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His melodic gift rivaled Puccini’s—but his reputation suffered when he began writing movie scores. Now Bard is giving him a fresh listen. Weekend Two: August 16–18.

Bardians Abby Bender and Anna Luckey cofounded the Built on Stilts dance festival on Martha’s Vineyard not long after graduation. It has evolved into an all-inclusive, grassroots performance venue for local and visiting artists, featuring more than 50 original works and dance workshops for both children and adults.

“For Johns, factual certainties, such as the American flag or a plaster cast of a body part, enable him to dwell in ‘uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts,’ and not reach after ‘fact,’ which would be redundant,” writes Yau in this two-part essay. “This is the pleasure that Johns gives us. He does not tell us what to see or think. He shows what seeing and thinking can be.”

In honor of the 30th anniversary of their Paul’s Boutique album, Beastie Boys (inspired by the late member Adam Yauch ’86, who went vegan after being diagnosed with cancer) have collaborated with Adidas on a vegan shoe.
 

Titled After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly, the exhibition is based on a series of poems by Wong on hunger, food, silence, and family. Wong, a first-generation Chinese American, talks to KUOW Public Radio producer Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong about the meal she imagines her ancestors might have today.
 

President Botstein talks about the U.S. premiere of Erich Korngold’s The Miracle of Heliane, and why Bard is the perfect place to revive overlooked works.
 

"Bard is a great place because we are not interested in commercial performance. We want to make a contribution to knowledge and scholarship. We are interested in the future of music both in new music but also in the past.

If the past is only about 20 operas, then the future of the art form is going to be condemned. The way you tell the story of the past influences the way you tell the future. Our mission is not to compete with anyone but to show different repertoire." —Leon Botstein

Globally recognized modern dancer and Bard alumnus Ainesh Madan ’15 observes that art comes to the rescue of the mundane. In this interview, he talks about the importance of a daily artistic practice, his most recent work focusing on his return to India after eight years in New York, and pieces he choreographed at Bard now coming to fruition. “Once I went to Bard College,” he tells the Hindu. “I started discovering my artistic side. I dedicated the majority of my day in the studio, even when I was not in class. I made (choreographed/composed) a lot of work. Once the studios were closed, I would come back to my room and work on music.”

The Bard Music Festival turns its focus on Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the preeminent film composer of the 1930s and ’40s whose art music long went overlooked. August 9–11 and 16–18 at the Fisher Center.

By Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Now that film music enjoys an unequivocal presence on contemporary orchestral programs, it’s no surprise that the Bard Music Festival, that bastion of imaginative programming, is marking its 30th anniversary season by turning to a figure somewhat unfamiliar as a “serious” composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957). Korngold was arguably the pre-eminent film composer during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” Yet, by the time he died, his work there during the 1930s and ’40s had effectively obliterated the exceptional stature he had achieved in Europe’s concert halls and opera houses.

“With Heliane, Korngold was sharpening the talents he would use later in the United States,” says Times critic Seth Walls. Even though his most enduring legacy may be in film, “his take on 1920s Viennese opera is well worth a trip to take in.” Through August 4.
 

Set in an unnamed totalitarian state, The Miracle of Heliane (Das Wunder der Heliane) features an intricate, erotic triangle between a ruthless despot, The Ruler; his beautiful and neglected wife, Heliane; and a young, messianic Stranger. An allegorical tale about the destruction of a dictatorship by a woman, Heliane premiered to great acclaim in Hamburg in 1927, and remains extraordinarily relevant today. This new production is directed by Christian Räth, with sets and costumes by Esther Bialas, both making their SummerScape debuts. The consistently excellent cast includes the stunning Lithuanian soprano Ausrine Stundyte in an all-too-rare U.S. appearance alongside rising star tenor Daniel Brenna, and the heralded bass-baritone Alfred Walker. Opening Friday, July 26, at the Fisher Center.

On Sunday, July 28, at 6 pm, the Spiegeltent at Bard’s Fisher Center will host a showcase of Bard alumni/ae making their mark on the music scene. Bardians near and far come together for a celebration led by Bard alumni/ae musicians, with performances by: Odetta Hartman ’11; Bree and the Reeds, featuring Brianna Reed ’12; Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez '16; and a new musical project by Dan Vernam ’13, Wyatt Bertz ’13, and Joe Tisdall ’13; with Alex Friedman ’12, Jesse Featherstone ’14, Luke McCrosson ’16, Zach Berns, and more.

Erich Korngold almost single-handedly created the concept of the Hollywood soundtrack, so why isn’t his music better known? A child prodigy born in Austria in 1897, Korngold was in the public eye from a young age. He moved his family to the United States to escape the Nazis and began composing for American movies. His opera The Miracle of Heliane will have its U.S. premiere at Bard’s Fisher Center this weekend. His life and work will be the focus of the Bard Music Festival next month.
 

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is pleased to announce that distinguished scholar, curator, and educator Nana Adusei-Poku will join CCS Bard as senior academic adviser and Luma Foundation Fellow. In this role, Adusei-Poku will collaborate with the staff and faculty to develop and advise on the curriculum, which centers around the study of contemporary art, the institutions and practices of exhibition-making, and the theory and criticism of the visual arts. She will also work with Executive Director Tom Eccles, Chief Curator and Graduate Program Director Lauren Cornell, and faculty to develop the curatorial and publishing program at CCS Bard, including symposia, conferences, performance, and exhibitions at the Center for Curatorial Studies and in collaboration with partners, including departments across Bard College and contemporary art institutions.

