Dear Families,

As we prepare for the semester to begin, the Bard campus is buzzing with preparation and anticipation. We will welcome the Class of 2028 and other first-year students tomorrow at what we call Arrival Day. We are excited to meet all our new families, be sure to follow @bardfamilynetwork and @bardcollege on Instagram to get a glimpse of the action. 

The Language and Thinking Program for our first-year students starts on Monday, August 12th, marking the beginning of their transformative academic journey. The first day of classes for all students this academic year is coming up on Monday, September 2nd, and we can't wait to have everyone back on campus.

You can always find the entire academic calendar on Bard’s website here. Please save the date for Family and Alumni/ae Weekend: October 25-27, 2024. We are looking forward to welcoming you to Annandale to experience Bard through classes, concerts, tours, and more. I encourage you to book your accommodations as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Sasha Boak-Kelly

P.S. The 34th Annual Bard Music Festival, Berlioz and His World, kicks off Friday evening if you are in town. Nearly every work by the French Romantic-era composer Hector Berlioz “defies conventional analysis and taxonomy, and must be approached on its own terms,” writes Joshua Barone in his preview of the 2024 Bard Music Festival for the New York Times.

Bard and Smolny College Graduate Released from Russia in Historic Prisoner Swap

Alexandra “Sasha” Skochilenko, Bard and Smolny College class of 2017, was released together with other political prisoners incarcerated in Russia. Skochilenko had been imprisoned since March 2022 for the act of placing anti-war leaflets, disguised as price tags, on goods in a grocery store in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The release was part of a larger prisoner swap between Russia, the United States, and several European countries.

Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, Artist in Residence at Bard, in Conversation with Alum Connor Williams ’18 for Interview Magazine

Kelly Reichardt, S. William Senfeld Artist in Residence at Bard College, spoke with Bard alum Connor Williams ’18 for a profile in Interview Magazine. “Reichardt’s body of work is remarkable for its consistency in quality and creative vision,” Williams writes. “She simply hasn’t made a film that wasn’t great.”

Bard College Appoints Ivan Lopez Munuera as Assistant Professor of Architecture Beginning Fall 2024

Bard College’s Division of the Arts is pleased to announce the appointment of Ivan Lopez Munuera as Assistant Professor of Architecture. His appointment will begin in the fall of the 2024–25 academic year. Ivan L. Munuera is a New York–based scholar, critic, and curator working at the intersection of culture, technology, politics, and bodily practices in the modern period and on the global stage.

Professor Emily McLaughlin Named 2024 American Chemical Society Fellow

Associate Professor of Chemistry Emily McLaughlin has been named by the American Chemical Society (ACS) as an ACS Fellow for 2024. ACS Fellows are recognized and honored for their outstanding achievements in and contributions to the science and the profession and for their equally exemplary volunteer service to the ACS.

Opening August 9, Bard Music Festival Explores Life and Times of Definitive French Romantic Composer in “Berlioz and His World”

In 11 themed concert programs, the festival’s 34th season examines Hector Berlioz, the visionary French composer who helped redefine musical Romanticism, first by contextualizing him within an age of Revolutionary Spectacle and Romantic Passion (Weekend One: August 9–11), and then investigating his crucial role in uniting Music and the Literary Imagination (Weekend Two: August 15–18).