Student Stories

The Student Lending Art Collection includes more than 700 framed original works of art, primarily prints and photographs by leading contemporary artists, which are made available to students each September to live with for the school year.

Students participating in the Student Lending Art Program proudly hang artwork borrowed from the collection in their private rooms and communal spaces. Hear from students about how the artwork impacted them and their living space.

Interested in sharing your story about living with work from the collection?

mitlistarts [at] mit.edu (Contact Us )

2024–2025 Student Stories

Swati Ravi

Swati Ravi is an astrophysics Ph.D. student at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research studying the structure of neutron stars and black holes by building and using X-ray telescopes in space. She enjoys the intersection of art and nature which she explores through painting, quilting, and flower arranging.

Karl Blossfeldt, Cornus Nuttallii (magnified 8 times), Acer, 1929

Gift of Gus ('69) and Arlette Kayafas

A woman sitting on a blue couch with three patterned pillows looking towards a window at the right side of the frame. There are plants at the base of the window. A black and white photograph in a black frame is to the left of the window, next to a standing lamp.

Can you take us back to the day when you first picked out your work? What were you feeling and what was that experience like?

I was really excited to have won the lottery and I think I was out of town for all of the days except for the very last day that we could come in and choose the art. So I booked a time. I remember it was raining that day. I went in and there wasn’t a whole lot that was still up. But I was excited to see this on the wall because I just really gravitate towards anything botanical and I was also familiar with the artist, Karl Blossfeldt. Photography is a medium I don’t usually engage with in a more serious capacity. So I was excited that this both suited my interests but also kind of stretched me outside of my comfort zone. I thought it would be nice to sit with it for a year.

What else have you learned about Karl Blossfeldt or the piece since living with it?

I was originally intrigued compositionally. I wouldn’t think to photograph plants in this way and one of the things that I read is that Blossfeldt was a sculptor and it really compositionally feels like the eye of a sculptor, seeing how all of the lights and the shadows are playing and how there’s so much interest captured in the form. I thought as somebody who doesn’t think about sculpture a lot, it was cool to be brought into that world in the way that it looks like he’s thinking about photography as well. Because to me, I would probably look at this and think it’s just some sticks, but there’s more to be seen from somebody with that sort of an eye.

It never feels like I get bored looking at it even after all of this time. There’s also a lot of fun details, for example the subject of this particular photograph is a dogwood plant. In my botany class, dogwoods were a very special kind of plant to identify because it's only one of a few types of plants where the branches grow opposite instead of alternate. I think it’s helped me open my eyes to different ways of thinking about art and the natural world. It’s a grand outcome of a little piece of art just living on my wall.

There seems to be a lot of resonance between Blossfeldt’s work with macro photography and your research in x-rays and telescopes, the juxtaposition of examining nature up-close to the farthest reaches of space. Is this something you have explored?

I think so too. One of the things that I specifically work on in my research is building new types of telescopes and so it’s funny that photography is not something that I have thought of more seriously because in an oversimplified way, my job is to build a camera for the new ways that we are going to look at the X-rays that come off of black holes. So it’s actually really exciting to be able to engage with photography in different sorts of areas that are a lot more tangible to daily life. Thinking about the ways that an image is illuminated or the way we compose something is not so different from the way we are building a telescope. Most of our priorities are in scientific value, so sometimes that leads to not really exciting looking images but there's still always a part of our work which is to try and illustrate the abstract things that we are trying to see in order for the general public to understand. It’s definitely nice to have something that is in a world related to, but completely the opposite to what I do.

There is a popular quote from Karl Blossfeldt, “I… go on my bicycle or by train out into the environs of Berlin. And if… I find an interesting plant… then I am obliged for the next three or four months to make virtually daily expeditions to that spot in order to search again and again for that same plant.” The repetitive notion of going back to the same thing again and again, finding new ways to see really seems to relate to your work.

Oftentimes it is common in our field for people to just fall in love with a specific black hole and look at it with every different type of telescope and just reobserve it to see if after some time it has changed. Much like plants are changing dramatically with the seasons, sometimes black holes will get really active at the stuff they are gobbling up and spitting out. Sometimes they’ll be a lot quieter. In some ways, it's really this job of being the botanical photographer of going in and checking in on this thing that I love and seeing how it's changed or not changed and either way it's exciting work for us and hopefully for everyone else.

Jasmine Jerry Aloor

Jasmine Jerry Aloor is a PhD candidate in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics whose research bridges aerospace engineering, robotics, and AI. Outside work, Jasmine participates in department student wellness groups and aerospace/STEM mentorship roles and likes to paint.

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc #45, 2006

Gift of Jeanne and Don Stanton

Woman leaning on a light wooden dresser wearing a floral printed top. To the left of the woman there is a artwork in a black frame hanging on the wall.