“Nana Adusei-Poku is an exceptional scholar, curator, and teacher. Her intellectual rigor and commitment to original research will be invaluable to our program and to future classes of CCS Bard graduate students,” said Cornell. Previously, Adusei-Poku served as visiting professor at The Cooper Union, and as a guest lecturer in the Department of Art and Media at the University of the Arts, Zurich. She was research professor for visual cultures (2015–17) and for cultural diversity (2013–14) at the Hogeschool Rotterdam with affiliation to the Piet Zwart Institute and Willem de Kooning Academy. She received her PhD from Humboldt University Berlin following degrees in African and gender studies, and in media and communications at Goldsmiths College London. She has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Ghana, Legon, London School of Economics, and Columbia University, New York.

She is the curator of the program Longing on a Large Scale in conjunction with Todd Gray's exhibition Eucledian Gris Gris at Pomona College Museum of Art, which starts in September 2019 and will run until May 2020. In 2018, Adusei-Poku curated the immersive event performance of No-thingness at the Academy of Arts Berlin and, in 2015, she co-curated the exhibition NO HUMANS INVOLVED at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art Rotterdam. She has published in artist monographs about Leslie Hewitt, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, and Todd Gray, among others, and in publications such as e-flux, multitudes, Le Journal des Laboratoires, Kunstforum International, as well as peer-reviewed journals such as Nka Journal for Contemporary African Art, Feministische Studien, and Dark Matter.

Adusei-Poku replaces Jeannine Tang, who joins Eugene Lang College at The New School as assistant professor in modern and contemporary art history, after nearly a decade at CCS Bard. In 2018, Tang co-curated The Conditions of Being Art: Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts. Co, (1983–2004) at the Hessel Museum of Art, a project that exemplified her commitment to building groundbreaking scholarship in contemporary art and curatorial history.
 

General information on the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College can be found at:

Daniel Fish's production of Acquanetta is “great fun and highly unnerving … a must-see for fans of his revival of Oklahoma! currently on Broadway.” Bard alumnus David Bloom ’13, GCP ’15 conducts.
 

The Bard Graduate Center (BGC) and U’mista Cultural Centre have launched an exhibition website that explores the hidden histories and multiple legacies of Franz Boas’s The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians. It is part of an international project to create a new critical edition of the volume. BGC also hosted an exhibition of The Story Box at its New York City gallery this year.
 

Painter Leidy Churchman's first museum survey is taking place at Bard’s Hessel Museum. Crocodile is full of intriguing patterns and radical juxtapositions ... and a 32-foot-long painting on the floor.

The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College (Bard MFA) presents Say Ever Moves, the class of 2020 thesis presentation, which brings together works by MFA candidates in the disciplines film/video, music/sound, painting, photography, sculpture, and writing. The exhibition will be on view from July 21 through July 28 at the Bard College Exhibition Center / UBS Gallery, 29 O’Callaghan Lane, Red Hook, New York.

An opening reception takes place on Saturday, July 20, 1–4 p.m. Evening presentations of time-based works, including performances, readings, and screenings, will be held at several locations on the Bard College campus during the week of July 22. All presentations are free and open to the public.

The Bard MFA thesis presentations feature works by Luis Arnias, Georgian Badal, Jobi Bicos, Lauren Burrow, Gwenan Davies, Omari Douglin, Carolina Fandiño Salcedo, Carolyn Ferrucci, Marco Gomez, Colleen Hargaden, Evie K. Horton, Christiane Huber, Rachel James, Jamie Krasner, Nawahineokala'i Lanzilotti, Dani Leder, Isabel Mallet, Carla Jean Mayer, Lee Nachum, Brandon Ndife, Diane Severin Nguyen, Miko Revereza, Alicia Salvadeo, Robert Sandler, Jaxyn Randall, Estelle Srivijittakar, Jordan Strafer, Daniel Sullivan, Christopher van Ginhoven Rey, Jessica Wilson, and Alex Zandi. The exhibition is coordinated by Marisa Espe ’20, a graduate student at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard).

The Bard College Exhibition Center will be open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Saturday/Sunday, 1–5 p.m. For the opening reception, a return shuttle service will be offered from Rhinecliff Amtrak station. Schedules, accessibility information, and more are available below. Parking is available in the Saint Christopher’s Church lot at 7411 South Broadway or on Garden Road.

“Found photographs are memories that have gone feral,” writes Professor Sante, “the living trace of a human who may otherwise survive only as a census entry, or not even that.”

This year Bard SummerScape is presenting a modern, multimedia style opera, Acquanetta, written by Catskill resident, librettist Deborah Artman. The opera’s music is by Michael Gordon and the production runs from July 11 through July 21. Nunally Kersh is the producer for Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s The Miracle of Heliane, a new production and a U.S. premiere, running July 26 through August 4.

Bard SummerScape is honoring the choreographer's 20-year-old Grace with live music—and a new collaboration with the musician Meshell Ndegeocello.