Susan Weber

Susan Weber is the Iris Horowitz Professor in the History of Decorative Arts and founder/director of the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) in New York, established in 1991. BGC offers MA and PhD degrees in decorative arts, design history, and material culture. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London, and is renowned for award-winning scholarly works and curated exhibitions.

Her research interests span design history, decorative arts, and material culture, with a focus on 19th-century aesthetic movements, classical antiquity, and colonial design. She has collaborated with institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, where she is currently working on a Majolica Mania exhibition.

Weber’s publications include seminal works such as E.W. Godwin: Aesthetic Movement and Designer and William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain. Her exhibitions emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to art, design, and cultural heritage.

• Recipient of the Soane Foundation Honors, Philip C. Johnson Award, and Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award.
• Editor of major volumes like James “Athenian” Stuart and John Lockwood Kipling.
• Leadership roles include BGC directorship and membership in the Director’s Council at the Smithsonian Institution.