The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) in New York’s Hudson Valley has announced a major expansion project for its library and archives set to break ground this summer. The forthcoming Keith Haring Wing, made possible by a $3 million gift from the late artist’s foundation, responds to the growing number of researchers and scholars depending on the Center’s resources and collections.
The Keith Haring Wing is slated to provide another 6,000 square feet beneath the library, more than doubling the Center’s archiving capacity, complete with an open research stacks section that can accommodate over 30,000 new volumes, an expanded reading room, a collaborative study space, a 30-person classroom, and six new offices. The new expansion is expected to be complete by late 2025.
The Keith Haring Foundation’s gift to CCS Bard stokes its continued partnership with the Center through the existing Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism, which was fully endowed in 2022 to support a faculty position that bridges the Center and the undergraduate Human Rights Program at Bard College.
Haring himself left a legacy at Bard College when he visited Annandale-on-Hudson at the invitation of art history professor Tom Wolf in 1981 for a lecture. The artist drew five crawling babies in what quickly became known as his quintessential style on the cinderblock wall of Wolf’s office — a cherished gift to the school that went on public display in 2022 at CCS Bard.
Gil Vazquez, executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, explained in a statement that the monetary gift for the new wing “aligns perfectly with Keith’s vision of accessibility and community engagement through art and education.”
“We are delighted to see Keith’s spirit of innovation and inclusion continue to inspire and influence the CCS Bard community,” Vazquez continued.
Haring had a documented appreciation for education throughout his career. Recently, a mural he created for an elementary school in Iowa City less than a year before his death was conserved for public display at the Stanley Museum of Art as the school undergoes renovations. Haring engaged with the Horn Elementary School student body for years through the invitation of elementary art teacher Colleen Ernst, who shared his artwork with her students.
