Bard College spreads far beyond Annandale-on-Hudson. Looking at contemporary art at Bard College means looking at the college as a whole, as an organization whose arms stretch beyond campus, to create an international scope of interrelated activities, some of which provide home for artistic creation and involvement.
Bard College is the initiator of programs such as The Bard Prison Initiative and the Sudan Open Archive and cooperates with a number of international universities and research institutes such as Central European University in Budapest, Smolny College in St. Petersburg and a newly initiated partnership with Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Bard students are invited to study abroad in these institutions, and respectively, students from these institutions sometimes arrive to study at Bard. These progressive programs enhance the scope of the college, opening its borders beyond Annandale-on-Hudson for artistc, research, and personal exchanges.
Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the first liberal arts program in Russia. Located in St. Petersburg, Smolny College is a joint program between Bard College and Saint Petersburg State University initiated in 1997. Smolny is closely connected with the Human Rights Center at Bard. At the moment, 500 students are enrolled in the college, who upon graduation receive both diplomas – a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College and a Bachelor of Arts and Humanitarian Sciences from St. Petersburg State University.
Smolny College
As a liberal arts and sciences program, contemporary art is prevalent at Smolny College, and student clubs, for example, include Dance Performance Studio and the Sisinkin Film Club (for further information). Alumni of Smolny College go on to work in museums, art galleries, interior design firms, theatre studios, and other creative groups, places such as the hermitage, the Russian Museum, Digital Camera magazine, and art galleries across the world.
Smolny has a tradition of artistic and creative cooperation and exchange with groups or organizations in its surroundings. An interesting collaboration in the realm of contemporary art is the one with Chto delat (What Is To Be Done) group. The Chto delat platform unites artists, philosophers, social researchers, activists, and all those whose aim is the collaborative realization of a critical and independent research, publication and artistic, educational and activist projects. Joint projects between Chto delat and Smolny College in the past include lectures and artistic projects at the college. Several Chto delat members have also taught classes at Smolny.
Smolny College provides an academic environment for Chto delat members, as well as a link to an institution that renders Chto delat’s political activism to be represented in the context of academic research via the cooperation with the American institution, thus allowing the group to enjoy institutional support of their critical voice. Smolny also supports the production and production process of the Chto delat newspaper, a bilingual (Russian/English) newspaper, distributed for free, which address themes such as art, activism, philosophy, and cultural theory.
Wall Newspaper project, 2006-7
The focus is on the local Russian situation, which the newspaper tries to link to a broader international context. Contributors include artists, art theorists, philosophers, activists, and writers from Russia, Western Europe and the United States. Chto delat is taking part in the 11th International Istanbul Biennale, September 12 – November 8, 2009.
Smolny College is but one example of the way in which Bard College initiatives presently affect and support contemporary art production by creating academic platforms around the world. We invite others to contribute to this blog with similar case studies and experiences.
Members of Chto delat include Olga Egorova/Tsaplya (artist, Petersburg), Artiom Magun (philosopher, Petersburg), Nikolai Oleinikov (artist, Moscow), Natalia Pershina/Glucklya (artist, Petersburg), Alexei Penzin (philosopher, Moscow), David Riff (art critic, Moscow), Alexander Skidan (poet, critic, Petersburg), Kirill Shuvalov (artist, Petersburg), Oxana Timofeeva (philosopher, Moscow), and Dmitry Vilensky (artist, Petersburg)
Image from Builders, 2004-5
Information taken from
