CHRA alumni spotlight: For her thesis project, CHRA graduate Isabella Indolfi developed and presented a research-based lecture performance titled “Leave the Community Alone.” The performance explores the politics and ethics of “community art” in rural contexts. chra.bard.edu/news/chra-al...

CHRA alumni spotlight: Katya Korableva’s documentary film Cranes and Ships was screened as part of the 2024 Oxford Shorts International Film Festival in Oxford, UK and the 2025 Mimesis Documentary Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado. Read more at the link: chra.bard.edu/news/chra-al...

You can purchase our first three volumes of Talks on Human Rights & the Arts for your personal collections and libraries (or for your holiday gifts!) on our website, linked in bio. If you are local, get in touch to schedule a pick up of your copies from our offices at Bard College.

Thank you everyone who joined us from around the world at the re/presentare webinar “Reframing Evidence for the Commons”. For those who missed it, we have published the entire talk online. vimeo.com/chrabard/rep...

The first program of the international festival Evidence, took place in Tunis in October 2025 curated by CHRA’s director Tania El Khoury and Dream City’s Artistic Director Jan Goosens. It featured five installation and performance works programmed during Dream City, a festival by L’Art Rue.

CHRA MA graduate Elie Arden presented “Sacrifice Zones: The Rights of Mother Nature, or, Becoming Indispensable” at the 5th Conference on Latin American Political Ecology held in Mexico City. chra.bard.edu/news/chra-st...

So what is evidence? Instead of asking the San Gregorio farmers to transform their knowledge into methodologies, we attempt to use art and visual tools to inscribe their history. Through methods and languages legible to them and their communities, but without risking their extraction.

And so, we enter into a new phase of extraction: One where this ancient situated knowledge [of chiampas] is processed through technoscientific methodologies, and begins to decouple atlapulcan epistemologies from their bodies and their communities.

Although it is not the place of the state to recognize their ancestral ties to Pueblos originarios, these communities have learned to navigate the many bureaucratic and judicial roadblocks to protect their lands.

Las madres buscadores have developed and registered many indicators of possible mass graves. A specific type of flower that only grows under high concentrations of nitrites, or a different color of soil that sinks when the bodies are decomposing.

The webinar is happening now. Tune in at the link.

Images are from re/presentare's ongoing project "Tlamachtiloyan" as part of Evidence: an international festival by Fisher Center LAB, in association with the Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College. Webinar talk this Friday: chra.bard.edu/event/prefur...

In this talk, re/presentare reflects on the practice of working from the commons, in its frictions and possibilities. Friday, November 14th at 12:00 pm New York / 11am Mexico City. Moderated by Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco. chra.bard.edu/event/repres...

CHRA student spotlight: Lubnah showed work as part of “Domestic Departures: (Im)mobility, Loss, and Resilience in An Uncertain World” (November 2024). Read the full story: chra.bard.edu/news/chra-st...

CHRA alumni spotlight: Immanuel J. presented two live interactive performances in Fall 2024. They also published “The Black Performer Becomes Sisyphus” in Culturebot (March 5, 2025). Read more: chra.bard.edu/news/chra-al...

Join us online Friday, November 14th at 12pm ET/ 11am CST for a conversation with re/presentare co-founders, Sergio Beltrán-García and Elis Mendoza. re/presentare is a spatial investigations agency that centers work from the commons to research human rights violations. chra.bard.edu/event/repres...

CHRA alumni spotlight: Leil Mortada Zahra is showing their interactive installation, “The Land, not a film by Youssef Chahine” as part of AL.Berlin’s 2025 AL.FESTIVAL on October 3. chra.bard.edu/news/chra-al...

Recognizing the exclusionary nature of high art, Owen originally wanted the works to draw people in from the street, as the inside of the gallery was visible from the sidewalk.

Zoé Samudzi: “Sibathontisele” at 15: Zimbabwean Ethnopolitics and the Work of Owen Maseko Happening now. Join via bard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Please join us for a webinar on Friday, September 26 at 12pm ET with Zoé Samduzi titled “Sibathontisele” at 15: Zimbabwean Ethnopolitics and the Work of Owen Maseko. The talk will be moderated by Folarin Ajibade. Registration link is in bio.

This year, CHRA sponsored two publications: "The Alarm Phone Scrapbook," and "Ecotono: revoluciones silenciosas." As always, our publications are available to read on our website for free. chra.bard.edu/publications/

Best wishes to our alumni students! As some begin PhDs, others have been continuing humanitarian and non-profit work, producing art and performing throughout the tri-state area, or otherwise enriching the crossroads between art and activism in their own pursuits. We wish them all the very best!

