Focus Festival: Ritual and Capital
Where: Bard Graduate Center
38 W. 86th St.
212-501-3023 Price: $10-$20
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Bard Graduate Center’s inaugural Focus Festival, April 8-9, 2017, brings thinkers and artists together for a weekend of interdisciplinary programming that draws inspiration from the key themes of our two spring Focus Project exhibitions: New York Crystal Palace 1853 and Design by the Book: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli tu. Complimenting our mission as institute devoted to studying the cultural histories of the material world, the two-day Festival invites visitors to join in conversations across history that explore how ideas raised by the two exhibitions resonate in our contemporary moment.
Join us for the keynote conversation “Ways of Seeing the City” with poet, essayist, and author Claudia Rankine and essayist Garnette Cadogan April 8 at 7 pm. Additional programs include a talk by Michael Puett; author of the New York Times bestseller The Path; walking tours of the Seneca Village site in Central Park with archaeologist Cynthia Copeland, and the New York ports with Jack Tchen, co-founder of the Museum of Chinese in America, and a performance of Aaron Landsman’s critically acclaimed Love Story, a theatrical piece about a disappearing city, two people navigating it, and a fidgety, obsessive follower. Curators will offer spotlight tours of the exhibitions and kids can participate in family-friendly workshops. For more information, tickets, and the full schedule of events, please visit bgc.bard.edu.
The Focus Festival takes place at Bard Graduate Center Gallery at 18 West 86th Street, New York. The ground floor of the Gallery will feature a Reading Room that promotes community engagement with artists’ books and periodicals curated by Brooklyn-based literary organization Wendy’s Subway.
Saturday April 8
12:00 pm: 18 West 86th Street
Curators spotlight tour: New York Crystal Palace 1853
Led by Caroline Hannah, Associate Curator, Bard Graduate Center
12:00 pm: 38 West 86th Street
Kids Workshop: (title to come)
Presented by artists-in-residence, Wendy’s Subway
Wendy’s Subway is a non-profit library and writing space located in Brooklyn. For the duration of Bard Graduate Center’s Focus Gallery exhibitions the organization has created a Reading Room in the ground floor of the Gallery. The Reading Room promotes community engagement with artists’ books, periodicals, and other publications
3:00 pm: off site location
Walking tour: Seneca Village and the Making of Central Park
Cost: $20 adult/$10 student
Led by Cynthia Copeland, adjunct professor, New York University, and co-founding director of the Seneca village Project
5:30 pm: 18 West 86th Street
Performance: Love Story
A performance about a disappearing city, two people navigating it, and a fidgety, obsessive follower. 35 minutes in length. Love Story features Frank Harts and is written by Aaron Landsman with video design by Janet Wong and an original score by Todd Griffin.
7:00 pm: 38 West 86th Street
Keynote: Ways of Seeing the City
Claudia Rankine and Garnett Cadogan in Conversation
Cost $20 adult/$10 student
Claudia Rankine is recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, poet, essayist, playright and the editor of several anthologies; Garnette Cadogan, is an essayist and journalist, and editor-at-large for Non-Stop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas
Sunday April 9
12:00 pm: 18 West 86th Street
Curators spotlight tour: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli tu
Led by François Louis, Associate Professor, Bard Graduate Center
1:00-3:00 pm: 18 West 86th Street
Kids workshop: We Built this City!
Cost: $20 per family
In this hands-on afternoon workshop inspired by New York Crystal Palace 1853, kids and families will visualize New York City from different points of view and explore its evolution since the nineteenth century. Build your neighborhood as a 3-D cardboard model or design a prototype city of the future. Suitable for ages 6-12.
3:00 pm: off site location
Walking tour: Port Cultures
Cost: $20 adult/$10 student
Led by Jack Tchen, associate professor, New York Univesity, and co-founder, Museum of Chinese in America, this tour will take participants through the downtown port cultures and explore its critical role in the development of the United States. This program is in collaboration with Below the Grid Lab.
3:00 pm: 18 West 86th Street
Performance: Love Story
(see above description)
5:00 pm: 38 West 86th Street
Keynote Lecture: (title to come)
Cost: $20 adult/$10 student
Presented by Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard Univesity