Division of the Arts

Recent News

• Stephen Shore Profiled in the New York Times
  ×

  Stephen Shore Profiled in the New York Times

  

  Photography Program Director and Susan Weber Professor in the Arts Stephen Shore.
  

  Photography Program Director and Susan Weber Professor in the Arts Stephen Shore was profiled by the New York Times. Photographer and Bard alumnus Gus Aronson ’20 shot a video that accompanies the profile of Shore, who has headed the photography program at Bard for over 40 years. The profile celebrates the publication of his new collection Early Work, containing photography he took from the ages of 12 to 17. The photos show Shore’s early street photography in Manhattan, shaped by inspirations like Walker Evans and Bruce Davidson; “I was looking a lot and had a lot of influences,” Shore says. Several years later, at 24, Shore would have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  
  Shore has had many exhibitions around the world since then, in Milan, Cologne, Chicago, and more. He has taught in Bard’s Photography Program since 1982. He says these early photos reflect concerns he’s addressed through his entire practice: “I see a formal awareness from the beginning. I’m framing, not pointing.”
  

  Read the Profile
  

  
  Post Date: 08-27-2025
  
• Bard Alumnus and Jazz Pianist Ran Blake ’60 Profiled in the Boston Globe 
  ×

  Bard Alumnus and Jazz Pianist Ran Blake ’60 Profiled in the Boston Globe 

  

  Ran Blake ’60. Photo by Andy Hurlbut
  

  Jazz pianist and Bard College alumnus Ran Blake ’60 was interviewed by the Boston Globe for an article covering the artist’s career, which has spanned more than 60 years, and how he at 90 is preparing to perform a solo concert in Brookline, MA, this September. Blake, whose career has yielded over 40 recording credits on jazz albums, has also spent over 40 years teaching jazz at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he cofounded and led the Department of Third Stream, now called the Department of Contemporary Improvisation. “Ran gave me the freedom to find myself in jazz standards,” said Portuguese singer Sara Serpa, who studied with Blake at NEC and collaborated on an album with him, adding that he “really gave me permission to find myself in the songs, to create my own stories.”Blake also spent years bringing music programming to the public as NEC’s community services director, telling the Globe, “It was very important to send music to where the people are and encourage them to play.”
   
  

  Read more in the Boston Globe
  

  
  Post Date: 08-27-2025
  
• Tanya Marcuse interviewed by Emma Ressel ’16 in Lenscratch
  ×

  Tanya Marcuse interviewed by Emma Ressel ’16 in Lenscratch

  

  Associate Professor of Photography Tanya Marcuse.
  

  Associate Professor of Photography Tanya Marcuse was interviewed by her former student Emma Ressel ’16 in Lenscratch. They discussed how Marcuse’s work is inspired by the ecology of the Hudson Valley, with her projects ranging from photographs of local apple trees to images of fantastical structures she built with natural material gathered in the region. They also discussed their individual approaches to photographing nature. In photography “sometimes things truly, fully come together,” Marcuse said. “You get a random reward, which isn’t so random, because it’s about continually showing up and paying attention.”
  
  Ressel was a Lenscratch Student Prize winner in 2024. She attended Bard’s Photography Program and has held solo exhibits in New Mexico and is on the shortlist for the 2025 Aperture Portfolio Prize. Marcuse has taught at Bard since 2012. She recently completed her 14-year, three-part project Fruitless | Fallen | Woven, inspired by the Biblical story of the fall from Eden.
  

  Read the Interview
  

  Emma Ressel's Photography
  

  
  Post Date: 08-27-2025
  
• Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025
  ×

  Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025

  

  Sonita Alizada ’23.
  

  Sonita Alizada ’23, a rapper and human rights activist, will embark on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford beginning this fall. She joins Ronan Farrow ’04 as the second Rhodes winner from Bard College in Annandale. (Nawara Alaboud ’23, originally from Syria, is the first Bard College Berlin student to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.)
  
  Alizada, who double-majored in human rights and music, says Bard played a “crucial” part in her award. “The faculty here have been incredibly supportive, offering guidance, mentorship, and resources that helped me refine my academic and professional goals. They provided encouragement and constructive feedback throughout my application process and helped me navigate each step with confidence.”
  
  She looks forward to continuing her work supporting Afghan women and children by combining “academic research with practical impact.” She looks forward to taking public policy classes at Oxford and focusing specifically on women and children's rights. “I’m deeply honored to receive the Rhodes scholarship, [and] I hope to bring back insights that can further support vulnerable communities,” she said.
  

  Rhodes Scholarship Announcement
  

  
  Post Date: 08-27-2025
  
• Robert Kelly and Charlotte Mandell ’90 Write About Pierre Joris ’69 for the Poetry Foundation
  ×

  Robert Kelly and Charlotte Mandell ’90 Write About Pierre Joris ’69 for the Poetry Foundation

  

  Pierre Joris ’69. Photo by Guy Jallay
  

  Robert Kelly, Asher B. Edelman Professor Emeritus of Literature at Bard College, and Charlotte Mandell ’90, translator and Bard alumna, cowrote a remembrance of Pierre Joris ’69, Bard alumnus and poet who passed away earlier this year. Joris was a prolific poet who edited many collections of poetry and translated poems into French, German, and English. Kelly, who taught Joris at Bard, and Mandell, one of Joris’s former colleagues, discussed their friendship with Joris and his work throughout his career.
  
  “He was never jealous of anybody,” said Mandell of Joris. “He was always happy for other people's success.” Speaking about his translations of Paul Celan, Kelly remembers “Pierre somehow intuited a movement [toward] the kind of free line, the importance of the line, long or short. I think Pierre felt that movement in Celan’s later work [and] made it evident in his translations.”
  
  The Literature Program at Bard challenges national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries that have often dictated the terms by which we understand the meaning and value of the written word, and has a long-standing commitment to fostering the work of writers and thinkers who expand the parameters of public discourse.
  

  Read the Article
  

  
  Post Date: 08-20-2025
  
• Article by Miriam Felton-Dansky Wins Award From the University of Toronto Press
  ×

  Article by Miriam Felton-Dansky Wins Award From the University of Toronto Press

  

  Miriam Felton-Dansky, director of the Theater and Performance Program.
  

  An article coauthored by Miriam Felton-Dansky, director of the Theater and Performance Program at Bard College, has won the 2024 Modern Drama Outstanding Article Award from the University of Toronto Press. “Interface Theatre: Watching Ourselves Disappear,” which Felton-Dansky wrote together with Jacob Gallagher-Ross of the University of Toronto, is a timely analysis and assessment of theatrical responses to and engagement with digital culture. The essay explores the concept of what they have termed “interface theatre,” illuminating a genre in which live performance lays bare the invisible architectures of digital life. This new conceptual framework explains how theatre can not only depict but also embody the logics of algorithmic life, revealing how interfaces shape identity, surveillance, and the perception of self. The essay also received an honorable mention for the 2025 Outstanding Article Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, one of the largest scholarly organizations in the field.
  
  Bard’s Theater and Performance Program offers an interdisciplinary, liberal arts-based approach to the making and study of theater and performance, and embraces a wide range of performance practices, from live art and interactive installation to classical theater from around the globe.
  
  Post Date: 08-19-2025