Exhibitions

The BAC: 130 Years of Design, Architecture, and Education

December 11, 2019

In 1889, a conversation began about design, the built environment, and education. Starting as a 'Club,' reorganized as a 'Center,' and transformed into a 'College,' today's Boston Architectural College (BAC) continues an illustrious history of educating designers and architects who have changed Boston and the larger world.

Since its founding, the BAC has made design education accessible and inclusive. This exhibition, The BAC: 130 Years of Design, Architecture, and Education, displays artifacts from the institution's beginning through its present. It also holds the work of its longest-serving dean, Arcangelo Cascieri, who volunteered for more than forty years, and oversaw the BAC's transformation from a Beaux-Arts design educational model to one emerging from the Bauhaus and connected to professional practice.

Holding true to its mission, the BAC has embraced a culture of applied learning and exploration - making contributions to the design professions and the greater society. This exhibition celebrates the history of the BAC's development as an evolving organization in relation to larger world events. This exhibit also highlights the BAC's teaching and pedagogical evolution through selected works of students and Dean Arcangelo Cascieri. This exhibit attests to how our conversation continues.

McCormick Gallery exhibits a variety of design work that speaks to wider themes of sustainability, historic preservation and new technologies, and to BAC values of social responsibility, accessibility and diversity. Prominently located on the corner of Newbury and Hereford streets, in the BAC's main building, the gallery engages thousands of shoppers, students, and tourists that pass by its windows and the bustling college within. All come together in this space for public opening receptions and exhibition related lectures.