For Students

Student Art Association Glaze Studio. Credit: Elizabeth Woodward.
Student Art Association Glaze Studio. Credit: Elizabeth Woodward.

MIT Arts Studios

The Student Art Association (SAA) 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.

 

 

Due to the Institute’s COVID-19 guidance on in-person gatherings, the Student Art Association is not open for the fall term 2020 and we are unable to provide access to the studios at this time. We look forward to making art with you when we re-open.

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).

Modernistic house with large windows in a snowy landscape.
William O’Brien Jr, Twins: Houses in Five Parts , New York.

Academic Sections

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

MAJORS

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

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.

CONCENTRATIONS

MIT undergraduates must select a HASS concentration to meet their General Institute Requirements.
Eligible HASS concentrations in the arts include:

  • Art, Culture and Technology
  • Comparative Media Studies
  • History of Architecture, Art, and Design
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Theater Arts
  • Writing
A student plays piano.
Yimin Chen, Emerson Scholar.

Emerson Scholarship Program

Offering merit-based financial assistance for private lessons to MIT students of outstanding achievement on their instrument or voice in classical, jazz, or world music via competitive auditions. Each academic year, the Emerson program for private study offers half scholarships and … Continued

Poster with a painting of Goethe
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Kelly Douglas Fund

The Kelly-Douglas Fund provides support for and encouragement of undergraduate education in the humanities, arts and social sciences. Travel outside MIT to pursue an independent project in a HASS field, or to collaborate in a humanitarian project, can have a … Continued