Donor support ensures Bard’s unique place as an institution of excellence that serves as a center for and a model of cultural creation, debate, service, and political exchange among citizens of the future, one that is dominated not by commerce and a narrow definition of utility, but by a love of learning.
Directed, filmed, and edited by Masha Zabara '21
Thanks from Bard
Directed, filmed, and edited by Masha Zabara ’21
Why Give?
For more than a century and a half, donor support has helped Bard College change lives with discoveries that improve the world, with knowledge that enlightens and inspires, and with an educational environment that prepares students for lives of impact.
Your Gift Supports:
100% of Students
100% of Faculty and Staff
100% of Classrooms
100% of Facilities
Your Gift Supports:
100% of Students
100% of Faculty and Staff
100% of Classrooms
100% of Facilities
Photo by Chris Kayden
Faculty at the Top of Their Fields
Members of the Bard faculty inspire our students in the classroom. They are thought leaders investigating the most critical questions in their fields. Bard faculty awards and honors have included: the French Legion of Honor, GRAMMY awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, Kennedy Center Honors, MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, the National Book Award, National Science Foundation Grants, the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prizes, Rhodes Scholarships, the Royal Society of Literature, and Tony awards.
Photo by Pete Mauney ’93 MFA ’00
State-of-the-Art Science Facilities
Students taking courses in science, mathematics, and computing at Bard have use of exceptional facilities and the latest equipment. The Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation features seven smart classrooms and nearly 17,000 square feet of laboratory space with state-of-the-art biology and chemistry equipment. The computer science space includes cognitive systems, robotics, and hardware teaching labs.
Photo by Chris Kayden
Excellence in the Arts
At Bard, students get the best of both worlds: an excellent liberal arts education and one of the finest arts schools in the country. Arts students study and work with active, distinguished professionals in their fields. All of the arts programs unite a study of craft with history, theory, and criticism. From the Frank Gehry–designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts to the László Z. Bitó '60 Conservatory Building, world-class facilities support top-level artistic training in the context of a liberal arts education.
Photo by Karl Rabe
Bard College Fund | Financial Aid
The availability of financial support can considerably enhance the educational experiences and opportunities for many talented students who might otherwise be unable to access higher education. One way the Bard College Fund supports Bard students is through scholarships, awards, and prizes, which help enable them to pursue their academic and professional dreams without the burden of financial constraints. This aid reduces their economic pressures and fosters an environment of inclusivity and diversity within Bard's campus. Bard is continually grateful for the generous contributions from its donors, as each donation plays a significant role in sustaining Bard's successes. Every contribution, regardless of size, makes a significant difference in the lives of students.
NEWSROOM
Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies Receives 2025 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant
The grant, in the amount of $75,680, will support CCS Bard’s Envelope & Air-sealing Upgrades Project, a series of energy efficient upgrades at Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art.
Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies Receives 2025 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Grant
The Hessel Museum of Art.
These upgrades to building infrastructure will both increase overall energy-efficiency and reduce fuel oil consumption. Building upon the success of the Museum’s former 2022-23 Frankenthaler-supported Technical Assistance project—which included a suite of air infiltration and envelope diagnostic testing across the facility—Bard operations and museum staff have utilized that information to identify a new scope of air-sealing measures. The new project aims to reduce air-infiltration rates by 15% through a host of measures, thereby reducing the energy required for space heating and cooling, humidification and dehumidification, and fresh air ventilation for occupants.
“The FCI grant will enable CCS Bard and the Hessel Museum of Art to take climate action by allowing us to make our building more energy efficient, lowering our carbon footprint," said Tom Eccles, executive director of CCS Bard. “Not only will this contribute to Bard College’s campus-wide sustainability initiatives and goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2035, but it will also be deeply meaningful to our students and the broader community of artists, curators, scholars, and educators who care passionately about these issues and address them in their work.”
The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is the first nationwide program to support energy efficiency and clean energy use for the visual arts and the largest private national grantmaking program of its kind for cultural institutions. Launched in 2021, the initiative funds energy efficiency programs and clean energy projects at visual art organizations, including art museums, art schools, non-collecting arts institutions, and nonprofit art events.
“The Foundation is proud to continue supporting visionary projects that are reshaping the way arts institutions operate,” said Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. “FCI’s fifth cycle highlights a new level of strategic thinking among applicants—one that seamlessly integrates creative practice with environmental responsibility. By extending this initiative, we reaffirm our belief that the arts can play a meaningful role in shaping our shared future.”
Post Date: 07-08-2025
Galvan Donates Real Estate Portfolio to Bard College in Historic Gift to Advance Community Building Mission and Support Bard’s Endowment Campaign
In a transformative act of philanthropic partnership, Galvan Foundation has made a major gift to Bard College.
