Public Art Collection

MIT’s Public Art Collection reaches across the Institute and may be enjoyed by MIT students and visitors alike. Outstanding examples of work by Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, and other major artists grace the MIT campus for all to view.

Explore the interactive Public Art Map

Gallery in the MIT museum.
MIT Museum. Credit: Judy Daniels.

MIT Museum

The MIT Museum’s galleries, exhibitions, demos, workshops, performances, conversations, and debates invite visitors to participate in the ongoing adventure of research and innovation. The Museum displays objects from it vast collection, and features rotating exhibitions on a wide range of … Continued

Free for MIT ID holders and the last Sunday of each month, September through June
 
Directions + Map

 
 

OPEN: Seven days a week, 10:00am–5:00pm, except major holidays

Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995
Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995

List Visual Arts Center

The List Visual Arts Center is a creative laboratory that provides artists with a space to freely experiment and push existing boundaries. As the contemporary art museum at MIT, the List Center presents a dynamic program of six to nine … Continued

Admission and programs are FREE and open to the public
Directions + Map

 
 
OPEN: Tuesday–Sunday 12:00–6:00pm; and until 8:00pm on Thursdays. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

Audience members take their seats in an ornate theater.
Boston Opera House. Photo by Bill Damon (Flickr).

Boston Arts Access

The Council for the Arts at MIT underwrites MIT’s memberships at many Boston area cultural organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA), and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Please see below for more detailed information.

The Council also helps underwrite discounted student tickets to the Boston Ballet, and provides students with information about discounted tickets to performances by several area ensembles. The Bobko BSO Ticket Fund, created by Philip and Barbara Bobko, provides discounted student tickets to BSO performances, and is administered by CAMIT.

 

Eligibility for the Arts Access program is restricted to current MIT students (with valid MIT Student ID) and faculty/staff (with valid MIT Employee ID). Other MIT affiliates (with Spouse ID, Alumni ID, Affiliate ID, etc.) can explore discounted ticket options available through the MIT Activities Committee (MITAC).

MIT Lincoln Lab employees: to take advantage of MIT’s University Memberships with the MFA, the ICA, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, please request an MIT Employee ID card through the Atlas Service Center.

CAMIT is unable to make any representations that these arts organizations are safe to visit. Please ensure you understand each arts organization’s access procedures, as well as MIT’s community expectations regarding COVID-19

 

A man looks into a miscroscope.
Image: Vik Muniz at MIT. Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

Visiting Artists

The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) Visiting Artists program is distinctive for its emphasis on the research and development phase of artistic work.  In addition to presenting new work, residencies embed artists in the ongoing research and teaching at MIT, where scientists and engineers are open to artists’ speculative and hands-on way of working.  The program hosts artists from a wide range of visual and performing arts disciplines each academic year, exposing students to the creative process and fostering cross-fertilization among disciplines.

The Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist Program, launched in Fall 2016, creates the opportunity for artists to shape new creative projects over a period of two years of sustained, in-depth research and development.

Visiting Artist Collaborations are supported by the Ida Ely Rubin Artists in Residence Fund, Abramowitz Memorial Lectureship Fund, and the Alan W. Katzenstein (1942) Memorial Fund.

Read more about the programs that CAST has sponsored in the 2012-14 Program Report (PDF), 2014-15 Program Report (PDF), 2015-16 Program Report (PDF), 2016-18 Program Report (PDF), 2019-20 Program Report (PDF), and 2021-22 Program Report (PDF).