Partnership with the HBCU Alliance of Museums and Art Galleries

In 2021, Bard Graduate Center and the Alliance of HBCU Museums and Galleries (the Alliance), an organization comprised of fourteen Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that have museums or art galleries, established a partnership to offer HBCU students and recent graduates a one-week intensive course at BGC in alternating summers.

The Alliance sees such programs as one way it can contribute to the diversification of the museum and art world. It established its first weeklong intensive with the Princeton University Art Museum in 2019, and now has similar programs with three other institutions, including BGC. The intensives expose participants to a variety of museum careers and opportunities and hone their skills in art analysis and academic research. This summer’s programs focused on archival and curatorial practice, conservation, and the topic offered by BGC—the use of digital tools in exhibition making.

Four HBCU students participated in the course, taught by Dean Peter N. Miller and director of Digital Humanities / Digital Exhibitions Jesse Merandy. The program was modeled on the digital literacy boot camp Merandy leads each fall for BGC’s incoming MA and PhD students. Participants learned how exhibitions can present arguments to the public in an accessible way and how those ideas can be presented online using WordPress and SketchUp software. With support from the Kress Foundation, students in the program received travel to and from New York, housing at Bard Hall, a stipend, meals, and an unlimited MetroCard.