Opportunities in the Arts for MIT Students
There are many departments, labs, centers, and initiatives at the Institute that offer resources and support for students interested in pursuing the arts at MIT. These include the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT), Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), List Visual Arts Center, MIT Museum, and MIT Arts Studios (formerly the Student Art Association).
Whether aiming to make, experience, or study art, or simply seeking to connect with others who share a passion for the arts, there are many opportunities to explore the arts for MIT students.
Funds and other resources are available to support you in your art-making process.
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS)
SHASS is home to research that has a global impact and to superb graduate programs, all recognized as among the finest in the world. With 13 academic fields, the School’s portfolio is vast and includes:
• Comparative Media Studies/Writing
• Literature
• Music and Theater Arts
School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P)
SA+P believes that humanity’s toughest problems occupy the same ground as their solutions: the space between people and their environment. The school is home to:
• Architecture + Urbanism
• History, Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture
• Program in Art, Culture and Technology
• Media Lab
HASS Requirements
All undergraduates must complete a HASS Concentration of three or four subjects, depending on the field you choose. The requirement gives MIT students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the issues and methodologies in a single area of the humanities, arts, or social sciences.
Extra-Academic Classes
Hands-on instruction in the arts is offered by the MIT Arts Studios (formerly the Student Art Association). Students with all levels of experience are able to take classes in photography, ceramics, oil painting, and more.
Cross-Register at Partner Institutions
Full-time MIT students may cross-register for classes at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Each school has its own cross-registration rules and eligibility policies and is available during the fall and spring terms.
Cross-Disciplinary Classes
The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) supports cross-disciplinary curricular initiatives that integrate the arts into the core curriculum at MIT and create new artistic work or materials, media, and technologies for artistic expression.
Funding for Arts Projects
Current MIT students, faculty, and staff are eligible to apply for funding from the Council for the Arts at MIT. Applicants can submit proposals individually or on behalf of a group or organization.
Division of Student Life Funding Opportunities
Dozens of ways to fund student-led projects, events, or other initiatives that improve the undergraduate experience.
Bevans Artistic Exploration Fund
Annual grant to fund artistic work that illuminates the global Black experience and culture.
Department of Architecture Funding Opportunities
The department sponsors a number of special awards and travel fellowships throughout the year, including travel opportunities, conference fees (for PhD students only), and six-month internship opportunities to work abroad in an architectural firm.
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Opportunities are available to MIT undergraduates — regardless of major — who have demonstrated excellence in some aspect of the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
MindHandHeart Fund Community Innovation Fund
Leveraging the creativity and problem-solving skills of MIT students, staff, and faculty to strengthen the fabric of our community. The Fund supports a wide array of projects that increase awareness about mental health, build communities of support, promote life skills, foster resiliency, and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice.
Funding for Arts Projects
Current MIT students, faculty, and staff are eligible to apply for funding from the Council for the Arts at MIT. Applicants can submit proposals individually or on behalf of a group or organization.
Makerspaces
MIT has over 45 makerspaces on campus, each with their own department affiliation, policies, and access rules. Mobius, a mobile app launched in 2016, serves as a one-stop-shop portal the enables students, faculty, and staff to find the resources they need and contact managers regarding each space.
Performance Groups
In addition to faculty-led performance groups, MIT boasts hundreds of special interest groups in dance, music, theater, and interdisciplinary forms.
Extra-Academic Classes
Hands-on instruction in the arts is offered by the MIT Arts Studios (formerly the Student Art Association.) Students with all levels of experience are able to take classes in photography, ceramics, oil painting, and more.
MIT Glass Lab
Beginning, intermediate, and advanced glassblowing classes open to current students, faculty, and staff of the MIT community via lottery.
ACT Fabrication and Digital Media Spaces
The Program in Art, Culture and Technology facilities include a darkroom, metal lab, sewing room, sound studio, video and digital photography editing suite, and a well equipped general workshop.
Voxel Lab Music and Arts Innovation Makerspace
A prototyping space available to anyone in the MIT Community interested in working on music and arts related projects located in the new MIT Innovation Headquarters in Kendall Square. Launched in fall 2021 by the Arts at MIT, MIT Music and Theater Arts, and the MIT Office of InnovationHQ.
