Advance registration is required. Schedule is subject to change.
Friday, May 24
Registration
Pick up your tickets for the weekend’s events, a campus map, and a schedule. A limited number of on-site barbecue tickets will be available for purchase until 3 pm Saturday. $28 per adult, $12 per child 4–12, free for children 3 and under.
Lobby, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Bard Rugby Fest and Alumni/ae Games
Join the Bard College Rugby team as they host the Bard Rugby Alumni/ae Association for the annual alumni/ae games! All are welcome.
Lorenzo Ferrari Soccer and Lacrosse Complex, north field
Concert
Bard College soloists and composers in concert with The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Leon Botstein, conductor. No reservations required. Seating is first come, first served.
Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Photography Senior Project Exhibitions
Work by seniors graduating in the Photography Program: Harrison Edington, Emma Paxson, and Sullivan Sweet.
Woods Photography Studio
Studio Arts Senior Project Exhibitions
Work by seniors graduating in the Studio Arts Program: Brandon Alvarado ’24, aru apaza ’24, Raven Atsalis-Gogel ’24, Sophie Bartolotta ’24, Puja Clements ’24, Claire de los Rios ’24, Peter Fields ’24, David Fujita ’24, Lucy Galyean ’24, Equi Hunter ’24, Tina Kinsbourne ’24, Lily Mencarini ’24, Sage Nelson ’24, Dung Nguyen ’24, Shannon O’Neill ’24, Scout Olip-Booth ’24, Jasper Oltmanns ’24, Dania Leibowitz ’24, Heather Phelps-Lipton ’24, Savannah Pina ’24, Caleb Pitney ’24, Felicity Reynolds ’24, Jonah Romm ’24, Aleda Rosenblum Katz ’24, Simantha Sernaker ’24, William Silverstein ’24, Claire Sullivan ’24, Violet Tobacco ’24, Keegan Valaika ’24, Caleb Wagner ’24, Leo Wang ’24, and Clementine Williams ’24.
Fisher Studio Arts Building
Saturday, May 25
Registration
Pick up your tickets for the weekend’s events, a campus map, and a schedule. A limited number of on-site barbecue tickets will be available for purchase until 3 pm Saturday. $28 per adult, $12 for children 4–12, free for children 3 and under.
Lobby, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation
Dedication of the Carla Sayers Tabourne ’69 Reading Room
The Carla Sayers Tabourne Reading Room will house the newly donated collection of more than 1,000 books about the global Black experience; the collection includes history, poetry, literature, and fine arts. Please join Tabourne, fellow alumni/ae, faculty, and Leon Botstein for the dedication of this space. Attendees can take the opportunity to peruse the collection. Refreshments served.
Stevenson Library, 3rd Floor
Memory and History: The Legacy of Alfred Spitzer and Edith Neumann
German and Austrian paintings from the turn of the 20th century, a bequest to Bard College from Dr. Edith Neumann.
Levy Economics Institute, Blithewood
Brunch
For graduating seniors, their families, guests, and alumni/ae.
$14 per adult, $12 per child 4–12, free for children 3 and under.
Main Dining Room, Kline Commons
Graduate Programs Brunch
For Class of 2024 graduates of the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture; Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts; Bard Center for Environmental Policy; Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture; Master of Arts in Teaching Program; Graduate Vocal Arts and Graduate Conducting Programs of the Bard College Conservatory of Music; Master of Business Administration in Sustainability; Levy Economics Institute Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy; Master of Music in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies, The Orchestra Now (TŌN); Master of Arts in Global Studies; Master of Arts in Human Rights and the Arts; Master of Arts in Chinese Music and Culture; and Master of Music in Instrumental Studies, and their guests. Advance registration required. $25 per adult, $12 per child 4–12, free for graduates, faculty/staff, and children 3 and under.
Blithewood north lawn
Commencement
Commencement Exercises
1 pm
Tent opens for seating
Commencement Tent, Seth Goldfine Memorial Rugby Field
2:30 pm
Academic Procession
Alumni/ae from reunion classes are invited to join the Class of 2024, trustees, and faculty in the procession to the Commencement tent. (Academic attire is required.)
Formation at Annandale Road, south of the Chapel of the Holy Innocents
Livestreaming of Commencement
Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center, and Olin Auditorium, Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building
3 pm
Commencement Ceremony
Celebrate the Class of 2024 and the awarding of honorary degrees. James C. Chambers ’81, chair of the Board of Trustees of Bard College, presiding, and The Right Reverend Andrew M. L. Dietsche, officiating. A professional photographer will take photos of graduates receiving their degrees. Families of graduates will be contacted by Genesee Photo Systems to purchase images. For safety reasons, standing in the aisle is prohibited during the ceremony.