What got you interested in the Student Lending Program?

I got to know about it in my second year and I found that it is so cool that we can borrow actual artwork from the List Center to keep it for a year, and that I can do this as a student here. So I was like, “Sign me up! I want to get in!” So when I got the piece last time and signed up again this year, I was lucky that I got picked for the first round. I came and looked at everything and I think this one really struck me. I thought to myself, “Wow, this piece here.” It’s what I wanted.

Can you walk us through how you chose your artwork?

I went in without knowing what I’d expect, but because I participated last year, I had an idea for the general collection that is part of the student lending program. I was looking around for something that connected with me and I saw this right as I was leaving. I saw that it had two women and it felt like the women were supporting each other. This piece struck me.

When I was picking it up, everyone working was so happy that a new acquisition got picked from the student lending program and I am happy to have it. It looks amazing. I came home and decided to research it because I was not sure what was happening in the artwork. Then I found that it is a group of pieces by the artist and all the calligraphy is handmade. I was so impressed that there is henna on the bodies of the subjects. All the fabrics are handmade, handprinted. I'm from India so henna is a big part of our culture. Although this piece is inspired by Moroccan culture, it feels like there is a common string between the two.

After participating in the Student Lending Art Program, how do you feel your relationship with art has changed or evolved?

Something interesting is after I got this artwork, I started looking into more art pieces. I got this app called DailyArt that gives me an art piece a day with information.

So I have started learning more about art and art history in the process, which I found very interesting because I really like history. I think I’d call myself a history buff. I feel like as I am learning about new art, I am now excited to check out more pieces. It got me interested.

Which artwork did you choose last time?

So the last artwork I chose was a collage portrait and I liked it, but a lot of people who came over were like “This is a little weird,” but I always said “This is the weirdness of the art!” So I felt, maybe I should switch something up and get something different because I stared at that picture everyday for 9 months.

The last artwork was a little smaller than this, maybe the size of the inner frame. The person who was handing me the work was asking me if I have enough wall space for this, “MIT grad dorms are small, so do you think you can fit it in?” And I was like, “I’m gonna fit it in, no worries. You don’t have to worry.” This time I picked an even bigger artwork and knew I would have space for it. But turns out my sense of proportions were off. I do have space.

You will be here another few years, so will you keep trying?

I am going to keep trying. I love this program. I think it definitely gives a person like me, I’m just an aerospace engineer and I’m just not fully into that world – but the List Center brings people and tries to merge the engineering students with the artwork. I feel like it’s a great blending of my world right now and hopefully anyone else who participates in this program is feeling that different energy from art than they normally do when they are at school. I would definitely keep doing it.

Indrani Saha

Indrani Saha is a PhD candidate in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture program at MIT. She studies modern art of the United States with a particular interest in histories of abstraction as they intersect with theories of mind, histories of spirituality, and reception theory. Her dissertation (The Spiritual Curation of American Modernism) spotlights non-western routes to the spiritual, and the agents who pursued them in more organizational roles within the American art scene.

Nairy Baghramian, Mooring (Slice), 2015

30th Anniversary Print Portfolio

A work of art in a black frame hanging on a wall to the left of a white door. To the left of the artwork the blurry figure of a woman is walking out of the corridor.

Can you describe your experience of choosing the artwork you have now?

I was super excited, but I didn’t have a pick in mind. I’m someone who knows when I’m in-person with a work, I’ll feel a certain way about it. I think that’s the case with Mooring (Slice) because you just can’t find a proper representation of it online. When I was in the space, there were a couple of works I was gravitating towards. Most of them were text-based, but then I thought, my roommate (a third-year law student) and I do enough reading. So I chose something that I kept wanting to come back to and that would change every time I saw it. This is definitely that kind of work.

How has your perception of the piece perhaps changed since you first picked it off the wall and have now lived with it for a year?

I still love it as much as I did the first time I saw it. I don’t know if there is a huge change there. But just getting time with it and seeing it at all times of day – that truly made a difference. I don’t know if other people would see this, but I feel like the indents got deeper. I feel like I am looking at those edges more. I’m seeing the press of maybe the sculpture or what the original material was into the paper - things that would otherwise get lost within a sea of other works. It was nice to get to spend time with one work over the course of a year and really learn all of its little parts. But I’m sure there’s more. I’m sure there’s an angle and a lighting that I haven’t seen. A new kind of iridescence will come to light then.

Did you end up doing any research into the work or artist after living with it for the year or did you just want to sit with the work as is?

It’s the latter, yeah. I was drawn to it for visual reasons and I was like, “Eventually I’ll find the backstory and I know I’ll love it.” I think for the first time in a long time, I just wanted to sit with it as an artwork and not dig too deep into it and really just live with it and how it appears to me.