MIT Arts Scholars
An arts leadership group that brings together MIT students who are passionate about exploring the diverse array of arts available at MIT and in the Boston area. Members attend subsidized monthly excursions and workshops hosted by an expert in the relevant field.
Performance Groups
In addition to faculty-led performance groups, MIT boasts hundreds of special interest groups in dance, music, theater, and interdisciplinary forms.
Arts on the Radar
Explore all that the arts have to offer at this annual event to launch the new academic year hosted by the List Visual Arts Center, the Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Music and Theater Arts, and the Arts at MIT.
ASA Student Groups
Access a database of student-led interest groups in creative and performing arts via the MIT Association of Student Activities (ASA).
Grad Arts Forum
Encouraging networking, artistic collaboration, and intellectual discussions among MIT graduate students from different departments, the program organizes events all MIT graduate students are welcome to attend.
The Burchard Scholars Program
Bringing together distinguished members of the faculty and promising MIT sophomores and juniors who have demonstrated excellence in some aspect of the humanities, arts, or social sciences. About 35 MIT undergraduates are selected each year for the competitive program. Each cohort of “Burchards” participates for one calendar year, from February through December.
Museum and Performing Arts Access
The Arts at MIT underwrites the Institute’s memberships at many Boston area cultural organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA), and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT) also provides student tickets to the Boston Ballet and the Bobko BSO Ticket Fund supports student access to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Arts Calendar
The MIT Community and the public are invited to attend exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and other performances presented by various MIT departments, labs, and centers.
Center for Art, Science & Technology Visiting Artist Program
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 through workshops, class visits, lectures, and performances.
List Visual Arts Center
The contemporary art museum at MIT, the List Center is a creative laboratory that provides artists with a space to freely experiment and push existing boundaries.
MIT Museum Studio and Compton Gallery
Home to a creative community exploring commonalities between scientific and artistic methods, the Studio is a fully functional maker space and learning laboratory where MIT undergraduate and graduate students connect with unique learning opportunities in the tradition of mens et manus, “mind and hand.” Through a series of MIT classes, students integrate design and communications to engage audiences in science, technology, and innovation.
MIT Museum
Dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting materials that serve as a resource for the study and interpretation of the intellectual, educational, and social history of MIT and its role in the development of modern science and technology.
Lecture Series: Architecture
Hosted by the Architecture and Urbanism program, the series takes place on Thursday evenings during the academic year.
Lecture Series: Art, Culture, and Technology program
Drawing together artists, scholars, and other cultural practitioners from different disciplines to discuss artistic methodologies and forms of inquiry at the intersection of art, architecture, science, and technology.
Lecture Series: Open Documentary Lab
The ODL invites artists, journalists, technologists, and media makers to present their work in weekly public lectures with the aim to push documentary’s boundaries and deepen the impact and reach of innovative reality-based storytelling.
Public Art Collection
The MIT campus is home to more than 3,500 pieces of art and architecture. Explore by artist or location on the MIT List Visual Arts Center’s interactive map.
Student Lending Art Program
Visit the annual exhibition of original artwork from the MIT Collection available to MIT students to display at home for one year for free.
Lecture Series: Comparative Media Studies/Writing Colloquium
The CMS/W Program invites a range of speakers to present about topics related to media studies.
Max Wasserman Forum
A public forum, endowed through the generosity of the late Jeanne Wasserman, addresses critical issues in contemporary art and culture through the participation of renowned scholars, artists, and arts professionals. The Forum is organized and presented by the MIT List Visual Arts Center.
Wiesner Student Art Gallery
Located on the second floor of the Stratton Student Center, the gallery was designed to be a place for students to exhibit their artistic endeavors, both academic and co-curricular.
Arts Startup Incubator
An annual contest designed to encourage arts-focused startups at the Institute. The $15,000 prize is offered as a grant to help launch the winning enterprise and enable the recipient(s) to join the ranks of MIT’s successful startup founders.
Funding for Arts Projects
Current MIT students, faculty, and staff are eligible to apply for funding from the Council for the Arts at MIT. Applicants can submit proposals individually or on behalf of a group or organization.
Emerson/Harris Scholarship Program
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.
Student Art Awards
The Council for the Arts at MIT presents several awards annually to MIT students who have demonstrated excellence in the arts; bestowing accolades as well as financial prizes.