Programs

Since 1985, the List Center has presented notable and renowned guest artists, curators, and scholars in a broad range of special public forums that engage in contemporary art and ideas. The List Center is committed to artist-centered and boundary-pushing programs.

List Center Digital Guide

Explore the List Visual Arts Center online using our new digital guide, available on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. The List Center Digital Guide gives you a chance to hear reflections from exhibiting artists and artists in our Public Art Collection through video interviews and audio tours. 

Gallery with various sculptures in the background and a hand holding a phone with a screen that displays a collage of installation photography.

Max Wasserman Forum

The 2025 Max Wasserman Forum: Visions of Sustainability brings together artists, scholars, and curators to discuss climate change within the arts and museum institutions. This Forum focuses on rethinking how art and cultural organizations can operate, the disproportionate effects of climate change on those in vulnerable populations, and the transformative role art and artists take.

A small body of water with perfectly circular edges sits amid neatly trimmed grass and trees. Inside the water are tall wetland grasses and floating moss. Overlayed text reads "2025 Max Wasserman Forum: Visions of Sustainability. April 5, 2025"

Visual identity: Studio ELLA for the 2025 Max Wasserman Forum; Artwork: Michael Wang, Shanghai Swamp, 2022

Artist-Led Programs

Engagement with contemporary art is offered through artist-led experiences created to push creative thought. Artist-led programs allow the List Center to offer experiences that highlight a variety of artistic practices.

Overhead shot of someone's hands working at a wooden table with art supplies

Connect at the List

Connect at the List is a series of special networking events that invites graduate art students, recent grads, and emerging artists from around the greater Boston area to come together and meet new colleagues. Participants are invited to learn more about our exhibitions, while highlighting community, placemaking, and professional development. 

Attendees congregating in the atrium for the Connect at the List event in the MIT List Visual Arts Center.

Lavine Lecture Series

The Leroy and Dorothy Lavine Lecture Series was established to honor the Lavines, two prominent Boston art patrons and longtime supporters of the MIT List Visual Arts Center. This lecture series, featuring distinguished art world speakers and presenters, serves the Boston arts community through its focus on modern and contemporary art.

Woman stands at the front of a circular chapel with a projector screen and speaks to an audience who sits in wooden chairs.

Graduate Student Gallery Talks

Graduate Student Gallery Talks at the List Center present focused explorations of our current exhibitions and are led by an MIT graduate student. These interdisciplinary talks examine art through the lens of students’ research, backgrounds, and interests.

MIT graduate student sits presenting a talk to an audience of four people.

Public Lectures and Talks

Public programs such as artist and gallery talks, panel discussions, lectures, film screenings, and tours encourage thoughtful and provocative exchanges that address the most current topics in contemporary culture and complement our current exhibitions. Since 2010, many talks have been recorded and can be viewed in our video gallery.

A group of people are seated in an auditorium during an event looking toward the stage.