Bard College is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...

Annandale-on-Hudson, New York Annandale-on-Hudson is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States, located in the Hudson Valley town of Red Hook, New York, Red Hook, across the Hudson River from Kingston, New York, Kingston. The hamlet consists main ...

. The campus overlooks the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

and

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

within the

Hudson River Historic District The Hudson River Historic District, also known as Hudson River Heritage Historic District, is the largest Federally designated historic district (United States), district on the mainland of the contiguous United States.The Nantucket Historic Di ...

and is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

. Founded in 1860, the institution consists of a liberal arts college and a conservatory. The college offers undergraduate and graduate programs. The college has a network of over 35 affiliated programs, institutes, and centers, spanning twelve cities, five U.S. states, seven countries, and four continents.

History

Origins and early years

During much of the nineteenth century, the land since owned by Bard was mainly composed of several country estates. These estates were called Blithewood, Bartlett, Sands and Ward Manor/Almont. 1867 Map of Red Hook

In 1853, John Bard and Margaret Bard purchased a part of the Blithewood estate and renamed it Annandale. John Bard was the grandson of Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor, a founder of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

, and

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. John Bard was also the nephew of John McVickar, a professor at

. The family had strong connections with the Episcopal Church. The following year, in 1854, John and Margaret established a

parish school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wor ...

on their estate in order to educate the area's children. A wood-frame

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

, known today as Bard Hall, served as a school on weekdays and a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

on weekends. In 1857, the Bards expanded the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

by building the Chapel of the Holy Innocents next to Bard Hall. During this time, John Bard remained in close contact with the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church. The church suggested that he found a

theological college A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...

. With the promise of outside financial support, John Bard donated the unfinished chapel, and the surrounding , to the diocese in November 1858. In March 1860, "St. Stephen's College" was founded. In 1861, construction began on the first St. Stephen's College building, a stone

collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm), also known as a hall of residence, a residence hall (often abbreviated to halls), or a hostel, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential qu ...

called Aspinwall, after early

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

John Lloyd Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall. During its initial years, the college relied on wealthy benefactors, like trustee

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

, for funding. The college began taking shape within four decades. In 1866, Ludlow Hall, an administrative building, was erected. Preston Hall was built in 1873 and used as a refectory. A set of four dormitories, collectively known as Stone Row, were completed in 1891. And in 1895, the

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

Hoffman Memorial Library was built. The school officially changed its name to Bard College in 1934 in honor of its founder.

Growth and secularization

In the 20th century, social and cultural changes amongst New York's

high society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...

would bring about the demise of the great estates. In 1914, Louis Hamersley purchased the fire-damaged Ward Manor/Almont estate and erected a Tudor style mansion and gatehouse, or what is today known as Ward Manor. Hamersley expanded his estate in 1926 by acquiring the abandoned Cruger's Island estate. That same year, after Hamersley's combined estate was purchased by William Ward, it was donated to charity and served as a retirement home for almost four decades. By the mid-1900s, Bard's campus significantly expanded. The Blithewood estate was donated to the college in 1951, and in 1963, Bard purchased of the Ward Manor estate, including the main manor house. The rest of the Ward Manor estate became the Tivoli Bays nature preserve. In 1919, Bernard Iddings Bell became Bard's youngest president at the age of 34. His adherence to classical education, decorum, and dress eventually clashed with the school's push towards Deweyism and secularization, and he resigned in 1933. In 1928, Bard merged with

, serving as an undergraduate school similar to

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. Under the agreement, Bard remained affiliated with the Episcopal Church and retained control of its finances. The merger raised Bard's prestige; however, it failed to provide financial support to the college during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. So dire was Bard's financial situation that in 1932, then-Governor of New York and College trustee

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

sent a telegram to the likes of

John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist. Rockefeller was the fifth child and only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of th ...

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...

and

Frederick William Vanderbilt Frederick William Vanderbilt (February 2, 1856 – June 29, 1938) was a member of the American Vanderbilt family. He was a director of the New York Central Railroad for 61 years, and also a director of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and ...

requesting donations for the college. On May 26, 1933, Donald Tewksbury, a Columbia professor, was appointed dean of the college. Although dean for only four years, Tewksbury had a lasting impact on the school. Tewksbury, an educational philosopher, had extensive ideas regarding higher education. While he was dean, Tewksbury steered the college into a more secular direction and changed its name from St. Stephen's to Bard. He also placed a heavy academic emphasis on the arts, something atypical of colleges at the time, and set the foundations for Bard's Moderation and Senior Project requirement. While Tewksbury never characterized Bard's curriculum as " progressive," the school would later be considered an early adopter of progressive education. In his 1943 study of early progressive colleges, titled ''General Education in the Progressive College'', Louis T. Benezet used Bard as one of his three

case studies A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

. During the 1940s, Bard provided a haven for intellectual refugees fleeing Europe. These included

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

, the political theorist, Stefan Hirsch, the precisionist painter;

Felix Hirsch Felix Eduard Hirsch (Berlin, 7 February 1902 – 12 December 1982 Newtown, Pennsylvania) was a journalist for the '' Berliner Tageblatt'' and latterly, historian, librarian and professor at Bard College in New York. As a journalist in Berlin, Hi ...