Commencement Tent, Seth Goldfine Memorial Field
Commencement Barbecue
Gather with family and friends.
$28 per adult, $12 for children 4–12, free for children 3 and under. Advance reservations recommended. Cash bar.
Blithewood north lawn
Dance to Eight to the Bar
Bard’s favorite graduation dance band gives it up for new graduates, alumni/ae, and families.
Blithewood north lawn
Jazzfest
Annual gathering of jazz-loving alumni/ae musicians.
Everyone is welcome.
Blum Hall, Edith C. Blum Institute, Avery Arts Center
Fireworks
Stake your spot on the lawn and lie back for the best fireworks show in the Hudson Valley.
Blithewood west lawn
Tear the Roof Off: A Manor House Stereo Moonrise Vinyl After-Party
The Class of 1994 Reunion Committee invites all alumni/ae to take a trip back in time to a classic Manor Dance Party. DJs ARM 18 (Andrew McIntosh ’97) and Boogie Knight (Pablo Salinas ’97) will be spinning the records. All are welcome. Cash bar. Magic Bus.
Manor Lounge and Patio
Sunday, May 26
Alumni/ae Brunch
Join Bard President Leon Botstein and Mollie Meikle '03, president of the Bard College Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors, for a celebration brunch. All are welcome. Remarks at 11:30 am. $28 per adult, $12 per child 4–12, free for children 3 and under. Advance registration recommended.
Kline Commons
Meeting of the Bard College Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors
New graduates and all alumni/ae interested in volunteering for alumni/ae committees and programs are cordially invited to attend.
Faculty Dining Room, Kline Dining Commons
Land Acknowledgment for Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson
Developed in cooperation with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community
In the spirit of truth and equity, it is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are gathered on the sacred homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people, who are the original stewards of the land. Today, due to forced removal, the community resides in Northeast Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We honor and pay respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to future generations, and we recognize their continuing presence in their homelands. We understand that our acknowledgment requires those of us who are settlers to recognize our own place in and responsibilities toward addressing inequity, and that this ongoing and challenging work requires that we commit to real engagement with the Munsee and Mohican communities to build an inclusive and equitable space for all.
This land acknowledgment, adopted in 2020, required establishing and maintaining long-term, and evolving, relationships with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. The Mellon Foundation's 2022 Humanities for All Times grant for “Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck” offers three years of support for developing a land acknowledgment–based curriculum, public-facing Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) programming, and efforts to support the work of emerging NAIS scholars and tribally enrolled artists at Bard.
Slavery Acknowledgment
The College acknowledges that its origins are intertwined with slavery, which has shaped the United States and American institutions from the beginning. Starting in the 16th century, European traders trafficked approximately 12 million Africans to the Americas, where they were held as property and forced to work as enslaved laborers. Their descendants were also held as slaves in perpetuity. The exploitation of enslaved people was at the foundation of the economic development of New York and the Hudson Valley, including the land now composing the Bard College campus. In the early 18th century, Barent Van Benthuysen purchased most of this land and was a slave owner. Later owners of the property also relied on Black workers they held in bondage for material gain. Montgomery Place, which became part of the College in 2016, was a working farm during the 19th century that likewise profited from the labor of enslaved people.
The founders of Bard College, John Bard (1819–99) and Margaret Johnston Bard (1825–75) inherited wealth from their families and used it to found the College. That inheritance was implicated in slavery on both sides. John’s grandfather Samuel Bard (1742–1821) owned slaves. His father William Bard (1778–1853) was the first president of the New York Life Insurance Company, which insured enslaved people as property. Margaret’s fortune derived from her father’s commercial firm, Boorman and Johnston, which traded in tobacco, sugar, and cotton produced by enslaved labor throughout the Atlantic World. Other early benefactors of the College, such as John Lloyd Aspinwall (1816–73), also derived a significant proportion of their wealth, which they donated to the College, from commercial ventures that depended on slavery. John and Margaret Bard devoted their lives and monies to educational pursuits. In his retirement John Aspinwall redirected his fortune and energies toward humanitarian pursuits.
Recognition and redress of this history are due. As students, teachers, researchers, administrators, staff, and community members, we acknowledge the pervasive legacy of slavery and commit ourselves to the pursuit of equity and restorative justice for the descendants of enslaved people within the Bard community.