Leila W. Kinney

Three people speak in a panel discussion in a large lecture hall.

Harald Quintus-Bosz, Leila Wheatley Kinney, and Olafur Eliasson present at the Art and Science of Solar Lights, 2014. Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

Three people pose with a large oversized check reading "Sound Spark $10,000"

SoundSpark with Leila W. Kinney at the 2014 Creative Arts Competition. Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

Tomás Saraceno speaks into a microphone. Leila W Kinney stands next to him holding a notebook.

Leila W. Kinney and Tomás Saraceno at the CAST Symposium. Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

A panel of speakers on stage at a symposium.

Natasha Schüll, Leila W Kinney, Tomás Saraceno, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Alva Noë, and Josh Tenenbaum at the “Sensing — Actions” panel of the CAST Symposium, 2014. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.

Leila W. Kinney is the Executive Director of Arts Initiatives and of the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), working with Vice Provost Philip S. Khoury, the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), the Creative Arts Council, the Council for the Arts at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and the MIT Museum, to advance the arts at MIT in the areas of strategic planning, cross-school collaborations, communications and resource development.

Kinney is an art historian with experience in both SA+P, where she was on the faculty in the History, Theory and Criticism section of the Department of Architecture (HTC) and SHASS, where she taught in the Program in Women’s Studies and in Comparative Media Studies. She specializes in modern art, with an emphasis on media in transition, arts institutions and artists’ engagement with mass culture. She was Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of a2ru (Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities) and a member of the Advisory Committees of the Catalyst Collaborative at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the MIT Museum.