Council for the Arts at MIT Director Andrea Volpe
Council for the Arts at MIT welcomes Andrea Volpe as its new director
The Arts at MIT is pleased to announce Andrea Volpe as the director of the Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).
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EDITORIAL TEAM
Leah Talatinian
Communications Manager
Illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star. Credit: NASA.
The Music of the Spheres
Songs from Extrasolar Spaces: Music Inspired by TESS Tuesday, July 30, 2019 8:00-8:30pm: Public Lecture George Ricker, TESS Principal Investigator; Sara Seager, TESS Deputy Director of Science; and Natalia Guerrero, TESS TOI Manager 8:30-9:00pm: Program of music by Lorelei Ensemble … Continued
Spider's Canvas at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France on November 23, 2018. Photo by Aurelie Cenno.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation approves $1 Million grant to MIT to support the further integration of CAST into the research culture of the Institute
Third Mellon grant brings the Mellon Foundation’s total support for CAST to $4,000,000 through 2024 “CAST was established in 2012 with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” said Faculty Director Evan Ziporyn and Executive Director Leila Kinney,” and … Continued
2018 Mellon Faculty Grant Recipient Michael Bove and David Levine's Volumetric Cinema. Credit: HErickson/MIT.
Volumetric Cinema Explores the 360-Degree 3D Holographic Experience
Michael Bove and David Levine collaborate with MIT students to push the boundaries of 3D cinema. Imagine walking into a darkened room. As your eyes adjust, a figure, floating in space, beckons. You get closer. The story begins. Welcome to … Continued
As part of MIT Sounding, Haitian rapper, poet and singer BIC performs his work in collaboration with Jean Appolon Expressions, a Cambridge-based Haitian contemporary dance company. Photo by Caroline Alden.
Performer BIC Shares the Joy of Music and Poetry to Promote Social Equity
The Haitian poet and rapper discusses the rich outcomes of a week-long residency at MIT. Can art, poetry and music generate social change? That question was enthusiastically explored this April during a visiting artist residency with Haitian poet and rapper … Continued
First Place 2019 $15K Creative Arts Competition team Teach to Learn. Credit: HErickson/MIT.
$15K Creative Arts Competition 2019
Teach to Learn wins $15,000 first prize Mark Adams (Sloan School of Management ’19) worked in agriculture in Zambia. Derek Beckvold taught music in a refugee camp outside of Erbil in Iraq. Robert Jordon gave piano lessons to young people … Continued
Image: Guillermo Bernal. Courtesy of the artist.
2019 Winners of the Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts
Guillermo Bernal, Erin Genia, Emily Toomey, and Dipo Doherty Every artist’s body of work represents their creative vision and artistic evolution. For younger artists, a portfolio also points to their future potential. Winners of the 2019 Harold and Arlene Schnitzer … Continued
Image: Grace Yin. Credit: Rachel Wu.
The 2019 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts
Grace Yin ‘19 Grace Yin doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t play violin. “Apparently my musical career started in day care,” says Yin ‘19, an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major from Cambridge, Massachusetts. An early childhood experience steered … Continued
Image: Amalia Lee. Courtesy of the artist.
2019 Recipients of the Wiesner Student Art Awards
Undergraduates Amalia Lee and Garrett Souza, and Graduate Students Pip Mothersill and Gary Zhexi Zhang Students make myriad contributions at MIT through art. Some set a new level of excellence with their superior talent, dedicated work ethic, and exemplary performance … Continued
Image: Courtesy of Sarah Schwettmann.
3 Questions: Sarah Schwettmann on the interface between art and neuroscience
The MIT PhD student explains how the study of visual perception can translate students’ creativity across domains. Computational neuroscientist Sarah Schwettmann is one of three instructors behind the cross-disciplinary course 9.S52/9.S916 Vision in Art and Neuroscience, which introduces students to … Continued
Image: Joel Fan. Courtesy of the artist.
Pianist Joel Fan Brings an Adventurous Mix of New Music to MIT
DON’T WANT TO WAIT Joel Fan, solo piano Featuring works by MIT Faculty Composers April 18, 2019 / 8:00pm MIT Killian Hall, 14W-111 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA Part of the MIT Sounding series Reserve tickets The acclaimed soloist features … Continued
Playwright and MIT Senior Lecturer Ken Urban's The Immortals, recipient of a CAST Fay Chandler Faculty Creativity Grant, is a work in progress by playwright Ken Urban, draws from the strange and troubling case of Henrietta Lacks. Credit Melissa Blackall.
Observations from The Immortals workshop at MIT
Students share their experiences from a workshop with theater professionals Director Logan Vaughn, dramaturg Ignacia Delgado, and actors Heather Alicia Simms, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Naomi Jacobson, and Jordan Geiger came together at MIT to work with Ken Urban, Senior Lecturer … Continued
Image: Artist Jorge Otero-Pailos. Credit: Paula Lobo.
Jorge Otero-Pailos ‘02 Connects Art and Architecture in Surprising Ways
The international artist attributes his diverse career to MIT’s open culture. Jorge Otero-Pailos ’02 attributes his unique artistic vision to his experience at MIT, where he earned a PhD in History and Theory of Architecture at the MIT School of … Continued
Image: Ray Zepeda. Courtesy of Ray Zepeda.