, the political editor of the ''

Berliner Tageblatt The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time. History The ''Berli ...

''; the violinist Emil Hauser; the linguist

Hans Marchand Hans Marchand (Krefeld, 1 October 1907 – Genoa, 13 December 1978) was a German linguist. He studied Romance languages, English and Latin, and after fleeing Germany in 1934 was a lecturer of linguistics at Istanbul, Yale University, and Bard Coll ...

; the noted psychologist Werner Wolff; and the philosopher

Heinrich Blücher Heinrich Friedrich Ernst Blücher (29 January 1899 – 31 October 1970) was a German philosopher. He was the second husband of Hannah Arendt whom he had first met in Paris in 1936. During his life in America, Blücher traveled in popular academi ...

. Arendt is buried at Bard, alongside her husband Heinrich Blücher, as is eminent novelist

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

. In 1944, as a result of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, enrollment significantly dropped putting financial stress on the college. In order to increase enrollment, the college became co-educational, thereby severing all ties with Columbia. The college became an independent, secular, institution in 1944. Enrollment more than doubled, from 137 students in 1944, to 293 in 1947.

Late twentieth and early twenty-first century

Donald Fagen Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who is the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the rock band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker ...

and

Walter Becker Walter Carl Becker (February 20, 1950 – September 3, 2017) was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.Russonello, Giovanni,Listen to ...

's experiences at Bard prompted them to write the 1973 song " My Old School" for their rock group,

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen cho ...

. The song was motivated by the 1969 drug bust at Bard in which the college administration colluded. The DA involved was

G. Gordon Liddy George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was an American lawyer and FBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration. Work ...

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

notoriety. Fagen wrote another Steely Dan song, "

Rikki Don't Lose That Number "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a single released in 1974 by the American rock band Steely Dan and the opening track of their third album '' Pretzel Logic''. It was the most successful single of the group's career, peaking at number 4 on the ...

", about novelist, artist and former Bard faculty spouse

Rikki Ducornet Rikki Ducornet (; born Erica DeGre; April 19, 1943) is an American writer, poet, and artist. Her work has been described as "linguistically explosive and socially relevant," and praised for "deploy ngtactics familiar to the historical avant-gard ...

. In 2020, Bard College and

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

became the founding members of the Open Society University Network, a collaborative global education initiative endowed with US$1 billion. As part of this new initiative, the college received a US$100 million gift from the

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

which ranks among the largest financial contributions to a U.S. institution in recent history. In 2021, philanthropist

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

made a $500 million endowment pledge to Bard College. It is one of the largest pledges of money ever made to higher education in the United States. In June 2021, Bard College was declared an "

undesirable organization The Russian undesirable organizations law (officially Federal Law of 23.05.2015 N 129-FZ "On amendments of some legislative acts of the Russian Federation") is a law that was signed by President Vladimir Putin on 23 May 2015 as a follow-up to ...

" in Russia, becoming the first international higher education organization to be branded with this designation. Bard president Botstein hypothesized that this tag was due their association with and funding from the

which was also classified as undesirable in Russia and related conspiracy theories about George Soros.

College leaders

At various times, the leaders of the college have been titled president, warden or dean. They are listed below: # George Franklin Seymour (1860–1861) # Thomas Richey (1861–1863) # Robert Brinckerhoff Fairbairn (1863–1898) # Lawrence T. Cole (1899–1903) # Thomas R. Harris (1904–1907) # William Cunningham Rodgers (1909–1919) # Bernard Iddings Bell (1919–1933) # Donald George Tewksbury (1933–1937) # Harold Mestre (1938–1939) # Charles Harold Gray (1940–1946) # Edward C. Fuller (1946–1950) # James Herbert Case Jr. (1950–1960) # Reamer Kline (1960–1974) #

Leon Botstein Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946, in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-born American conductor, educator, historical musicologist, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College. Biography Botstein was born in Zürich, Switzerland, ...

(1975–present)

Campus

The campus of Bard College is in Annandale-on-Hudson, a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later o ...

, United States, in the town of Red Hook. It contains more than 70 buildings with a total gross building space of and was listed as a census-designated place in 2020. Campus buildings represent varied

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

s, but the campus remains heavily influenced by the

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

and

Postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

styles. Bard's historic buildings are associated with the early development of the college and the history of the Hudson River estates ( see Bard College History). During a late twentieth-century building boom, the college embraced a trend of building signature buildings designed by prominent architects like Venturi, Gehry, and Viñoly. In January 2016, Bard purchased

Montgomery Place Montgomery Place, now Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, near Barrytown, New York, United States, is an early 19th-century estate (house), estate that has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is also a contributing property ...

, a estate adjacent to the Bard campus, with significant historic and cultural assets. The estate consists of a historic mansion, a farm, and some 20 smaller buildings. The college purchased the property from Historic Hudson Valley, the historical preservation organization that had owned Montgomery Place since the late 1980s. The addition of this property brings Bard's total campus size to nearly along the Hudson River in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. In late 2023, Bard purchased 260 acres of land adjacent to the

campus in

Barrytown Barrytown (originally known as Seventeen Mile Beach and Fosbery) is a town in the West Coast Region, West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Barrytown sits on and is north of Runanga, New Zealand, Runanga, on the Barrytown Flats. Puna ...