I studied the Museum of Non-Objective Paintings which had from my understanding, not a ton of label information for its objects, so you had these people in the 1930s-50s walking in, dealing with radically abstract painting for the first time and either really loving it and getting lost in the work or hating it and not wanting to spend time with it. So I kind of embrace that history of art objects and reception – that aspect of just seeing a work, no info, and just really having it be a relationship between me and what I'm seeing.

After living with Mooring (Slice), do you feel more excited about collecting artwork in the future?

My roommate, Rebecca, really helped me want to be a collector of things and just like really small items. She will collect things that I wouldn’t typically think of and I’m just so in awe of what she chooses. I actually collected one work to reward myself for my dissertation and I am obsessed with it now. The work I ended up getting is this collection of tarot cards that were done with abstraction instead of the typical imagery we would associate with Tarot symbols. And because I wrote a dissertation titled The Spiritual Curation of American Modernism, it just felt kind of perfect. The tarot deck is called Abstract Futures, which I also think fits the vibe of my life right now. So it’s definitely encouraged me to hold onto items that I really gravitate towards and like looking at. The tarot cards were done by an artist collective called Hilma’s Ghost (artists Dannielle Tegeder and Sharmistha Ray), and the 2018 Hilma af Klint’s exhibition at the Guggenheim was kind of the thing that kicked off the research when I started my dissertation.

I like embracing works that really mean something to me and the moment in life that I’m collecting. I like that kind of collecting, like “I just love this so much - I want to look at it forever.” It doesn’t have to be art, capital A, that would be displayed in a museum. It’s just truly anything that brings you some sort of peace when you look at it or you just want to spend time with it like a friend or a book.

Sara Laura Wilson

Sara Laura Wilson is a third-year PhD Candidate pursuing an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Degree in Sustainable Design and Computation in Mechanical Engineering. Working in the Ideation Lab with Professor Maria Yang, she develops computational tools, informed by behavioral psychology and human-centered design principles, to identify actionable design interventions for lowering barriers to sustainable behavior.

Takashi Murakami, And Then, And Then And Then And Then and Then (Red), 1999

Purchased with funds from the Alan May Endowment

Woman with short dark hair wearing a bright red tank top is standing in front of a white wall with rows of bright posters. To the left of the woman there is a print of a red graphic figure with a black frame.

Can you talk a little bit about what drew you to this artwork?

I guess the interesting thing about Takashi Murakami is he is kind of, I don’t know how you’d describe it, like a commercial artist, where he does a lot of different collaborations. So like even I guess right behind you on the top shelf, if you see that album there, he did a partnership with one of the K-Pop groups that I really like - doing an album cover art for them. He has had a lot of interesting collaborations with different people who I really admired. At the same time, in any contemporary art museum, he’s a staple. Also, just the overall aesthetic and vibe is very colorful - as you can see, I like very colorful stuff. I literally told myself, like I will not graduate until I get one of his pieces. So luckily, this year worked out because I was like, “I will keep going until I have one!”

How would you describe your relationship with the arts before this?

I’m an appreciator of visual arts. I’m more of a pianist/musician myself when I like creating. But I think for the longest time, especially during undergrad at MIT and having such access to the MFA and ICA for free, I started going there a lot. Then when I was in London and the museums started opening up again, that’s what I did all the time, just going to a bunch of museums. So I think it’s just a very relaxing, enjoyable activity for me to peruse different galleries. Even at different conventions, like anime conventions, I will collect posters to hang on my wall. So I just really enjoy seeing a different form of art because I have no training in visual arts. I don’t know how to draw. I don’t know how to do any of that.

Have you had any memorable moments or interesting conversations arise from your participation in the program?

Yeah, I think it sparks a very similar conversation to what we’ve been talking about just now. Like, “Oh, what’s that big framed thing? And I’m like, “That’s an actual piece of artwork, not all these little prints.” It’s been very interesting to hear other people’s perceptions of the piece because I think I’ve always just associated his work with very cheerful but kind of crazy vibes, but a lot of different people have interpreted this in different ways. Some people think it’s kind of creepy and ominous with that smile. It’s cool to hear because I would not have interpreted it in that way. Just talking about it is really fun and telling other people that they should participate. I know it decreases my chance in the lottery, but it gives other people the opportunity!

If you are selected in the lottery again, do you have eyes on a different artwork?

Yeah, so her name is Louise Bourgeois, the spider one. That would probably be the next on the list. When I was in London, at one of the galleries, there was a solo exhibition of her work. It was just so amazing. Definitely on the creepier side of things, although I know for her, the spider is more of a familial tie sort of thing rather than just a creepy spider. So I think that would hopefully be next, but I know I definitely have to get an early slot because that piece was even gone by the time I got this Murakami, so I know it’s very popular.

Hours