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 dual interests. “Studying … Continued
Image: Milkdrop. Credit: Jessica Adams.
MIT Student Artwork Finds a Home at the Stata Center
Finalists of the Stata Street Artwork Competition capture the MIT experience. The next time you’re in the Ray and Maria Stata Center, take a walk down Charles M. Vest Student Street where you’ll find the ten winners of the Stata … Continued
A mural from The House of Correction AR Mural Project. The project is an ongoing collaboration between The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department and several groups at MIT including Music and Theater Arts, The Borderline Mural Project, The Educational Justice Institute (TEJI), and Arts at MIT. Credit Leon Yim.
MIT Students Find Rich Rewards in Working on the HOC AR Mural Project
The community project provided a close up of prison life and revealed the power of art to inspire and transform. When MIT freshman Sherry Xiao and MIT junior Helen Read signed up to participate in the House Of Correction Augmented … Continued
Matthew Ritchie at the ICA, where the British-born, New York-based artist had an 18-month residency. Credit: Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe.
An Artist Inquires into the Computational Substrate at MIT
Matthew Ritchie researches technology’s growing scope as CAST visiting artist. Matthew Ritchie is no stranger to the MIT campus. The contemporary artist, who works in installation, performance, painting, drawing, sculpture and sound, created a site-specific installation at the Zesiger Center … Continued
Judith, Workshop Performance created by CAST Visiting Artist Karin Coonrod and MIT professor Diana Henderson. Courtesy of the artist.
Karin Coonrod Envisions a Medieval Heroine for Modern Times
Judith Workshop Presentation Tuesday, March 5, 2019 / 7:30pm MIT Building W97 345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA The innovative theater director discusses Judith and her CAST residency with Professor Diana Henderson. All hail Judith, the female Beowulf! The medieval heroine … Continued
I control what part of the web the viewer sees while Ian plays with the hearing distance. All the fibers within this hearing distance (in blue/white) are sonified while the fibers outside of this range (in green/brown) do not produce sound. Evan and Christine improvise with the web instrument, building on Ian's sound, with Evan on EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) and Christine on electric guitar with EBow. – Isabelle Su
A Three-Dimensional Spider Web Soundscape Comes to Life
Spider’s Canvas was performed February 16-18, 2019 at the MIT Building W97 Main Theater. Visit sounding.mit.edu for more information. Following the live performances, the piece was displayed in the MIT.nano Building 12 in Spring 2019. Spider’s Canvas / … Continued
Lisa Dwan’s performance at the Old Vic Theatre of "No’s Knife," a selection of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Texts for Nothing’ (1950-52). Credit: Manuel Harlan.
Breathing New Life into Samuel Beckett
Reserve your ticket to “A Body of Beckett,” part of the MIT Performing series February 21, 2019 / 7pm MIT Theater Building W97, 345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA Actress-director Lisa Dwan shares her somatic take on the Irish bard as … Continued
Drunk and...soon to be FAMOUS!!! Featuring Shasta Geaux Pop Shot & Edited by Tatiana McCabe.
Shasta Geaux Pop Raises the Roof and Opens the Cultural Floodgates
Reserve your ticket to Line by Line, part of the MIT Performing series February 15, 2019 / 8:00pm MIT Theater Building W97, 345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA Ayesha Jordan brings her mega-party persona and work-in-progress to MIT Performing When Shasta … Continued
Adrienne Truscott. Credit: Allison Michael Orenstein. © 2018 Adrienne Truscott.
MIT Performing Shifts into High Gear
The season continues, presenting the work of three powerhouse talents. The inaugural season of MIT Performing—the new presenting platform for contemporary performance—returns for a swift-but-powerful mini-festival, which runs through February. Jay Scheib, professor for Music and Theater Arts at … Continued
Adrienne Truscott’s THIS.
What the Hell is THIS?
Provocateuse Adrienne Truscott brings her wickedly funny new work to MIT. One of the best anecdotes in Adrienne Truscott’s delightedly vulgar, rampantly feminist, genre-shifting solo-show THIS is about a toilet. Specifically, it’s about a toilet in a camper in a … Continued
Image: Courtesy of Runner's High.
Sound and Technology Unlock New Innovation at MIT This Fall
Sound is a powerfully evocative medium, capable of conjuring authentic emotions and unlocking new experiences. This fall, several cross-disciplinary projects at MIT probed the technological and aesthetic limits of sound, resulting in new innovations and perspectives, from motion-sensing headphones that … Continued
IAP course A Brief History of Kanye will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm. Image of Kanye West performing at Lollapalooza on April 3, 2011 in Chile. Credit: Wikimedia/Rodrigo Ferrari.
For Your Edification and Enjoyment: A Guide to Arts IAPS 2019
2019 IAP ARTS COURSES Dig into the history of Kanye West. Push the boundaries of 3D video. Share your favorite poem. Play the flute. Experiment with holography. Paint. Draw. Dance. Sculpt. Print. Exercise your mind and explore your inner artist … Continued