, which used to be the campus of the

Unification Theological Seminary HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership is a private Unification Church-affiliated graduate seminary headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was known as Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) from ...

. The property, originally owned by the Livingston and later Aspinwall families, features a mansion designed by

William Appleton Potter William Appleton Potter (December 10, 1842 – February 19, 1909) was an American architect who designed numerous buildings for Princeton University, as well as municipal offices and churches. He served as a Office of the Supervising Architect, ...

. It was acquired by the

De La Salle Brothers The De La Salle Brothers, officially named the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (; ; ) abbreviated FSC, is a Catholic lay religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in France by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle ( ...

in 1928, who completed a large

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

and normal institute there in 1931. In turn, the property was sold in 1974 to the

Unification Church The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...

. Bard intended to use the space to provide new studios for the Center for Human Rights and the Arts and administrative offices for the Open Society University Network (OSUN), of which Bard is a founding member. However,

Bard College at Simon's Rock Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is part of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudso ...

announced that it would be moving into the property in fall 2025. The purchase of the property brings Bard's total acreage to 1260 acres (510 ha). The area around the campus first appeared as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in the 2020 Census, with a population of 358. The college has an amount of housing for faculty members. School-age dependents in this faculty housing are in the

Red Hook Central School District Red Hook Central School District is a school district in New York State. Most of the district is in Dutchess County, where it includes most of the town of Red Hook and portions of the towns of Milan and Rhinebeck. The village of Tivoli is in ...

(the CDP is within this school district). File:Stone Row Dorm.jpg, Stone Row, a dormitory built in 1891 File:Bard College - IMG 7991.JPG, The Chapel of the Holy Innocents, built in 1857, serves several denominations on campus. File:Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation Bard College.jpg, Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation File:Tewksbury Hall Dorm.jpg, Tewksbury Hall, a dormitory File:The Ravines.jpg, The Ravines, dormitories File:Alumni Houses.jpg, Alumni Houses, dormitories File:Resnick Village Dorms Bard College.jpg, Stewart and

Lynda Resnick Lynda Rae Resnick (born 1943) is an American billionaire businesswoman. Resnick is married to Stewart Resnick, who is her business partner with whom they have their holding company The Wonderful Company. Early life Resnick was born Lynda Rae H ...

Commons, a residential village with dormitories File:Cruger Dorm Bard College.jpg, Cruger Hall, a dormitory File:Bard College - IMG 8005.JPG, Hessel Museum, museum of contemporary art File:Blithewood Garden on Bard College campus.jpg, Blithewood Garden, Italianate walled garden File:Ward Manor Dorm.jpg, Ward Manor, built in 1918 and now used as a dormitory File:Fisher Center at Bard.jpg, Fisher Center at Bard, performance hall designed by

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

File:Montgomery Place 2008.jpg,

, a historic mansion purchased by the college in 2016 File:North front of Blithewood.jpg, Blithewood Manor, a historic estate housing the

Levy Economics Institute Founded in 1986 as the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank. The purpose of its research and other activities is to enable scholars and leaders in busin ...

dating to 1899

Academics

Rankings and awards

In its 2025 edition of college rankings, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Bard 71st overall, 5th in "Most Innovative Schools", tied at 33rd for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied at #38 in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", tied at #19 in "First-Year Experiences", and 19th for "Best Value" out of 211 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" in the United States. In 2024, ''

Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine primarily covering United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine also publishes an annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which ser ...

'' ranked Bard 50th among 194 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Bard's Master of Fine Arts program was ranked one of ten most influential Master of Fine Arts programs in the world by ''Artspace Magazine'' in 2023. Bard has been named a top producer of U.S.

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Scholars. Many Bard alumni have also been named

Watson Fellows The Thomas J. Watson Foundation is a charitable trust formed 1961 in honor of former chairman and CEO of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. The Foundation's stated vision is to empower students “to expand their vision, test and develop their potential, and ...

, Critical Language Scholarship recipients, Davis Projects for Peace winners,

Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

Marshall Scholars The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is considered among the most prestigious scholarsh ...

, and

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

fellows, among other postgraduate awards.

Undergraduate programs

In the undergraduate college, Bard offers

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

and

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degrees. There are 23 academic departments that offer over 40 major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary

concentrations In chemistry, concentration is the Abundance (chemistry), abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: ''mass concentration (chemistry), mass concentration'', ...

. The college was the first in the nation to offer a

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

major. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: *Social Sciences (140) *Fine/Studio Arts (106) *English Language and Literature/Letters (81) *Biological and Physical Sciences (80) In the three weeks preceding their first semester, first-year students attend the Language and Thinking (L&T) program, an intensive, writing-centered introduction to the liberal arts. The interdisciplinary program, established in 1981, aims to "cultivate habits of thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration." The program covers

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

, and

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

. In 2011, the core readings included works by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Frans de Waal Franciscus Bernardus Maria de Waal (29 October 1948 – 14 March 2024) was a Dutch-American primatologist and ethologist. He was the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in ...