In an essay for the @nytimes.com series “Finding Beauty,” Bard Prison Initiative student Robert Lee Williams wrote about his bittersweet relationship to trees during his incarceration.

Art Curator and Scholar Zoè Samudzi offers a reflection on the ethnopolitical and historical implications of “Sibathontisele” (2010-present), a series of paintings by Zimbabwean artist and genocide survivor Owen Maseko. Friday, September 26 at 12pm ET online. chra.bard.edu/event/sibath...

Congratulations to our Class of 2025 MA in Human Rights & the Arts. 🧿❤️ Felicitations to Sariyah Abuzant, Sarah Al-Yahya, Amr Amer, Elinor Arden, Pyae Phyo Aung, Miguel Angel Castañeda Barahona, Leil Zahra Mortada, Arina Pshenichnaya, Nabil Salih, and Mauro Tosarelli.

Last night we celebrated the class of 2025 MA in Human Rights & the Arts in a dinner and dance party at Massena Campus where their thesis exhibition took place. Tomorrow, they walk across the commencement stage.

Fresh off the press: “Common Ground,” the third volume of Talks on Human Rights and the Arts by artists, activists, and scholars from around the globe and edited by Tania El Khoury. Get in touch if you would like to buy an early-bird copy for the discounted price of $10.

Thank you to everyone who attended “State of Fracture,” the 2025 MA thesis exhibition in Human Rights and the Arts at Massena Campus, featuring written work, photography, video, sound, and multimedia installations as well as a lecture performance and a panel discussion.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Open Studios exhibition, where first-year MA students in Human Rights and the Arts showed work developed in their core art-making class taught by Robin Frohardt and Oscar Gardea.

Friday, April 25 will mark the launch of “State of Fracture,” a thesis exhibition by the MA class of 2025. The exhibition features installations, films, and written works. Join us for an opening reception with food for purchase from Samosa Shack beginning at 4pm.

The MA Program at the Center for Human Rights & the Arts is pleased to announce “The State of Fracture,” the thesis exhibition for the MA class of 2025. The exhibition will be open to the public daily April 25-May 4 from 3:00-7:30pm at Massena Campus.

First-year MA students at the Center for Human Rights and the Arts present works in progress developed in class, led by artists Robin Frohardt and Oscar Gardea.

In this talk, Hawai’i artist and building practitioner Sean Connelly of After Oceanic shares critical and projective work around creating “architecture for ‘āina”. Tuesday, April 8, 6-7:30pm in Weis Cinema, Bard College.

Thursday, March 27 @ 7:30pm, in Ottaway Theater, Avery Arts Center. The screening will be followed by a precorded Q&A with Director Rashid Masharawi.

Updated location for today’s event. “Cliff Notes from an Anti-Zionist Jew” will be today at 6pm in Resnick Studio, Fisher Center (2nd floor).

“'Masterclass,' the product of this serendipitous partnership between the self-described 'fed-up feminist' and 'all-around good guy,' is another skewering of the patriarchal performing world and, in turn, the greater world around it."

Don't miss your chance to learn from the master. 🖊️ 🎭 Limited engagement! Brokentalkers & Adrienne Truscott's Masterclass runs at the Fisher Center from April 3–6 only. 🔗 bit.ly/masterclass-bard

“Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah” is a book published by Wendy’s Subway, edited by Morgan Bassichis, Jay Saper, and Rachel Valinsky. Questions include but are not limited to “What even is a Bat Mitzvah?” “I’m queer/nonbinary/secular/old/not even Jewish—are Bat Mitzvahs for me?”

Join comedic performer Morgan Bassichis for their public talk, “Comedy for Organizers: Cliff Notes from an Anti-Zionist Jew” on Wednesday, March 26, 6pm Studio North, Fisher Center. Co-Sponsored by Theater and Performance, Studio Arts, and Middle Eastern Studies.

Masterclass is coming to the Fisher Center April 3-6. Purchase tickets at link in bio. Photos by Ste Murray.

Amar Kanwar is giving a webinar presentation, "The Scene of Crime" starting soon at 12pm-1:30pm ET chra.bard.edu/event/amar-k...

Join curator Juliana Steiner for a book launch and discussion on Monday, March 10, 6:00-7:30pm in Barringer Global Classroom. Co-Sponsored by Rethinking Place & Experimental Humanities.

Amar Kanwar’s films and multi-media works explore the politics of power, violence, and justice. His multi-layered installations originate in narratives often drawn from zones of conflict and are characterized by a unique poetic approach to the personal, social, and political.

The Spring 2025 newsletter is out now. Sign up on the CHRA homepage to receive semesterly updates about the public program and news about faculty and student art productions. To view the current newsletter, see the link in bio.

Announcing our Spring 2025 Public Program. Save the dates and follow for more information about each event.