Catalogue

1860—Bard College is founded as St. Stephen’s College by John Bard, in association with the New York City leadership of the Episcopal Church. Bard came from a family of physicians who played significant roles in the launching of Columbia University, New York Hospital, and New York City’s first free ­public library.

1866—The College grants degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, in addition to the preseminarian program.

1928—St. Stephen’s becomes an undergraduate college of Columbia University.

1929—Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes a trustee and serves until 1933.

1934—The College is renamed to honor its founder. A new educational program is adapted under President Donald Tewksbury that is based on the Oxford ­tutorial. It includes a second-year assessment (Moderation) and a Senior Project—both pillars of the Bard education today. 

1944—Bard ends its affiliation with Columbia in order to become coeducational.

1947—Radio station WXBC begins as a Senior Project.  

1953—The innovative Common Course, designed by Heinrich Bluecher, is inaugurated. It is the forerunner of today’s First-Year Seminar.

1956—Bard welcomes 325 Hungarian refugee students to participate in the Orientation Program, which provides instruction in English and an introduction to life in the United States.

1960—The College celebrates its centennial year. Under President Reamer Kline, it undergoes a tremendous expansion in buildings, grounds, faculty and student body size, and core curricula.

1975—Leon Botstein takes office as the 14th president of the College and further expands the educational program by integrating the progressive tutorial ­system with the classical legacy of St. Stephen’s.

1978—The Bard Center is founded.

1979—Bard assumes responsibility for Simon’s Rock Early College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

1981—Bard launches its first affiliated graduate program, the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, which offers a master of fine arts degree. The first Workshop in Language and Thinking is held for entering students.

1982—The Institute for Writing and Thinking is founded.

1986—The Jerome Levy Economics Institute is founded (now the Levy Economics Institute). Bard creates the Excellence and Equal Cost Scholarship Program.

1988—The Graduate School of Environmental Studies (now the Bard Center for Environmental Policy) offers a master of science in environmental studies.

1990—The Center for Curatorial Studies is founded. The literary journal Conjunctions makes its home at Bard. The Bard Music Festival, designed to illuminate the life, work, and times of an individual composer, presents its first season.

1991—The Program for International Education (PIE) brings young people from emerging democracies to Bard for a year of study. 

1993—The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture opens in New York City. 

1994— CCS Bard initiates its graduate program in curatorial studies.

1996— Bard launches the Trustee Leader Scholar Program, a leadership development program.

1998—The Institute for International Liberal Education is founded with a mission to advance the theory and practice of international liberal arts education. 

1999—The Bard Prison Initiative is founded to bring new opportunities for higher education into the correctional system of New York State. 

2001— Bard and the New York City Department of Education launch Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), a four-year public school in downtown Manhattan. The Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) program opens and BPI launches a pilot program with 16 students.

2003— The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by architect Frank Gehry, opens. Bard and the International Center of Photography join forces to offer an MFA degree in photography.

2004— The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program welcomes its first class.

2005— The Bard College Conservatory of Music opens, offering a five-year double-degree (BM/BA) program. 

2006— The Conservatory of Music initiates a graduate program in vocal performance (a graduate conducting program follows in 2010). CCS Bard inaugurates the Hessel Museum of Art. The West Point–Bard Initiative is launched. The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities is established.

2007— The Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, designed by Rafael Viñoly, opens. The College launches the five-year BS/BA Program in Economics and Finance. The Landscape and Arboretum Program is established to preserve and enhance the Bard campus. 

2008— BHSEC Queens opens in New York; Bard launches an early college program in New Orleans. 

2009— Bard partners with Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem to launch the College for Arts and Sciences and a master of arts in teaching program. The Lynda and Stewart Resnick Science Laboratories are completed, as is The parliament of reality, an outdoor installation by artist Olafur Eliasson. 

2010— Bard marks the 150th anniversary of its founding. The College establishes a partnership with American University of Central Asia.

2011— Citizen Science becomes part of the required first-year curriculum. The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) is established. BHSEC Newark opens. Bard assumes ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin (now Bard College Berlin).