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould ( ; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, and History of science, historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely re ...

Clifford Geertz Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades&n ...

, M. NourbeSe Philip, and

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

. The capstone of the Bard undergraduate experience is the Senior Project, commonly referred to as SPROJ amongst its students. As with moderation, this project takes different forms in different departments. Many students write a paper of around eighty pages, which is then, as with work for moderation, critiqued by a board of three professors. Arts students must organize a series of concerts, recitals, or shows, or produce substantial creative work; math and science students, as well as some social science students, undertake research projects.

Undergraduate admissions

For the academic year 2022-2023, Bard's acceptance rate stands at 46%. Out of the total 6,482 students who applied, 2,982 were admitted to the school. For the 2022–2023 academic year 447 students enrolled representing a yield rate of 15%. Admission trends note a 25% increase in applications in the 2022–2023 academic year. Bard does not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores in order to apply. As an alternative, applicants may take an examination composed of 19 essay questions in four categories: Social Studies; Languages and Literature; Arts; and Science, Mathematics, and Computing, with applicants required to complete three 2,500-word essays covering three of the four categories. For admitted students who submitted test scores, 50% had an SAT score between 1296 and 1468 or an ACT score between 28 and 33, with a reported average GPA of 3.79. Admissions officials consider a student's GPA a very important academic factor. Honors, AP, and IB classes are important, an applicant's high school class rank is considered, and letters of recommendation are considered very important for admissions officials at Bard.

Graduate programs

Bard College offers a range of postgraduate degree programs, including the Bard MFA,

Bard Graduate Center The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. It is affiliated with Bard College, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Annandale-on-Hud ...

, Center for Curatorial Studies, Center for Human Rights and the Arts, Center for Environmental Policy, Bard MBA in Sustainability,

, the Master of Arts in Teaching, and the Master of Arts in Global Studies.

Bard MFA

Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a graduate program associated with Bard College that grants Master of Fine Arts degrees. Founded in 1981, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts (otherwise known as the Bard MFA program) is a nontradi ...

is a nontraditional graduate school for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. The program takes place over two years and two months, with students residing on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus. Notable artists and writers that have been affiliated with the Bard MFA as faculty and visiting artists include Marina Abramovic,

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is an American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. Novelist Dennis Cooper has des ...

, Paul Chan, Robert Kelly,

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...

Okkyung Lee Okkyung Lee (born 1975 in Daejeon, South Korea) is a South Korean cellist, improviser, and composer. Lee moved to Boston in 1993, where she received a dual bachelor's degree in Contemporary Writing and Production and Film Scoring (Berklee Colle ...

Yto Barrada Yto Barrada (born 1971) is a Franco-Moroccan multimedia visual artist living and working in Tangier, Morocco and New York City. Barrada cofounded the Cinémathèque de Tanger in 2006, leading a group of artists and filmmakers. Barrada also work ...

Carolee Schneemann Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and ...

Lynne Tillman Lynne Tillman (born January 1, 1947) is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and teaches at the School of Visual Arts' Art Cri ...

, and

Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for P ...

Bard Graduate Center

The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. Established in 1993, the institute offers a two-year MA program and a PhD program that began in 1998. The institute's facilities include a gallery space at 18 West 86th Street and an academic building with a library at 38 West 86th Street.

Center for Curatorial Studies

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) established in 1990, is a museum and research center dedicated to the study of contemporary art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. In 1994, CCS Bard launched its (MA) Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies program. The center also hosts public events throughout the year including lectures and panel discussions on topics in contemporary art. The museum, spanning an area of 55,000 square feet, offers a variety of exhibitions accessible to the general public throughout the year. It houses two distinct collections, the CCS Bard Collection and the Marieluise Hessel collection, which has been loaned to CCS Bard on a permanent basis. Artists such as

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the Graffiti in New York City, New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual l ...

Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings"—with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been a ...

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German Fine-art photography, photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillman ...

Stephen Shore Stephen Shore (born October 8, 1947) is an American photographer known for his images of scenes and objects of the banal, and for his pioneering use of color in art photography. His books include ''Uncommon Places'' (1982) and ''American Surfaces ...

, and

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

, among numerous others, are featured within these collections. The CCS Bard Library is a research collection for contemporary art with a focus on post-1960s contemporary art, curatorial practice, exhibition histories, theory, and criticism. in 2023 historian Robert Storr donated over 25,000 volumes to the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, nearly doubling the total collection size to 63,000 volumes. In 2022 CCS Bard received $50 million from a $25 million donation from the Gochman Family Foundation to form a Center for American and Indigenous Studies at CCS Bard and a matching donation of $25 million from

. This followed two 2021 gifts of $25 million, one from Marieluise Hessel and a matching donation from Soros.

Center for Human Rights & the Arts

The Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and human rights. The center is affiliated with the Open Society University Network (OSUN). The center's flagship initiative is the Master of Arts program in Human Rights & the Arts. The center includes initiatives such as resident research fellowships, research grants, artist commissions, public talks, and accessible publications.

Center for Environmental Policy

The Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) at Bard College is a research institution offering a range of graduate degree programs focused on environmental policy, climate science, and environmental education. The CEP offers a series of graduate degrees including the Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Master of Education. In addition to these individual degree programs, CEP offers dual-degree options that allow students to combine their environmental studies with programs in law or business.

