Arts at MIT

What makes the arts such a vital part of MIT? A creative culture where experimentation and innovation cross all disciplines and break all boundaries. More than half of all undergraduates expand their horizons by enrolling in arts classes each year, on a campus that features more than 3,500 noted works of contemporary art and landmark buildings designed by legendary architects like Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. **Since the 1960s, MIT has been forging connections between the fields of science and engineering and the worlds of visual and performing arts.** From the founding of the [Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST)](https://arts.mit.edu/cast) to the new [MIT Museum](http://mitmuseum.mit.edu), and new performance space for our preeminent prominent [music and theater program](http://mta.mit.edu), to the planned new music building and new building for architecture and planning, investment in the arts at MIT has never been stronger. **The arts have been an essential part of the MIT culture from the start.** Our [School of Architecture](http://sap.mit.edu), founded in 1865, was the first architecture program in the United States and remains at the forefront of design innovation today. In 1967, Bauhaus artist György Kepes created the [Center for Advanced Visual Studies](http://act.mit.edu/collections/cavs/history/) to bring together artists, scientists and engineers and to pioneer the use of new technology as an artistic medium. The legacy of those collaborations continues through the [Media Lab,](https://www.media.mit.edu/) [Program in Art, Culture and Technology](http://act.mit.edu), [Comparative Media Studies](http://cmsw.mit.edu/) and CAST. The List Visual Arts Center, founded in 1985, is one of the region’s most esteemed venues for cutting-edge contemporary art exhibitions. In the performing arts, two professors of music hold the highest honor awarded to MIT faculty, Institute Professor; the award-winning faculty provide conservatory-level training and compose, commission and perform classical, contemporary and world music. With over 25 [majors, minors and degree programs;](https://arts.mit.edu/classes/academic-sections/) hands-on classes; makerspaces; and 100+ concerts and [exhibitions](https://arts.mit.edu/exhibitions) open to the public each year, there are more ways than ever for the campus community to express itself through the arts at MIT.