2012— The Longy School of Music merges with the College. Live Arts Bard (now Fisher Center LAB) launches. Construction is completed on the Anne Cox Chambers Alumni/ae Center and an addition to the Stevenson Athletic Center. Bard inaugurates the MBA in Sustainability program and establishes the Bard College Farm.

2013— The Bard Entrance Examination is introduced as an alternative application for admission. The László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building opens, and BardWorks, a professional development program for juniors and seniors, debuts. 

2014— The Center for Moving Image Arts opens. The Levy Economics Institute Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy welcomes its first students. A fourth BHSEC campus opens in Cleveland, Ohio. Honey Field, a baseball facility, is completed. The Fisher Center’s Theater Two is renamed LUMA Theater.

2015— New initiatives include The Orchestra Now (TO¯N), a preprofessional orchestra and graduate program; BHSEC Baltimore; and Bard Academy at Simon’s Rock, a college preparatory program for 9th and 10th graders in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

2016— The 150th Anniversary Campaign, the largest fund-raising campaign in the College’s history, raises more than $565 million for scholarships, new buildings and renovations, operating support, and endowment. The College acquires Montgomery Place, an adjacent 380-acre property. Bard Early College (BEC) Hudson and Bard Microcollege Holyoke open.

2017— New Annandale House, a sustainably built multiuse space, is completed. BEC New Orleans expands to a full-day program and Central European University opens an extension site on the Bard campus.

2018— The US-China Music Institute, a partnership of the Bard College Conservatory and Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, welcomes its first students. Bard Microcollege Brooklyn, a joint venture with the Brooklyn Public Library, launches. The Center for Environmental Policy and Bard MAT initiate an MEd program in environmental education. BGC offers a 3+2 BA/MA program in decorative arts, design history, and material culture. The Levy Economics Institute’s graduate programs expand to include a one-year MA in economic theory and policy. Bard and Central European University offer an Advanced Certificate in Inequality Analysis.

2019— BHSEC DC opens. College Behind Bars, an Emmy-nominated documentary series profiling students in the Bard Prison Initiative, airs on PBS. The Center for the Study of Hate launches.

2020— Bard and Central European University launch the Open Society University Network (OSUN). The President’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice is created. The Fisher Center debuts UPSTREAMING, a virtual stage featuring new commissions and archival works. 

2021— Bard offers new master of arts programs in global studies and in human rights and the arts, and a bachelor of music in vocal performance. The Center for Human Rights and the Arts opens; the Bard Microcollege for Just Community Leadership launches in Harlem at the Countee Cullen branch of the New York Public Library; and Bard begins Camden Reach, a new early college initiative. Solve Climate by 2030, an initiative of OSUN and the Center for Environmental Policy, begins with 50 webinars from locations throughout the world. Bard receives a $500 million challenge grant from philanthropist George Soros, setting the stage for a $1 billion endowment drive.

2022— Bard and its network partners help evacuate nearly 400 Afghan students to safety. A scholarship program offers support for displaced Ukrainian and Russian students. Two graduate programs debut, an MA program in Chinese Music and Culture and the Graduate Instrumental Arts Program. Renovations to Kline Commons are completed. The Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities opens with the mission to connect research with grassroots efforts to protect the environment. Bard receives a $1.49 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck project. The College also receives a landmark gift from the Gochman Family Foundation that, in part, supports Native American and Indigenous Studies programming and scholarships, including the Center for Indigenous Studies.

2023— Bard NYC, which combines advanced coursework with professional internships, welcomes its first cohort of students to its state-of-the-art facility in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The College launches the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Center for Ethics and Writing. The MA in Global Studies program initiates a dual-degree track in partnership with Central European University. A new Bard High School Early College campus opens in the South Bronx. New initiatives also include the Gagarin Center for the Study of Civil Society and Human Rights at Bard College and Russian Independent Media Archive (RIMA), a project of the Gagarin Center and PEN America. The Fisher Center LAB Biennial Common Ground focuses on the politics of land and food. Groundbreaking begins on a dormitory complex on the North Campus and a performing arts studio designed by Maya Lin.