a mindful walk on the bucolic grounds of Montgomery Place. In the tradition of Japanese Forest Bathing, we will open our senses, relax the mind, and use our breath to feel our complete interconnection. Meet on the Visitors Center porch.
The Montgomery Place Campus
Men’s Soccer vs. RIT
The men's soccer team hosts Rochester Institute of Technology in a Liberty League contest. It is the last home game of the season for the Raptors, who will honor their seniors briefly before the start of the match. Everyone is invited. This event will be livestreamed.
Lorenzo Ferrari Soccer and Lacrosse Complex
Politics Roundtable with the Bard Debate Union
Join current members of the Bard Debate Union as well as BDU alumni/ae for a roundtable discussion on current affairs and how young people can find their voices in the contemporary political landscape. This event will also be livestreamed.
Olin Hall, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Eden Revisited: The Novel Book Launch
This book launch honors the novel Eden Revisited, written by the late, distinguished alumnus Laszlo Bito ’60. Bito, granted asylum from his native Hungary in 1956, went on to develop the gold standard drug for glaucoma as he pursued a celebrated scientific career at Columbia University. In later life, he devoted himself to writing and became a force in Hungarian intellectual life and philanthropy, and published numerous works. Eden Revisited is his first book to be published in English in over a decade. The conference brings together preeminent scholars of religion who will speak to the novel’s themes: Bruce Chilton ’71, director of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard, which is copublishing the book with Natus Books, Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, and Claudia Setzer, professor of religion at Manhattan College. President of Bard College, Leon Botstein will introduce the panel. A discussion with audience members will follow the talks. Watch the book trailer here. This event will be livestreamed.
Performance Space, László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building
Wellness Walk in Tivoli Bays
Join Bard Wellness Director Annia Reyes for an afternoon walk through Tivoli Bays. Located along the Hudson River, the scenic Tivoli Bay trail passes through tidal lowlands and wooded uplands. This one-hour wellness walk welcomes all skill levels and is a great way to explore more of Bard’s beautiful campus. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Meet at the Fisher Center's west entrance next to the parking lot
Ask the President
Hear President Leon Botstein speak about the College and answer questions from families, students, and alumni/ae. This event will also be livestreamed.
Olin Hall, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
Spirits of Annandale
Join Director of Alumni/ae Affairs Jane Brien ’89 and Bard Archivist Helene Tieger ’85 for an interactive tour of the Bard College Cemetery. Participate in the stories of some of the historical and illustrious inhabitants of the Bard Cemetery, including Hannah Arendt, Jean Grey, Adolfas Mekas, and Philip Roth. Special treats provided. Space is limited; sign up at registration.
Lych Gate, Bard Cemetery
Bard Basketball Tip-Off Madness
All are invited to meet and watch the Men's and Women's Basketball teams in an open practice that will feature skills competitions, a 3-point contest, a dunk contest, and performances by student groups.
Stevenson Athletic Center
Bard College Conservatory Orchestra Concert
Leon Botstein, Music Director
William Grant Still
“Fanfare for American War Heroes”
Charles Ives
Decoration Day
Three Places in New England
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy”
The Bard Conservatory Orchestra, Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program, Bard College Chamber Singers, Bard Festival Chorale, Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and James Bagwell, choral director. Tickets: Free; suggested donation $20 orchestra/$15 parterre and balcony.
You may reserve tickets online at fishercenter.bard.edu/events/family-weekend-22, by calling 845-758-7900, or in-person at the Box Office in the Sosnoff Theater lobby, Monday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm and one hour prior to performance.
Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, October 23
Sunday Brunch
Enjoy brunch with other Bard families and alumni/ae. $14 per person; students may use their meal plan cards. Purchase tickets at registration or at the door.
Kline Dining Commons
Help Harvest for the Community at Greig Farm
Join Bardians for apple gleaning at Greig Farm. Members of the Bard Sustainability team and Center for Civic Engagement will show you how to harvest leftover apples that will later be distributed to our local community through Red Hook Responds. Located just 5 minutes from Bard at 227 Pitcher Lane in Red Hook, Greig Farm has been a longtime community partner of the College and is a wonderful stop during your stay in the Hudson Valley. You can also enjoy their market and cafe during your visit. Please arrange for your own transportation and make sure to wear clothing and shoes that you won't mind getting a little dirty! Durable shoes recommended.
Greig Farm
Bard College Conservatory Orchestra Concert
Leon Botstein, Music Director
For details, see the schedule for Saturday at 8:00 pm.
You may reserve tickets online at fishercenter.bard.edu/events/family-weekend-22, by calling 845-758-7900, or in-person at the Box Office in the Sosnoff Theater lobby, Monday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm and one hour prior to performance.
Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Land Acknowledgment for Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson
Developed in cooperation with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community
In the spirit of truth and equity, it is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are gathered on the sacred homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people, who are the original stewards of the land. Today, due to forced removal, the community resides in Northeast Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We honor and pay respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to future generations, and we recognize their continuing presence in their homelands. We understand that our acknowledgment requires those of us who are settlers to recognize our own place in and responsibilities toward addressing inequity, and that this ongoing and challenging work requires that we commit to real engagement with the Munsee and Mohican communities to build an inclusive and equitable space for all.