The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT) is a group of several dozen alumni and friends of MIT who support and promote the arts at the Institute. Annual donations by CAMIT members fund a wide array of programs and arts events at MIT, including grants funding to arts projects, recognizing excellence through arts awards, providing access to arts experiences in the Greater Boston area, and supporting the core arts units at MIT.
Council members are alumni and friends with a strong commitment to the arts and serving the MIT community, and the Council’s programs are funded by the annual contributions of its members.
CAMIT-Funded Programs
Grants
Since its establishment, the Council has given over $4 million in grants for almost 3,000 arts projects created by MIT students, faculty, and staff.
Allocations to MIT’s Core Arts Units
The Council provides annual funding to various MIT arts entities, including:
• List Visual Arts Center
• MIT Museum
• Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT)
• Center for Art, Science, and Technology (CAST)
• Music and Theater Arts
• W20 Student Art Studios
Arts Access
Together with several endowments established by its members, CAMIT underwrites free or heavily discounted tickets and memberships for MIT students to attend local arts experiences and performances, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Philharmonic, and the Huntington and Speakeasy Theaters.
Current Members
Ann Chase Allen
David T. Altshuler
Karen W. Arenson
Haejin Baek*
David Bakalar
Silvia Barbieri
Mel A. Barkan
George P. Beal
Ellen Berman
Anne Blomstrom
Marcel Botha, Chair*
Somak Chattopadhuay*
Rhea G. Cohen
Ron H. Cordover
Niels J. Cosman
Liz D. Coxe
Brit d’Arbeloff
Sylvia A. de Leon
Margaret Dunn
Sunny A. Dupree
Eran Egozy
Mark R. Epstein
Yildiz Ferri
Paul A. Gluck*
Sherwin Greenblatt
Benjamin Gulak
Susan Eve Haar*
Isabel Hardy*
Caroline B. Huang
Barbara J. Hughey
Fady Jameel
Mimi Jensen
Prabha Kannan*
Lillian Kiang
Wendy Kistler
Sheila P. Lemke*
Larisa Leventon
Nancy T. Lukitsh
Flora Major
Laird M. Malamed
Lore Harp McGovern
Colleen Messing
Andrea Nasher
Federica Olivares
Philip Palmedo
Jane Pappalardo
Hyun-A C. Park
Jennifer Perini
Janet B. Plotkin*
Susan M. Poduska
Cynthia L. Reed
Martin N. Rosen
Sara-Ann Sanders
Sachi Sato
Rob Scalea
Bob Schaffer
Susanne Seitinger
Debby Stein Sharpe
Andrew Silver
Megan J. Smith
Mike Speciner
Gene E. Stark Jr.
Rick and Terry Stone
Glenn P. Strehle
Bruce D. Sunstein
Martina Swart
Phillip Tiongson
Caroline W. Wang
Joyce Wang
Peter J. Wender
Tracy Taylor Wydra
Sally X. Yu*
Ms. Gisele Yung*
Ex Officio
Emily Peckham
*Executive Committee
How to Join
Council members are appointed for 3-year, renewable terms by MIT’s president to serve as advocates and ambassadors for the arts at MIT. Members make annual tax-deductible contributions of at least $5,000, which directly fund CAMIT programs.
Please contact Marcel Botha, Chair of the Council for the Arts at MIT or Emily Peckham, Director of CAMIT with any questions or to discuss membership by emailing council-arts@mit.edu or calling (617) 253-4005.
History
In 1972, Catherine N. “Kay” Stratton and Jerome B. Wiesner (the 13th president of MIT), established the Council to strengthen the arts at MIT and to expand arts funding. As MIT president, Wiesner transformed the Institute, recognizing that being the best in science and engineering was not enough–that tomorrow’s leaders also need to integrate the arts and humanities into their thinking about engineering, science, technology, and policy.
For the celebration of the 40th anniversary of CAMIT’s founding, the Council commissioned a short film about its history.
For more information, contact
Emily Peckham
Director, Council for the Arts at MIT
Explore Supported Projects and Programs
Ray Zepeda ‘88 Recalls his Rich Musical Mentors at MIT
The mechanical engineering graduate followed his muse as musician and composer. The roads to MIT are many and circuitous. For Ray Zepeda ‘88, the route was straight east. A lifelong Californian, Zepeda’s cross-country trip was motivated by…
The concert program gets a digital makeover fit for Bowie
When I was an art student in New York in 1999, David Bowie visited our school and offered to host images of our work on BowieNet, an ISP he had launched the previous year. Glimpsing Bowie was…
2016 Recipients of Student Art Awards
After cruel April’s deluge of exams and critiques, May brings showers of praise. Now is the jubilant time in the academic calendar when the Council for the Arts at MIT recognizes the achievements of the Institute’s student…
Daniel Parker’s Path to Juilliard via MIT
When he was six years old, Daniel Parker saw his sister perform in a choir concert. Afterward, he sat down at the piano and began to sound out the what her ensemble had sung. “When my mom…
Dull your senses and expand your mind
Amphibian advances the field of VR while exploring the relationship between diving and disability “My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly,” Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote in his agonizingly beautiful account of…
bioLogic’s Living Textile
Bio is the New Interface Textile production historically has been a bellwether for innovations in manufacturing—from such technological improvements as the spinning jenny and the flying shuttle at the dawn of the industrial revolution to recent developments…
CAMIT Grants Showcase Presents a Range of Art Projects Made at MIT
Michelangelo had the Medicis, Picasso had Gertrude Stein, and Pollock had Peggy Guggenheim. It is difficult to imagine art history without the support of its most celebrated patrons. For the artistic community at MIT, the vision and…
The Enduring Influence of Joan Jonas at MIT and Beyond: Part V
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly…
Johnny Gandelsman performs Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are Shakespearian in their iconicity. Every serious performer must subject them to study, memorizing a monologue or, in this case, a movement, tracing and retracing the familiar, fleet-footed…
Architect David Adjaye Awarded 2016 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT
Award includes $100K prize, artist residency, gala and four public programs at MIT Architect David Adjaye OBE receives the 2016 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT. The $100K prize awarded at a gala in his honor…
The Enduring Influence of Joan Jonas at MIT and Beyond: Part IV
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly…
2015 Recipients of the Schnitzer Prize
The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts is awarded annually to undergraduate and graduate students at MIT for excellence in a body of artistic work. The Schnitzer Prize was established in 1996 through an…
The Enduring Influence of Joan Jonas at MIT and Beyond: Part III
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly…
The Enduring Influence of Joan Jonas at MIT and Beyond: Part I
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly…
Looking for a lofty Shakespearience?
Council for the Arts Tickets Program provides MIT students with access to the Bard and other worthy entertainments Attending a production of one of Shakespeare’s plays is a superb reminder that the origin of the word audience…
2014 Schnitzer Prize Award Winners
MIT students win annual Schnitzer Prize in the visual arts.