With over 25 majors, minors and degree programs and cross-disciplinary curriculum offered in all five schools, as well as hands-on extracurricular classes, there are ample ways for students to study the arts at MIT.

The MIT School of Architecture, founded in 1865, was the first architecture program in the United States and remains at the forefront of design innovation today.

In 1967, Bauhaus artist György Kepes created the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) to bring together artists, scientists, and engineers and to pioneer the use of new technology as an artistic medium. The legacy of those collaborations continues through the Media Lab, Art, Culture and Technology Program, Comparative Media Studies, and the Center for Art, Science & Technology.

In the performing arts, two professors of music hold the highest honor awarded to MIT faculty, Institute Professor; the award-winning faculty provide conservatory-level training and compose, commission, and perform classical, contemporary, and world music.

Hayden Library. Photo: Chris Devers.

Academic Departments

Majors, minors, concentrations, Master’s and PhD’s are possible in many arts subjects within the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Architecture and Planning.

Majors at MIT consist of a core of required subjects and a set of electives, and combine the study of basic principles with practical applications. The major course of study is designed to prepare students for careers in that field or for graduate study.

Minors are coherent programs of study providing significant experience in their disciplines. Minor fields are specified as part of the S.B. degree, thus giving recognition of focused work in a discipline outside the major course of study.

A complex wooden contraption with gears and wires.
The undergraduate course, “Exhibiting Science,” offered by the STS program and taught through the Museum Studio, enables students to go beyond papers and slide presentations, learning to communicate through multimedia exhibits. Credit: Elizabeth Woodward.

Cross-Disciplinary Classes

The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) supports cross-disciplinary curricular initiatives that integrate the arts into the core curriculum and create new artistic work or materials, media and technologies for artistic expression.

Hands playing a piano.
Music Department. Credit: Clarise Snyder.

HASS Requirement

The HASS Concentration offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the issues and methodologies in one area of Humanities, Arts, or Social Sciences. All undergraduates must complete a HASS Concentration of 3-4 subjects (some fields require 3, some 4) where they will gain a sophisticated sense of the questions that characterize these fields of study.

SAA Ceramics. Credit: Jason Pastorello.
SAA Ceramics. Credit: Jason Pastorello.

MIT Arts Studios

The MIT Arts Studios (previously the Student Art Association) provides extra-academic, hands-on instruction and studio experience in the arts for all levels in a range of media. Priority registration is given to MIT undergraduate and graduate students, though all MIT affiliates may participate as space permits. Sign up to develop or refine your art in an open, hands-on, relaxed environment.