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RECENT NEWS
Geoff Hargadon to Chair MIT List Visual Arts Center Advisory Committee
The List welcomes new Advisory Committee members Karen Arenson, Brit d'Arbeloff, Carolyn Fine Friedman and Ellan Spero
The MIT List Visual Arts Center is pleased to announce that Geoff Hargadon, Senior Vice President at UBS Private Wealth, will chair the List Visual Arts Center Advisory Committee, effective July 1, 2013. Brit d’Arbeloff, Karen Arenson, Carolyn Fine Friedman and Ellan Spero will join the Committee as new members.
The Advisory Committee is composed of members representing MIT, as well as local and national peer communities representing the museum and contemporary art. Advisory Committee members support the List in carrying out its mission, by reviewing and offering advice, guidance, and support to collection, conservation, exhibition, education, public programs and development policies of the List.
List Director Paul C. Ha commented, “We are delighted to welcome our new chair and four new members to our Advisory Committee. The Committee plays a vital role in helping the List to reach an even higher level of success.”
Download the full press release here.
Download pdf's of recent exhibition reviews:
In the Holocene, Frieze Magazine, April 2013.
Amalia Pica, Artforum, April 2013
MIT PERCENT-FOR-ART ARTIST MARTIN BOYCE RECEIVES 2011 TURNER PRIZE
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Martin Boyce, Through Layers and Leaves (Closer and Closer), Installation view, Couresty of the MIT List Visual Arts Center |
The MIT List Visual Arts Center is pleased to announce that Scottish artist Martin Boyce has been awarded the 2011 Turner Prize. Boyce’s sculpture Through Layers and Leaves (Closer and Closer), completed in 2011, was commissioned for the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research through MIT’s Percent-for-Art program. The prestigious Turner Prize is given annually to a British artist under the age of 50 whose work over the past year has been judged particularly innovative and important. Other past winners include Anish Kapoor, whose Percent-for-Art commission Non-Object (Plane) from 2010 is installed in the Ray and Maria Stata Center.
Through Layers and Leaves (Closer and Closer) continues Boyce’s sculptural investigations into modernist design history while being simultaneously dense with site-specific meanings. The work, affixed to the west wall of the Koch Institute, is composed of a three-dimensional steel fence inset with colorful painted panels. Beneath the steel elements are three custom-made brass ventilation grills. Hidden in the design of each grill, which repeats the quadrilateral form of the wall screen, are letters that spell “closer” “and” “closer”. In order to discern the words etched in the grills viewers have to draw near and low to the wall, which shifts attention toward the threshold between the public space of the lobby and the inner workings of the building. Boyce connects his commission for MIT to the Koch Institute’s scientific investigations, relating his work to the significance of pattern recognition and relative scale in research.
MIT’s Percent-for-Art program is overseen by the MIT List Visual Arts Center. The program begun in 1968, allocates a portion of the budget from each new building project or major renovation to the purchase or commission of art for public space. Boyce’s commission was made possible by MIT’s Percent-for-Art program, the British Council, and the generosity of the Robert D. (MIT Class of 1964) and Sara-Ann Sanders Family.
Martin Boyce’s Through Layers and Leaves (Closer and Closer) is available for viewing by the general public during regular business hours in the lobby of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (Building 76), 500 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139.
For more on the artwork please visit: http://listart.mit.edu:8080/Obj3277$15
To book a tour of MIT’s Public Art Collection please visit: http://listart.mit.edu/tours
| MESSAGE FROM THE NEW DIRECTOR OF THE MIT LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER |
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I'm incredibly excited to join the List Visual Arts Center, MIT’s contemporary art museum, as its new director.
The List is well recognized for presenting experimental, relevant, and scholarly exhibitions, and is known for outstanding educational programs and publications. That a museum championing contemporary art is housed within one of the world's leading science, engineering, business, technology and new media research institutions makes surprising but perfect sense. The List is, after all, a research and development laboratory for the visual arts, and with all the cutting-edge experimentation going on right now across this campus, we can be proud to know the List is contributing our share of the work.
Located in the heart of the MIT campus, housed in the iconic I.M. Pei building, and neighbors to the newly housed Media Lab, the List is part of a particularly innovative corner, even by MIT’s standards. The List’s work isn’t only experienced within the gallery but also as you stroll our beautiful campus, where the List oversees MIT's Percent-for-Art program, truly one of the world-class public art collections on a university campus – or any setting for that matter. You may also experience some of what the List does as you visit dorms or one of the MIT administrative offices, and see some of the large number of art works from our permanent collection or the innovative Student Loan Art Program. The List is proud that it oversees this delightful program where the students and faculty are given the experience and joy of living with art in their dorms or offices. In addition, the List, through the artist-in-residence program, brings internationally significant artists to campus to collaborate with faculty and students in the distinctive culture of MIT. Through these programs and more, the List acts as a catalyst for creating a vibrant and meaningful interaction with art at MIT and also within the greater community.
MIT fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation. We hope to challenge you through our inventive and timely programs and exhibitions – and at the same time making you feel welcome as you make repeat visits to the List. If you see a staff member of the List, one of the 26 member Advisory Committee, a member of the Friends donor group, the Director of Arts Initiatives, a Creative Arts Council member, the Associate Provost responsible for the arts, one of our many volunteers, or the Institute’s administration and faculty – be sure to thank them for keeping art very much alive and vibrant in the MIT community. As you can see, it takes a collective effort and involvement to bring you all the List offers.
I look forward to seeing you in the gallery and on campus, and I am delighted to be part of the List and the MIT family.
Paul C. Ha
Director