Levy Economics Institute

is a public policy think tank focused on generating public policy responses to economic problems. Through research, analysis, and informed debate, the institute aims to enable scholars and leaders from business, labor, and government to collaborate on common interest issues. The institute's findings are disseminated globally through various channels, including publications, conferences, seminars, congressional testimony, and partnerships with other nonprofits. Its research encompasses a wide range of topics, including stock-flow consistent macro modeling,

fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variab ...

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

and financial structure, financial instability, income and wealth distribution, financial regulation and governance, gender equality and time poverty, and immigration/ethnicity and social structure. The Levy Economics Institute is particularly known for its research in

heterodox economics Heterodox economics is a broad, relative term referring to schools of economic thought which are not commonly perceived as belonging to mainstream economics. There is no absolute definition of what constitutes heterodox economic thought, as it i ...

, with a focus on

Post-Keynesian Post-Keynesian economics is a school of economic thought with its origins in '' The General Theory'' of John Maynard Keynes, with subsequent development influenced to a large degree by Michał Kalecki, Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor, Sidney ...

and Marxian economics. It is additionally recognized as the leading research center for the study of

Modern Monetary Theory Modern monetary theory or modern money theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of the financial ass ...

(MMT). Notable individuals that have been affiliated with the Levy Economics Institute as professors, directors, and economists include

Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2 ...

Hyman Minsky Hyman Philip Minsky (September 23, 1919 – October 24, 1996) was an American economist and economy professor at Washington University in St. Louis. A distinguished scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, his research was inten ...

William Julius Wilson William Julius Wilson (born December 20, 1935) is an American sociologist, a professor at Harvard University, and an author of works on urban sociology, race, and class issues. Laureate of the National Medal of Science, he served as the 80th Pre ...

, L. Randall Wray,

Jan Kregel Jan A. Kregel (born 19 April 1944) is an American post-Keynesian economist. Kregel has served since 2006 as Professor of Finance and Development at Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia. He is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins S ...

, Bruce C. Greenwald, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Lakshman Achuthan,

Warren Mosler Warren Mosler (born September 18, 1949) is an American hedge fund executive and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of the Center for Full Employment And Price Stability at University of Missouri-Kansas City and the founder of Mosler Automotive. Mo ...

, Stephanie Kelton, Bill Mitchell, and

Pavlina R. Tcherneva Pavlina R. Tcherneva is an American economist, of Bulgarian descent, working as associate professor of economics at Bard College. She is President of the Levy Economics Institute and expert at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Education ...

Endowment

Bard has access to multiple, distinct endowments. Bard, along with

, is a founding member of the Open Society University Network, endowed with $1 billion from philanthropist

, which is a network of universities to operate throughout the world to better prepare students for current and future global challenges through integrated teaching and research. Bard maintains its own endowment of approximately $412 million. In July 2020, Bard received a gift of $100 million from the

, which will dispense $10 million yearly over a period of ten years. In April 2021, Bard received a $500 million endowment challenge grant from George Soros. Once matched, on a five-year timeline, Bard will have an endowment of more than $1 billion.

Programs, centers, and associated institutes

Bard has developed several graduate programs and research institutes, including the

, the

which began offering a Masters of Science in Economic Theory and Policy in 2014, the

Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture Founded in 1990, the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is an exhibition and research center dedicated to the study of art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. The Center initiated its graduate program in 19 ...

, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, the

Bard College Conservatory of Music The Bard College Conservatory of Music is a music conservatory within Bard College, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Established in 2005, it is unique among music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are ...

, the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies in Manhattan, the Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT), the Bard College Clemente Program, and the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

In 1990, Bard College acquired, on permanent loan, art collector Marieluise Hessel's substantial collection of important contemporary artwork. In 2006, Hessel contributed another $8 million (USD) for the construction of a 17,000-square-foot addition to Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies building, in which the collection is exhibited. The

Bard Prison Initiative The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is a program of Bard College that provides college education to people in prison. BPI currently enrolls 400 students full-time across seven prisons in New York State. It engage students in the full breadth of libera ...

(BPI) provides a liberal arts degree to incarcerated individuals (

prison education Prison education is any educational activity that occurs inside prison. Courses can include basic literacy programmes, secondary school equivalency programmes, vocational education, and tertiary education. Other activities such as rehabilitatio ...

