HESSEL MUSEUM TO OPEN AT
BARD COLLEGE
MAJOR EXPANSION OF
BARDS CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
OPENING NOVEMBER 12, 2006
For more information on the
Hessel Museum or CCS Bard,
please visit
Located on the campus of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the new Hessel Museum will open on November 12, 2006. Promising to be one of the highlights of the fall contemporary art season, the Museums inauguration will also be the beginning of a revitalized program of exhibitions, artist commissions and public programs at Bards Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard).
The Hessel Museum continues Bards expansion as a premiere cultural destination in the Hudson Valley, which first began with the Bard Music Festival in 1990, and developed further with the construction of the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Performing Arts Center. Located in a new 17,000 square-feet facility designed by architects Goettsch Partners, the new Museum will house the contemporary art collection of Marieluise Hessel, one of the most prestigious collections in the country and internationally. The new Museum will be an extension of the existing CCS Bard facilities and will feature medium-sized rooms encircling two large, central galleries. A new graphic identity for CCS Bards Hessel Museum will also be created by Goto Design.
The naming of the new Hessel Museum is in recognition of over fifteen years of commitment by Ms. Hessel to Bard College and its Center for Curatorial Studies. Marieluise Hessels generous support includes the permanent loan of the Marieluise Hessel Collection to the Museum, as well as a founding gift of $8 million for the original CCS Bard building, continued support of the graduate program, and an $8 million gift towards the new Museum building.
The Marieluise Hessel Collection on permanent loan at the Museum consists of over 1,700 contemporary art works from the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, including works by Carl Andre, Janine Antoni, Louise Bourgeois, Anne Chu, Francesco Clemente, Dan Flavin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, Isaac Julien, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul McCarthy, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Doris Salcedo, David Salle, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, and Christopher Wool, among many others.
The Marieluise Hessel Collection also includes two major new commissions permanently installed in the new Museum facilities: a walkway designed by Lawrence Weiner incorporating the artists signature text works, and a large-scale installation by Korean-born artist Do-Ho Suh with thousands of diminutive figures buried beneath the glass floor-scape of the Museum entrance gallery.
The Hessel Museum will present at least three exhibitions per year under the leadership of Tom Eccles, CCS Bards Executive Director. Wrestle, the Museums inaugural exhibition, which he will curate along with Trevor Smith, a curator at the New Museum in New York City, will open on November 12. Wrestle offers a compelling overview of the Hessel Collection with a focus on works that challenge our notions of self and others, offering surprising connections in form and content between works from diverse artistic and social positions. The exhibition will feature more than 200 works from the Collection, including works by Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Roni Horn, Paul McCarthy, Rosemarie Trockel and Robert Gober. A major, innovative catalogue will document the exhibition.
The $10 million CCS Bard development has been primarily funded by Ms. Hessel, with additional support from her husband Edwin Artzt. Robert and Melissa Soros and Laura Lee Woods provided support for the renovation and expansion of the existing CCS Bard library, archive, classroom space and student lounge. A new exhibition fund has also been established by Los Angeles-based collector and CCS Bard Board member, Audrey Irmas, for whom the entrance atrium will be named (The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Atrium).
About CCS Bard
CCS Bard is primarily a Master of Arts program for studies in curatorial practices; the program provides significant hands-on experience for students in CCS Bards advanced exhibition facilities. Students draw from the Marieluise Hessel Collection for their first-year collection shows, and may also refer to the Collection for their thesis exhibitions. Each year CCS Bard admits approximately 12 students for its 2-year graduate program. CCS Bard also houses a major library of over 18,000 contemporary visual art publications, a state-of-the-art video gallery, and an archive, among other features. The development of the new Museum will also strongly benefit the undergraduate community at Bard College. As part of the inauguration of the Hessel Museum, Ms. Hessel will donate all publications (approximately 14,000) currently on permanent loan from the Marieluise Hessel Foundation to the CCS Bard library.
Significant contributions to CCS Bards development and programming have been made by Norton Batkin, Director of the CCS Bard Masters Program, as well as Rhea Anastas, Ivo Mesquita, Johanna Burton, Lynne Cooke, Joshua Decter, Thelma Golden, and Robert Storr. Other CCS faculty members include Julie Ault, Chrissie Iles, Nico Israel, Janet Kraynak, Kay Larson, Ann Lauterbach, Diane Lewis, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Nancy Princenthal, David Levi Strauss, and Marcia Tucker.
Bard College is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, about 90 miles north of New York City. For more information on the Hessel Museum or CCS Bard, please visit
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For further information or interviews:
Lucy Toole
Blue Medium, Inc.
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