More News
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Walid Raad Receives Trellis Foundation 2025 Milestone Grant
Walid Raad Receives Trellis Foundation 2025 Milestone Grant
Walid Raad, professor of photography at Bard College, has been announced as a recipient of a 2025 Trellis Foundation Milestone Grant. As one of 12 recipients named by the Trellis Art Fund, Raad will receive an unrestricted grant in the amount of $100,000, which will be disbursed in two installments over a two-year period. The award aims to provide support to artists who reflect a consistent, engaged practice and who have demonstrated a trajectory of creative excellence over the course of their career. Grantees will also be supported with career-development assistance, including workshops, and in November Trellis will host a retreat in upstate New York for 2024 and 2025 Milestone grantees to foster community-building. The winners, chosen by an anonymous five-person panel, range in age from 38 to 82 and were selected based on their demonstrated commitment to their respective practices, their unique contributions to their fields, and the consistently high quality of their work.Walid Raad, professor of photography.
Post Date: 07-06-2025
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Wiháŋble S’a Center at Bard College Receives Wagner Foundation Grant
Wiháŋble S’a Center at Bard College Receives Wagner Foundation Grant
The Wiháŋble S’a Center for Indigenous AI at Bard College has been announced as the recipient of a $93,000 grant from the Wagner Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Boston. The grant will support the project “Cosmologyscape,” a multi-platform, socially engaged public art initiative co-lead by Wiháŋble S’a Center Director Dr. Suzanne Kite, distinguished artist in residence and assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies at Bard, and artist and producer Alisha B. Wormsley MFA ’19.“Every Wonder in One Spot,” from the project Cosmologyscape by Kite and Alicia B Wormsley. Courtesy the artists and Creative Time
“Cosmologyscape” will launch its next chapter with an exhibition at Wagner in January 2026, and will include features such as Dream Mosaic tiles visualizing collective dreams installed along long gallery walls, a comfortable Dream Office space in which attendees can gather and rest, digital projections showcasing a localized “Boston Dreaming” webpage, and other installations. The project, which solicits dreams from the public that are translated into quilting patterns generated from 26 Black and Lakota symbols, aims to activate rest and dreaming as liberatory acts through sculpture, digital engagement, and community programming.
“This grant affirms that dreaming is a vital, collective act—and that rest, vision, and story are the seeds of real change,” said Dr. Suzanne Kite, director of the Wiháŋble S’a Center. “With support from the Wagner Foundation, ‘Cosmologyscape’ can continue unfolding as a cosmic quilt—each dream a thread, weaving together Black and Indigenous futures across time, land, and memory.”
Wagner Foundation is a Cambridge, MA-based foundation that invests in health equity, economic prosperity, and cultural transformation across the globe. Wagner Foundation prioritizes work that strengthens equitable systems and views artists as leaders and changemakers who are critical voices in interrogating the past, wrestling with the current moment, and envisioning alternative futures. Learn more at wfound.org.
Post Date: 07-01-2025
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Mara Baldwin Awarded Summer 2025 Artist Residency by the McColl Center
Mara Baldwin Awarded Summer 2025 Artist Residency by the McColl Center
Mara Baldwin, visiting artist in residence in Studio Arts at Bard, has been awarded a Summer 2025 Artist in Residency by the McColl Center through its Parent and Educator Artist in Residency Program. The internationally acclaimed program by McColl Center, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, aims to serve as a catalyst for artistic growth among creators, and residents are encouraged to immerse themselves fully in research, exploration, and creation, while also engaging with McColl Center’s community and Charlotte’s local creative sector. Baldwin’s multidisciplinary and research-based work uses textiles and drawings to create serial and narrative forms, and focuses on the impossible dream of utopia. While in residency, which takes place from June 3 to August 11, Baldwin joins three other artists, each of whom will construct immersive, hybrid worlds that reflect layered identities and complex truths using diverse practices spanning sculpture, sound, performance, and installation. Baldwin will receive a $6,000 stipend and have access to a private studio space, shared labs and facilities, including a 3D printer Lab, a ceramics and sculpture studio, a darkroom, a media lab, and a woodshop, along with curatorial guidance and marketing support.Mara Baldwin, visiting artist in residence in Studio Arts at Bard.
