Arts at MIT
  • About
    • About
    • Apply
    • Calendar
    • Leadership
    • Partners
    • Team
  • Projects
    • Cross-Disciplinary Classes
    • Faculty Grants
    • Visiting Artists
  • Performances
    • It Must Be Now!
    • MIT Sounding
      • 2023-24
      • 2022-23
      • 2021-22
      • 2019-20
      • 2018-19
      • 2017-18
      • 2016-17
      • 2015-16
      • 2014-15
    • MIT Performing
      • 2021-22
      • 2020-21
      • 2019-20
      • 2018-19
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • Books
    • Press Releases
    • Reports
  • Symposia
    • Active Matter Summit
    • Being Material
    • Frontiers in Science, Technology, and the Arts
    • Seeing/Sounding/Sensing
    • Unfolding Intelligence
    • Lecture Series

MIT Arts Programs

  • Arts at MIT Portal
  • Center for Art, Science & Technology
  • School of Architecture + Planning
    • Architecture Department
    • Art, Culture + Technology
    • History, Theory + Criticism
    • Media Lab
  • School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences
    • Comparative Media Studies/Writing
    • Literature
    • Music and Theater Arts
    • Open Documentary Lab
  • Office of the Provost
    • Council for the Arts at MIT
    • Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT
    • List Visual Arts Center
    • MIT Museum
    • MIT W20 Arts Studios
    • Student Arts Programs
  • About
    • About
    • Apply
    • Calendar
    • Leadership
    • Partners
    • Team
  • Projects
    • Cross-Disciplinary Classes
    • Faculty Grants
    • Visiting Artists
  • Performances
    • It Must Be Now!
    • MIT Sounding
      • 2023-24
      • 2022-23
      • 2021-22
      • 2019-20
      • 2018-19
      • 2017-18
      • 2016-17
      • 2015-16
      • 2014-15
    • MIT Performing
      • 2021-22
      • 2020-21
      • 2019-20
      • 2018-19
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • Books
    • Press Releases
    • Reports
  • Symposia
    • Active Matter Summit
    • Being Material
    • Frontiers in Science, Technology, and the Arts
    • Seeing/Sounding/Sensing
    • Unfolding Intelligence
    • Lecture Series
  • Arts at MIT Portal
  • Center for Art, Science & Technology
  • School of Architecture + Planning
    • Architecture Department
    • Art, Culture + Technology
    • History, Theory + Criticism
    • Media Lab
  • School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences
    • Comparative Media Studies/Writing
    • Literature
    • Music and Theater Arts
    • Open Documentary Lab
  • Office of the Provost
    • Council for the Arts at MIT
    • Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT
    • List Visual Arts Center
    • MIT Museum
    • MIT W20 Arts Studios
    • Student Arts Programs

Stories about work
MADE AT MIT

Projects that
make the
world better

Stories about
MIT students

News, interviews, and stories about the arts at MIT

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Leah Talatinian
Senior Officer for Marketing and Communications

Filter by
  • All
  • Alumni
  • CAST
  • Council for the Arts at MIT
  • Interviews
  • News Flash
  • Research
  • Students
  • Visiting Artists
loading...

Lodgers, courtesy the artists

Architecture Isn’t Just for Humans Anymore

In the remote desert of Nevada, MIT students design shelter for all species   In a rural valley of northwestern Nevada, home to stretches of wetlands, sagebrush-grassland and dozens of natural springs, is a 3,800-acre parcel of off-grid land known … Continued

Image courtesy of artist

Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 (SMACT ’21) Brings Ideas to Life

Artist and architect Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 is challenging us to reimagine our world.   Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 (SMACT ’21) is fascinated by lines. By the boundaries they form, by the blurring of them, and by how we might … Continued

Person upside down in zero gravity
The "first contact" moment of the performance. Pease NH, May 20, 2021. Photo courtesy of Steve Boxall/Zero-G.

Rethinking Our First Encounters in Space

In a new video art piece, MIT alum Rae Yuping Hsu counters traditional narratives of colonization In late May, 20,000 feet above Pease, New Hampshire, a woman dressed as a microbe in a spacesuit inoculated with slime mold bounced around … Continued

Chalk of the Day imageries.
Chalk of the Day, Courtesy of Jessie Wang '21 and Jessica Xu '21.

Inspiring Aspiring Artists: CAMIT Undergraduate Mini-Grants

MIT students have continued to perform, compose, draw, dance, build, and make in every imaginable way throughout this past year.

Woman giving online presentation
Image: Courtesy of Nancy Valladares, SMACT ’20.

Council for the Arts at MIT Supports Graduate Student Artistic Research

Graduate students and alumni discuss their work at the Council’s Annual Meeting

Two participants wearing vr goggles in Po-Hao Chi's Virtual Confinement
Po-Hao Chi, Virtual Confinement. Courtesy of the artist.

The 2021 Schnitzer Prize: Art For and From Our World

Visit the online exhibition of work by the 2021 recipients of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts. Po-Hao Chi, Chucho Ocampo, Carolyn Tam, and Nina Lutz Artists have always found their subjects and techniques in the world where … Continued

Man lying next to instruments
Image: 2021 Sudler Prize recipient Sebastian Franjou. Credit: Amelia Paine.