) in five prisons in New York State, and enrolls nearly 200 students. Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1994, BPI is one of only a small number of programs of its kind in the country. Bard awards the Bard Fiction Prize annually to "a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application". The prize is $30,000 and an appointment as writer-in-residence at the college. The

Center for Politics and Humanities is located at Bard College. The center hosts an annual public conference, offers courses, runs various related academic programs, and houses research fellows. In February 2009, Bard announced the first dual degree program between a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

university and an American institution of higher education. The college entered into a collaboration with

Al-Quds University Al-Quds University () is a public university in the Jerusalem Governorate, Palestine. The main campus is located in Abu Dis town, near Jerusalem, with three more campuses in Jerusalem and other campuses in Ramallah and Hebron. It was establish ...

involving an honors college, a master's program in teaching and a model high school. In accordance with AlQuds-Bard requirements, students are not allowed to decide their major during the first year of their studies; instead, as a liberal arts college, students are advised to diverge in different classes that would allow them to decide what program they would like to take interest in as in the following year. Students are encouraged to look upon different classes to help them decide the subject they would mostly enjoy studying. Bard gives students the opportunity to dissect different programs before committing to a specific major. As a policy, throughout a student's undergraduate years, they must distribute their credits among different courses so that they can liberally experience the different courses Bard has to offer. In June 2011, Bard officially acquired the

Longy School of Music Longy School of Music of Bard College is a private music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts associated with Bard College. Founded in 1915 as the Longy School of Music, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, and in November 2011, Bard took ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany, to become

Bard College Berlin Bard College Berlin (formerly known as ECLA or European College of Liberal Arts) is a private, non-profit institution of higher education in Berlin, Germany. It was founded as a non-profit association in 1999. Courses are taught in the English la ...

. In 2013, Bard entered into a comprehensive agreement with

Soochow University Soochow University or Suzhou University may refer to: *Soochow University (1900–1952) (), a university in Suzhou (Soochow), Jiangsu, China *Soochow University (Taiwan) (, 1951–present), a university in Taipei, Taiwan, founded by faculty from th ...

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

, China, that will include a joint program between the Soochow University School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, exploration leading to the establishment of The Bard College Liberal Arts Academy at Soochow University, and student exchange. In 2020, Bard announced that through the new Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Advanced Achievement Scholars program the college will offer admission to high school juniors within 120 miles from the college based on an essay process based on the popular Bard Entrance Exam, first launched in 2013.

Student life

Over 120 student clubs are financed through Bard's Convocation Fund, which is distributed once a semester by an elected student body and ratified during a public forum. Bard College has one print newspaper, the '' Bard Free Press'', which was awarded a Best in Show title by the

Associated Collegiate Press The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) is the largest and oldest national membership organization for college student media in the United States. The ACP is a division of the National Scholastic Press Association. It awards the newspaper, maga ...

in 2013. In 2003, the ''Bard Free Press'' won Best Campus Publication in ''

SPIN Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps as ''SPIN'') is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. ...

's ''first annual Campus Awards. Student-run literary magazines include the semiannual ''Lux, The Moderator,'' and ''Sui Generis'', a journal of translations and of original poetry in languages other than English. ''The Draft'', a human rights journal, the ''Bard Journal of the Social Sciences,'' ''Bard Science Journal'', and ''Qualia'', a philosophy journal, are also student-published. Other student groups include: the International Students Organization (ISO), Afropulse, Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Caribbean Student Association (CSA), Asian Student Organization (ASO), Bard Musical Theatre Company (BMTC), Black Student Organization (BSO), Anti-Capitalism Feminist Coalition, Body Image Discussion Group, Self-Injury Support and Discussion, Bard Film Committee, Queer Student Association, Trans Life Collective, The Scale Project, Student Labor Dialogue, Bard Debate Union, Bard Model UN, Surrealist Training Circus, Bard Bike Co-Op, Bard Bars, Bard POC Theater Ensemble, and

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

station WXBC. WXBC was founded in 1947. In 2006, WXBC was nominated for "Station of the Year" and "Biggest Improvement" in the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

College Radio Awards. Bard also has an independent music scene. The college's Old Gym was once a popular location for concerts and parties in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2004, the Old Gym was shut down and in spring 2006 transformed into a student-run theater. Many activities that once took place there, occur in the smaller SMOG building. SMOG is primarily used as a music venue featuring student-run bands.

Athletics

Bard College teams (nicknamed the ''Raptors'') participate as a member of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

. The Raptors are a member of the

Liberty League The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are all located in the state of New York. History It was founded in 1995 as the ...

. Prior conference affiliations include the

Skyline Conference The Skyline Conference is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference based in the New York City area that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division III, Division III. The league was orig ...

and the former Hudson Valley Athletic Conference. Women's sports include

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, cross country,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

. Men's sports include

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, basketball, cross country, soccer, squash, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball. Bard College Rugby Football Club fields men's and women's teams that compete in the Tristate Conference, affiliated with

National Collegiate Rugby National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) formerly the "National Small College Rugby Organization" ("NSCRO") is a rugby union governing body in the United States. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, NCR was created in 2007 by Chip Auscavitch and Steve Coh ...

. Additional club sports include:

ultimate frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

, and

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

Alumni and faculty

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Bard include fraternal songwriters

Richard M. Sherman Richard Morton Sherman (June 12, 1928 – May 25, 2024) was an American songwriter who specialized in musical films with his brother Robert B. Sherman. According to the official Walt Disney Company website and independent fact checkers, "The ...

and

Robert B. Sherman Robert Bernard Sherman (December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012) was an American songwriter, best known for his work in musical films with his brother, Richard M. Sherman. The Sherman brothers produced more motion picture song scores than any oth ...

, comedian and actor

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

(1968);

and

(1969); actors

Blythe Danner Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Best Supporting Actress in a Dra ...

(1965),

Adrian Grenier Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series '' Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appeared in films such as '' Drive Me Crazy'' (1999), '' The Devil ...