Post Date: 06-20-2025
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US-China Music Institute Awarded Grant from Cyrus Tang Foundation
US-China Music Institute Awarded Grant from Cyrus Tang Foundation
The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Cyrus Tang Foundation. The funding will support numerous cultural exchange activities and performances throughout 2025, starting with a two-week tour of China in June featuring lively concerts, youth education, and community outreach by the dynamic young musicians of the Bard East/West Ensemble. Later in the year the ensemble plans to perform in Washington D.C. and Boston.The Bard East/West Ensemble. Photo by Chris Kayden
The upcoming China tour is part of the broader work of the US–China Music Institute, in collaboration with partners in the US and China, to promote cultural bridges through the universal language of music, showing that cooperation can flourish between people with different cultures, traditions, and ideas. During the two-week tour in China, the Bard East/West Ensemble will be hosted by music schools in the cities of Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wujiang, and Hangzhou, where master classes, community engagement events, and musical performances are planned. The tour will conclude in Beijing with a week at the Central Conservatory of Music, US-China Music Institute’s longtime partner institution. The musical repertoire includes new arrangements of both Chinese and Western compositions including Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Zhou Long’s King Chu Doffs His Armor, Matthias Duplessy’s Zhong Kui’s Adventures, and more, as well as new works commissioned for the ensemble.
The Bard East/West Ensemble is a dynamic and original music group that brings together the essence of Chinese and Western soundscapes to create a new model of cross-cultural performance. The ensemble’s founder and artistic director, Jindong Cai, has devoted his career as an orchestra conductor and educator to advocate for the development of Chinese music in the West. The ensemble aims to combine Eastern and Western musical traditions, and is committed to performing arrangements and original works with unique instrumentation, thereby creating a new realm of musical expression. Cultural exchange and cross-cultural understanding are at the root of the ensemble’s mission to improve US-China relations by using music to bridge divides, deepen understanding, and inspire connection between people in both countries. barduschinamusic.org/bard-eastwest-ensemble
The Cyrus Tang Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Las Vegas, was established in 1995 to support initiatives that drive impact across education, healthcare, community development, and other underserved areas. The organization was inspired by the vision of its founder, Cyrus Tang, a successful businessman and philanthropist who envisioned a world where everyone would be empowered to make a difference and carry forward a spirit of giving back. cyrustangfoundation.org/
Post Date: 06-10-2025
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Bard College Celebrates Student Achievements at Undergraduate Awards Ceremony
Bard College Celebrates Student Achievements at Undergraduate Awards Ceremony
Faculty, staff, and students gathered at Blithewood Manor for this year’s Undergraduate Awards Ceremony, which was held on Monday, April 28. The annual ceremony is a celebration of the incredible talent and dedication showcased by Bard students, as well as the unwavering support and guidance from esteemed faculty and staff at the College. The evening's awardees, who were nominated by faculty from across the four divisions of the College, represent excellence in the arts; social studies; languages and literature; and science, mathematics, and computing. Among the awardees were students in the Bard Baccalaureate, a program for older students returning to college to finish their undergraduate degrees.Sierra Ford ’26 receives the inaugural Betsaida Alcantara ’05 Pioneers for Progress Award. Photo by Joseph Nartey ’26
The event featured remarks and award presentations from key figures, including President of the College Leon Botstein, Dean of the College Deirdre d'Albertis, Dean of Studies and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs David Shein, and Bard Alumna Cara Parks ’05. A special highlight of the evening was the announcement of a newly established award in memory of a beloved Bardian, Betsaida Alcantara ’05, by the Class of 2005, family, friends, and loved ones who knew her. The inaugural Betsaida Alcantara ’05 Pioneers for Progress Award, in memory of Betsaida Alcantara '05 (1983–2022), who exemplified the best of Bard's hope to inspire people to be passionate agents of change, pioneers for progress, and advocates for justice for those most in need was given to Sierra Ford ’26 who has demonstrated strong leadership skills, a commitment to public service, and support for open societies.
The presentation of awards was a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the exceptional academic achievement, leadership, and commitment demonstrated by Bard students. It was a testament to their hard work and perseverance, which defines the spirit of Bard College and serves as an inspiration to us all.
Many of the undergraduate awards are made possible by generous contributions from Bard donors. Thank you to all our supporters for believing in the value of a college education, and for investing in the future of Bard students.
Post Date: 04-30-2025
Endowment Challenge
George Soros and the Open Society Foundations have pledged $500 million for Bard’s unrestricted endowment.
This pledge ranks among the largest commitments to higher education in the United States in recent memory.
The pledge has challenged Bard to raise an additional $500 million over five years for its endowment. In April 2021, the College publicly announced that the first half of that amount, $250 million, was raised from trustees, alumni/ae, and friends, all of whom have made their own pledges due to their belief in Bard’s distinctive mission.
The pledge has challenged Bard to raise an additional $500 million over five years for its endowment. In April 2021, the College publicly announced that the first half of that amount, $250 million, was raised from trustees, alumni/ae, and friends, all of whom have made their own pledges due to their belief in Bard’s distinctive mission.