Sebastian Franjou ’21: Louis Sudler Prize Winner

Music, electrical engineering, and computer science Sebastian Franjou ’21 began studying classical guitar and music theory in his native France, but he chose the United States for his university education so that he could double major—ultimately choosing to pair music … Continued

Man standing in front of building
Image: Kevin Costello. Courtesy of the artist.

Thriving in the Arts at MIT: The 2021 Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards

Kevin Costello, Rian Flynn, Gabriel “Tony” Terrasa, and Luisa Apolaya Torres Each year, the Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards, which were created in 1979, acknowledge four undergraduate or graduate students, living groups, organizations or activities for their … Continued

Botanical Ghosts. Credit Nancy Valladares.

How to Talk to Ghosts

In a new online project, MIT alum Nancy Valladares finds phantoms in Honduras’s horticultural past   In 1932, the British botanist Dorothy Popenoe died after eating a piece of unripe ackee fruit. The fruit, which originated in West Africa, was grown … Continued

A gallery room with two low pedistals , one with a robotic arm and the other with ceramic bricks.
Screenshot of Misalignments online exhibition. Credit: Dalma Földesi and Jung In Seo.

Misalignments

When MArch’20 graduates Dalma Földesi and Jung In Seo first started taking ceramics classes at MIT’s Student Art Association (SAA), they found a fascinatingly protean substance. Clay could be liquid or solid, heavy and dense or feather-light. Before it hardens, … Continued

Eight images of a white pillow out of which two sewn hands emerge to hug the pillow..
Taylor Boes, Prototype 01, Self-Hugging Pillow, 2020.

Council for the Arts at MIT Announces Fall 2020 Grant Recipients

  This fall funding from the Council’s Grants Committee will enable MIT’s faculty, staff, and students to pursue new, innovative forms of collaboration, performance, and engagement as well as to advance artistic practices in design, film, installation, artist books, and … Continued

Image: Virtual Playwrights Lab 2020. Courtesy of Ken Urban.

The MTA Playwrights Lab turned a hurdle into a unique opportunity for its students and recent alumni

Going online expanded the Lab’s access to theater professionals, giving students and recent alumni a chance to learn new skills, refine their plays — and work with high-caliber actors and directors When Covid-19 forced the MIT campus to shut down … Continued

Ken Urban. Credit Kevin Thomas Garcia.
Ken Urban. Credit Kevin Thomas Garcia.

Reflections on a now virtual Playwrights Lab Workshop

The MIT Music and Theater Arts Playwrights Lab workshop 21M.785J taught by Senior Lecturer Ken Urban provides students a space to work on the development of play scripts for the theater and the opportunity to collaborate with professional theater artists. … Continued

Group of dancers pose together on stage
Image: Dance Revelasian at the Taoli World Boston Regional Competition. November 2019. Credit: Benjamin Cheung Photography.

The Joy of Dance at MIT

Nothing can stop MIT students from dancing, not even stay at home orders.  Two years ago, when second-year EECS & Economics student Joy (Xingchen) Feng was deciding where to attend college, she was concerned about having artistic outlets beyond class. … Continued

Woman sitting down
Image: Mia Heavener. Courtesy of the artist.

A Writer’s Voyage: Mia Heavener, MIT Course 1, ’00

“Be stubborn and ultimately believe in your writing,” advises first-time novelist Mia Heavener ’00, “especially if you are having crappy writing days.”   On April 13, Heavener visited Wyn Kelley’s literature course “Reading Fiction: Voyages” to share her story of writing … Continued

Devi Lockwood SM '19. Courtesy of Devi Lockwood.

Beside Still Waters: Devi Lockwood SM ‘19

Devi Lockwood was wandering down the Infinite Corridor in the Fall of 2018 when she noticed a sheaf of brochures perched on the door of a small office to her left. The brochures had information about grants awarded by the … Continued

Council for the Arts at MIT Director Andrea Volpe
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).

Image: Guillermo Bernal. Courtesy of the artist.
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

A student plays violin.
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

A student poses on a staircase.
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: 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.
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

Flock. Credit LNichols.
Flocks. Credit LNichols.

Transforming a Rough Childhood in Rural Louisiana into a Graphic Novel

L. Nichols will present a reading of his new work “Flocks,” 
an autobiographical graphic novel, on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 from 5:00-6:15pm in the MIT Wiesner Student Art Gallery. The reading will include an introduction by Stephen Tapscott, Professor, Literature and … Continued

2018 Arts on the Radar. Credit: Heidi Erickson.
2018 Arts on the Radar. Credit: Heidi Erickson.

Arts on the Radar: hundreds of students kick off a year in the arts at MIT

Fourth annual event hosted by Arts at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and MIT Music and Theater Arts Hundreds of students flocked to MIT’s building E15 to kick off a … Continued

Audra McDonald in conversation with Martin Marks and MIT students. Credit: HErickson/MIT.
Audra McDonald in conversation with Martin Marks and MIT students. Credit: HErickson/MIT.

“The Show Business I Know”: Audra McDonald in conversation with Martin Marks and MIT students

Audra McDonald, recipient of the 2018 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, visited MIT campus on several occasions this spring, meeting with students and faculty. In February, she joined Martin Marks’s class, The Musical, for an intimate exchange … Continued

  • Previous
  • Next

Footer Menu

  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Calendar
  • Donate
  • Accessibility

Footer Social Menu

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Youtube
  • Soundcloud
  • Instagram
MIT