Main Image for Welcome to the Bard College Center for Indigenous Studies
Emily Johnson / Catalyst, Being Future Being: Land / Celestial, 2023, at Bard College. Photo by Aya Rebai '24

Welcome to the Bard College Center for Indigenous Studies

The mission of the Bard Center for Indigenous Studies is to develop a network of public programming focused on arts, education, and advocacy in Native American and Indigenous studies.

Upcoming Events

  • 11/06
    Wednesday
    7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
    Bard Chapel
  • 11/13
    Wednesday
    7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
    Weis Cinema
  • 11/20
    Wednesday
    7:00 pm EST/GMT-5

The Center for Indigenous Studies began its work in November 2022 following a transformational gift from the Gochman Family Foundation.

“We are immensely fortunate to receive this visionary gift which has enabled the Center, whose public programming is brilliantly stewarded by Brandi Norton (Iñupiaq), to significantly expand commissions in support of innovative Indigenous artists and thinkers, develop new engagement and curriculum for all generations, and provide research opportunities for students throughout the Bard network,” said Christian Ayne Crouch, director of the Center for Indigenous Studies.

Jeffrey Gibson. Photo by Brian Barlow

Bard Faculty Member Jeffrey Gibson Represented the US at the 2024 Venice Biennale

if I read you/what I wrote bear/in mind I wrote it ™
—Layli Long Soldier MFA ’14, Whereas

Jeffrey Gibson, artist in residence at Bard College, represented the United States at the 60th Venice Biennale Arte in 2024. Gibson, who is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, is one of the first Indigenous artists to represent the country at the Biennale. The Biennale Arte 2024 was curated by Adriano Pedrosa, who received the 2023 CCS Bard Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. The title of Gibson’s exhibition, the space in which to place me, is an excerpt from the poem Ȟe Sápa by Layli Long Soldier MFA ’14, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation.

The title of the October 24–26, 2024, convening is an excerpt from Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas, courtesy of the author and Graywolf Press.

Jeffrey Gibson at the Biennale →

Land Acknowledgment

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.

Emily Johnson/Catalyst, Being Future Being: Land/Celestial, 2022. Photo by Maria Baranova. Courtesy of New York Live Arts. Pictured: Emily Johnson

Inaugural Performances

The Center for Indigenous Studies held its inaugural public presentations on Bard’s Annandale-on-Hudson campus in the summer of 2023. Performances by influential artists Ya Tseen and Emily Johnson/Catalyst were presented in partnership with the Fisher Center at Bard College and the Hessel Museum of Art, respectively. Ya Tseen (“be alive” in Tlingit), the electro-soul music project of artist Nicholas Galanin, performed on Saturday, June 24, at the Fisher Center’s Spiegeltent. Being Future Being: Land/Celestial, an outdoor, multi-scalar, movement-based performance work by Emily Johnson/Catalyst, took place on Saturday, July 22, on the grounds of the Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard).

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“Self-determination is the basis for any decolonial movement”: Candice Hopkins Interviewed in ArtReview about Indigenous Studies and Native Art Initiatives at Bard

“Self-determination is the basis for any decolonial movement”: Candice Hopkins Interviewed in ArtReview about Indigenous Studies and Native Art Initiatives at Bard

Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation) CCS ’03 recently joined Bard’s faculty as part of the College’s transformative initiatives in Native American and Indigenous studies, developed in partnership with Forge Project and supported by a $50 million endowment. Hopkins, CCS Bard Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies and Forge Project’s executive director, speaks with Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds (Diné/Navajo) for ArtReview about Indigenous self-determination and the importance of this new collaboration between the Native-led arts and cultural organization Forge and Bard College. “We realized that we could attempt to enact quite radical institutional change through a partnership between Forge and Bard,” said Hopkins.

ARTnews Highlights Bard among People and Places that Made a Stage for Indigenous Art in 2022

ARTnews Highlights Bard among People and Places that Made a Stage for Indigenous Art in 2022

ARTnews highlighted individuals and institutions that had a significant impact on public engagement with Indigenous art in 2022, including Bard College on the short list. In September, the College announced a transformational $25 million endowment gift from the Gochman Family Foundation to support a renamed American and Indigenous Studies Program. A matching commitment by the Open Society Foundations will create a $50 million endowment for Native American and Indigenous Studies in undergraduate and graduate academics and the arts in Annandale, to include a center for Indigenous Studies and the appointment of an Indigenous Curatorial Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard).

Bard College Receives $25 Million Endowment Gift from Gochman Family Foundation Supporting Renamed American and Indigenous Studies Program

Bard College Receives $25 Million Endowment Gift from Gochman Family Foundation Supporting Renamed American and Indigenous Studies Program

Bard College is excited to announce a transformational $25 million endowment gift from the Gochman Family Foundation, which will substantially advance its work deepening diversity and equity in American Studies with a Center for Indigenous Studies, faculty appointments and student scholarships, and the appointment of an Indigenous Curatorial Fellow at Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard). An additional $25 million matching commitment by Open Society Foundations as part of Bard’s endowment drive will create a $50 million endowment supporting Native American and Indigenous Studies in undergraduate and graduate academics and the arts. The College’s American Studies Program will be renamed American and Indigenous Studies to more fully reflect continental history and to place Native American and Indigenous Studies at the heart of curricular innovation and development.