Stories about students at MIT and the projects they undertake, whether pushing the limits of 3D video technology, painting a mural with prison inmates and augmenting it with digital animations, or performing alongside visiting artists.
People often ask me about my ballet background because it seems like strange preparation for an engineering career. To me it’s not peculiar at all. Ballet taught me many of the skills I use to excel in both the classroom … Continued
Composer Nina C. Young is equally at ease drawing from Renaissance motets and 21st-century technology to devise her sonic architectures. When she was a senior at MIT, Nina C. Young ’07 took Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Music Composition Professor … Continued
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
MIT students have continued to perform, compose, draw, dance, build, and make in every imaginable way throughout this past year.
Graduate students and alumni discuss their work at the Council’s Annual Meeting
The Council for the Arts at MIT provides funding for arts projects with a special interest in supporting projects that engage the MIT community. The Council’s Grants Committee considers proposals for projects in the fall and spring semesters. Applications for Undergraduate Mini-Grants are accepted on a … Continued
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
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
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
There are myriad opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs at MIT—dozens of incubators and accelerators designed to help shepherd the next big thing in robotics or biotech or quantum computing from blackboard to business. Students wishing to launch a venture in the … Continued
Photography gives graduate student Elaheh Ahmadi a new means of connection, self-expression Taking 4.341 Introduction to Photography and Related Media at MIT was a life-changing experience for Elaheh Ahmadi SB ’20, MEng ’21. It was the fall of 2019, and … Continued
Finding Connection in Isolation Through Design How can we be together? This is the question that designer Thomas Heatherwick asks. The winner of the 2020 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, renowned for his large-scale public projects around the … Continued
The Council for the Arts at MIT will offer two art funding opportunities for IAP 2021 focused on undergraduates and student groups. Special IAP Arts Funding for Undergraduates and Student Groups This one-time special funding opportunity will provide up to … Continued
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
Visit the online exhibition of work by the 2020 recipients of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts. Students Plumb Barriers of Sound, Space, and Sight at MIT Each year, the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize highlights student … Continued
MIT is host to a vibrant and delightfully diverse art scene. Much of the credit goes to the students who participate in the arts on campus. Scores of students work each year in seen and unseen roles, promoting and sustaining … Continued
Venkatesh Sivaraman ’20 On March 30, 2020 at 5p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Venkatesh Sivaraman ’20 (Computational Biology) sat down at the five-foot Yamaha grand piano in his family’s Columbus, Ohio home and launched into the first notes of Alexander Scriabin’s … Continued
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
The video opens under an expanse of murky green water, as two swimmers clasp each other and slowly pinwheel in place to the somber notes of a piano sonata. A voiceover says, “The world record for human breath-hold underwater is … Continued
Eight years ago, MIT launched a novel competition designed to foster arts-focused startups at the Institute. “There were a number of arts prizes awarded at semester’s or year’s end,” says Leila W. Kinney, Executive Director of Arts Initiatives at MIT. … Continued
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
“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
Exposures II featuring Adam Jost and SAA artists, Surrounded by Digitized Faces and Bodies featuring Yangyang Yang and recent IDM alumni, and Ohyoon Kwon’s Closing Remarks Each month, the Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Gallery welcomes students, staff, faculty, and … Continued
Students show their research at MIT through their gallery exhibitions Each month, the Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Gallery welcomes students, staff, faculty, and visitors to view a new and engaging exhibition of student art work. A gift from MIT’s … Continued
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