Events

Bard College Senior Blanche Darr ’25 Wins Prestigious Watson Travel Fellowship

Bard College senior Blanche Darr ’25 has been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides for a year of travel and exploration outside the United States. Darr, an anthropology major and violinist in the Bard College Conservatory, will spend a year expanding her musical vocabulary for her Watson project, Reimagining Music-Making as a Way of Life.

Bard College Senior Blanche Darr ’25 Wins Prestigious Watson Travel Fellowship

Bard College senior Blanche Darr ’25 has been awarded a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides for a year of travel and exploration outside the United States. Continuing its tradition of expanding the vision and developing the potential of remarkable young leaders, the Watson Foundation selected Darr as one of 37 students in the 57th Class of Watson Fellows to receive this award for 2025-26. The Watson Fellowship offers college graduates of unusual promise a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel in international settings to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community. Each Watson Fellow receives a grant of $40,000 for 12 months of travel and independent study. Over the past several years, 27 Bard seniors have received Watson Fellowships.

Blanche Darr ’25, an anthropology major and violinist in the Bard College Conservatory, will spend a year expanding her musical vocabulary for her Watson project, Reimagining Music-Making as a Way of Life. She will travel to Kenya, Indonesia, India, and Germany to examine barriers to music-making such as access, cost, and elitism, and, by joining international music education programs, explore ways to overcome them. “Learning to play music in a variety of settings and traditions will allow me to meet students with a wider ear for their musical vocabularies, experiences, and goals,” Darr writes in her proposal. “In the United States, music-making is something that is usually only for those with time, money, and some supposed talent. I wish to challenge this idea, looking at music-making around the world that is more participatory, improvisational, and connected to communities. I hope that this will provide me with a deeper understanding of the ways that people can make music integrated in daily life.”

A Watson Year provides fellows with an opportunity to test their aspirations and abilities through a personal project cultivated on an international scale. Watson Fellows have gone on to become leaders in their fields including CEOs of major corporations, college presidents, Emmy, Grammy and Oscar Award winners, Pulitzer Prize awardees, artists, diplomats, doctors, entrepreneurs, faculty, journalists, lawyers, politicians, researchers and inspiring influencers around the world. Following the year, they join a community of peers who provide a lifetime of support and inspiration. For more information about the Watson Fellowship, visit: https://watson.foundation.

Post Date: 03-20-2025

Art Newspaper Spoke with James Fuentes ’98 About His Gallery’s Move to Tribeca

“James Fuentes Gallery, long a forward-looking presence in the contemporary art scene on New York’s Lower East Side, is the latest space to decamp to Tribeca,” writes Jillian Billard for the Art Newspaper. The eponymous gallery of alumnus James Fuentes ’98, who will be awarded the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters at this year’s Bard College Awards, has long championed “artists with practices outside the commercial conventions of the contemporary art market.”

Bard College Named a Top Producer of Fulbright Students for 2023–24

Bard College is proud to be included on the list of US colleges and universities that produced the most 2023–24 Fulbright students and scholars. Each year, the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the US government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

Bard College Named a Top Producer of Fulbright Students for 2023–24

Bard College is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2023–24 Fulbright students and scholars. Each year, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes the lists annually.

Seven graduates from Bard received Fulbright awards for academic year 2023–24. Getzamany “Many” Correa ’21, a Global and International Studies major, and Elias Ephron ’23, a joint major in Political Studies and Spanish Studies, will live in Spain as Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs). Biology major Macy Jenks ’23 will be an ETA in Taiwan. Eleanor Tappen ’23, a Spanish Studies major, will be an ETA in Mexico. Juliana Maitenaz ’22, who graduated with a BA in Global and International Studies and a BM in Classical Percussion Performance, was selected for an independent study–research Fulbright scholarship to Brazil. Bard Conservatory alumna Avery Morris ’18, who graduated with a BA in Mathematics and a BM in Violin Performance, won a Fulbright Study Research Award to Poland. Evan Tims ’19, who was a joint major in Written Arts and Human Rights with a focus on anthropology at Bard, received a Fulbright-Nehru independent study–research scholarship to India. Additionally, Adela Foo ’18 won a Fulbright Study Research Award to Turkey through Yale University, where she is a PhD candidate in art history.

“As an institution, Bard College is proud and honored to be included in the list of Top Producing Fulbright Institutions for 2023-2024,” said Molly J. Freitas, Ph.D., associate dean of studies and Fulbright advisor at Bard. “We believe that Fulbright's mission to promote and facilitate cross-cultural exchange and understanding through teaching and research is in perfect alignment with Bard's own institutional identity and goals. We wish to extend our congratulations to our newest Fulbright awardees and reiterate our gratitude to the faculty, staff, and community members who have supported these students during the Fulbright application process and throughout their time as Bard students.”

“Fulbright’s Top Producing Institutions represent the diversity of America’s higher education community. Dedicated administrators support students and scholars at these institutions to fulfill their potential and rise to address tomorrow’s global challenges. We congratulate them, and all the Fulbrighters who are making an impact the world over,” said Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program.

Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities, sectors, and the world and have included 41 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and countless leaders and changemakers who build mutual understanding between the people of the United State and the people of other countries.

Post Date: 02-13-2024