Gaby Hoffmann Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She made her film debut in ''Field of Dreams'' (1989) and found success as a child actress in ''Uncle Buck'' (1989 ...

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' and gained further recogn ...

(did not graduate)

Jonah Hill Jonah Hill (born Jonah Hill Feldstein; December 20, 1983) is an American actor. List of awards and nominations received by Jonah Hill, The accolades he has received include nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, BAFTA ...

(did not graduate),

Ezra Miller Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in '' Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the dramas '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' The Perks of Being a Wall ...

(did not graduate),

Griffin Gluck Griffin Alexander Gluck (born August 24, 2000) is an American actor. Gluck began his career as a child actor in comedy films such as ''Just Go with It'' (2011) and ''Why Him?'' (2016). He had his first leading role as a comatose teenager in the ...

(did not graduate) and

Larry Hagman Larry Martin Hagman (September 21, 1931 – November 23, 2012) was an American actor, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera ''Dallas'', and the handsome astronaut Major Anthon ...

(did not graduate); filmmakers

Gia Coppola Gian-Carla Coppola (born January 1, 1987), known professionally as Gia Coppola, is an American film director and screenwriter. A member of the Coppola family, she is the granddaughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. She made her feature film di ...

Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...

(MFA),

Sadie Benning Sadie T. Benning (born April 11, 1973) is an American artist, who has worked primarily in video, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and sound. Benning creates experimental films and explores a variety of themes including surveillance, ge ...

s (MFA), and

Lana Wachowski Lana Wachowski (born Larry Wachowski, June 21, 1965) and Lilly Wachowski (born Andy Wachowski, December 29, 1967) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women. Together known as the Wacho ...

(did not graduate); photographer

Herb Ritts Herbert Ritts Jr. (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer and director known for his photographs of celebrities, models, and other cultural figures throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His work concentrated on b ...

; actor and director

Christopher Guest Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born 5 February 1948), known professionally as Christopher Guest, is a British-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy ...

; songwriter

Billy Steinberg William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly (musician), Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin ...

; theater director

Anne Bogart Anne Bogart (born September 25, 1951) is an American theatre and opera director. She is currently one of the artistic directors of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at Columbia Uni ...

; screenwriter Howard E. Koch; writer David Cote; comedians

Adam Conover Adam Conover (born ) is an American actor, writer and comedian. He created and Television presenter, hosted the half-hour truTV show ''Adam Ruins Everything'', based on the CollegeHumor series of the same name. He was also the host of the Amer ...

and

Raphael Bob-Waksberg Raphael Matthew Bob-Waksberg (born August 17, 1984) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and voice actor. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the Netflix animated comedy series ''BoJack Horseman'' (2014–2020), for wh ...

; fashion designer

Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched Tom Ford (brand), his eponymous brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves Sai ...

(did not graduate), classical composer

Bruce Wolosoff Bruce Wolosoff (born March 27, 1955) is an American classical composer, pianist, and educator.
retrieved May 23, 2017 He lives ...

; journalist

Ronan Farrow Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is known for his investigative reporting on sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Wei ...

; writer and social theorist

Albert Jay Nock Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870 – August 19, 1945) was an American libertarian author, editor first of ''The Nation'' and then ''The Freeman'', educational theorist, Georgist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. He was an ...

;

Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), also known by the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker and a founding member of the Hip-hop, hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed m ...

of the

Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...

(did not graduate); and artists

Tschabalala Self Tschabalala Self (born 1990) is an American artist best known for her depictions of Black female figures using paint, fabric, and discarded pieces of her previous works. Though she uses mixed media, all of her works are on canvas and employ a "p ...

, and

Frances Bean Cobain Frances Bean Cobain (born August 18, 1992) is an American visual artist and model. She is the only child of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. She controls the publicity rights to her father's name and image. Early ...

(did not graduate). File:Jonah Hill-4939 (cropped) (cropped).jpg,

, Actor (did not graduate) File:Tom Ford cropped 2009.jpg,

, Designer (did not graduate) File:Becker & Fagen of Steely Dan at Pori Jazz 2007.jpg,

, Rock Band (1969) File:Chevy Chase at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.JPG,

, Actor (1968) File:Ezra Miller by Gage Skidmore.jpg,

, actor (did not graduate) File:Raphael Bob-Waksberg (51987861655).jpg,

, writer and producer (2006) File:Lana Wachowski, Fantastic Fest, Cloud Atlas.jpg,

, director and producer (did not graduate) File:Gia Coppola 2016.png,

, director (2009) File:Pulitzer2018-mia-farrow-20180530-wp.jpg,

, actress (did not graduate) File:Adam Yauch crop.jpg,

, rapper (did not graduate)

Notable faculty

Among the college's most well-known former faculty are

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically accl ...

, Mary McCarthy,

Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American filmmaker, theatre director, and producer. He was a three-time Academy Award nominee for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, and a Tony Awards, Tony Awa ...

, Nathan Thrall,

Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. In 1998, he participated in the 24th International Biennale in São Paulo, ...

Mitch Epstein Mitchell Epstein (born 1952) is an American photographer. His books include ''Vietnam: A Book of Changes'' (1997); ''Family Business'' (2003), which won the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award; ''Recreation: American Photographs 1973–1988 ...

Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm ...

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

Richard Teitelbaum Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He ...

Mary Lee Settle Mary Lee Settle (July 29, 1918 – September 27, 2005) was an American writer. She won the 1978 National Book Award for her novel '' Blood Tie''.

(part time), Andre Aciman,

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' ( ...

, Charles Burnett,

Bill T. Jones William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), is an American Choreography, choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. J ...

, and

Alexander Soros Alexander Soros (born October 27, 1985) is an American investor and philanthropist. One of the five children of billionaire George Soros, he chairs the Board of Directors of the Open Society Foundations and sits on the investment committee for ...

. Notable current faculty, include

, An-My Lê,

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

Jeffrey Gibson Jeffrey A. Gibson (born 1972)''U.S. Public Records Index'' Vol. 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010. is an American Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee painter and sculptor. He has lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York; Hudson, New Y ...

Gilles Peress Gilles Peress (born December 29, 1946) is a French photographer and a member of Magnum Photos. Peress began working with photography in 1970, having previously studied political science and philosophy in Paris. One of Peress' first projects exa ...

, John Ryle,

Tan Dun Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a pairing which has shaped much of his life and mu ...

Walid Raad Walid Raad (Ra'ad) (Arabic: وليد رعد) (born 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon) is a contemporary media artist. The Atlas Group is a fictional collective, the work of which is produced by Walid Raad. He lives and works in New York, where he is curr ...

Daniel Mendelsohn Daniel Adam Mendelsohn (born 1960) is an American author, essayist, critic, columnist, and translator. He is currently the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard College, the Editor at Large of the '' New York Review of Books,'' ...

Thomas Chatterton Williams Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and writer.Hua Hsu Hua Hsu (born 1977) is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as ...

Kobena Mercer Kobena Mercer (born 1960) is a British art historian and writer on contemporary art and visual culture. His writing on Robert Mapplethorpe and Rotimi Fani-Kayode has been described as "among the most incisive (and delightful to read) critiques of ...

, Joseph O’Neill,

Ian Buruma Ian Buruma (born 28 December 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on t ...

Judy Pfaff Judy Pfaff (born 1946) is an American artist known mainly for installation art and sculptures, though she also produces paintings and prints. Pfaff has received numerous awards for her work, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda ...

Joan Tower Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New Y ...

Walter Russell Mead Walter Russell Mead (born June 12, 1952) is an American academic. He is the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida's Hamilton Center, and taught American foreign policy at Yale University. He was als ...

Nayland Blake Nayland Blake is an American artist whose focus is on interracial attraction, same-sex love, and intolerance of the prejudice toward them. Their mixed-media work has been variously described as disturbing, provocative, elusive, tormented, siniste ...

Nuruddin Farah Nuruddin Farah (, ) (born 24 November 1945) is a Somali novelist. His first novel, '' From a Crooked Rib'', was published in 1970 and has been described as "one of the cornerstones of modern East African literature today". Farah has also written ...

Mona Simpson Mona Simpson (née Jandali; June 14, 1957) is an American novelist. She has written six novels and studied English at University of California, Berkeley, and languages and literature at Columbia University. She won a Whiting Award for her first ...

, Sky Hopinka (MFA Faculty),

Masha Gessen Masha Gessen () is a Russian and American journalist, author, and translator who has written extensively on LGBT rights. Gessen writes primarily in English but also in Russian. In addition to authoring several nonfiction books, Gessen has con ...

(visiting writer),

Kelly Reichardt Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalism, minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working class, working-class characters in small ...

(artist in residence),

Francine Prose Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center. Life and career Born in Broo ...

(writer in residence), Susan Weber,

Lauren Cornell Lauren Cornell is an American curator and writer based in New York. Cornell is the Chief Curator of the Hessel Museum of Art and the Director of the Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Previously, she was a cura ...

Ann Lauterbach Ann Lauterbach (born 1942) is an American poet, essayist, art critic, and professor. Early life Lauterbach was born and raised in New York City, and earned her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin. She lived in London for eight years, working ...

Valeria Luiselli Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican-American author. She is the author of the book of essays ''Sidewalks'' and the novel '' Faces in the Crowd'', which won the ''Los Angeles Times'' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Luisel ...

, and

(visiting artist in residence). File:Toni Morrison.jpg,

, novelist File:Hannah Arendt auf dem 1. Kulturkritikerkongress, Barbara Niggl Radloff, FM-2019-1-5-9-16 (cropped).jpg,

, philosopher File:Roy Lichtenstein.jpg,

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

, artist File:Visita - Artista Plástico Vik Muniz (53515588190) (cropped).jpg,

, artist File:John Ashbery Brooklyn Poet 2010 Shankbone.jpg,

, poet File:Stephen Shore at CO Berlin, 2016.jpg,

, photographer File:Kyle-cassidy-neil-gaiman-April-2013.jpg,

, writer File:3Nuruddin Farah.jpg,

, novelist File:Jeffrey Gibson at Hirshhorn 2024.jpg,

, artist File:Masha Gessen 01a.jpg,

, Journalist

References

External links

*
Athletics website
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