Join us at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery for a curator-led tour of the new exhibition Viollet-le-Duc Drawing Worlds. Barry Bergdoll, project cocurator and coeditor, will guide guests through a selection of nearly 200 drawings and objects by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–79).

Viollet le Duc shaped how the world understands—and restores—Gothic monuments. His nineteenth century campaigns, including the restoration of Notre Dame of Paris, bring up a timeless preservation question World Monuments Fund (WMF) confronts across our global portfolio to this day: how do we steward historic places with rigor while keeping them alive for the present? The exhibition highlights how drawing functions as both documentation and imagination—a tool for seeing, understanding, and ultimately safeguarding complex structures and craftsmanship.

This evening continues WMF’s broader conversation on the lessons of major preservation efforts, including Notre Dame’s recent restoration, which WMF has explored through our public programs and conversations with leading experts.

This event is exclusive to WMF International Council Members. To learn more about the International Council, please contact bkeliher@wmf.org. To register for this event, please contact rsvp@wmf.org.