Celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the List Visual Arts Center—reflecting on four decades of experimental practice, groundbreaking exhibitions and public art, and bold artistic inquiry at MIT.
To mark the fortieth anniversary, the List Center is highlighting its history through the following programs–join us April 10 and 11 for special celebrations!
On Friday, April 10, 2026, the List Center will kick off its public celebrations in conjunction with the opening of Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Form, featuring performances by Irena Haiduk and Goldin+Senneby. Learn more and register here.
On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the List Center will host a full day of performances, featuring two major performance works by artists whose practices resonate deeply with the institution’s past and present.
1:00 PM – Saturday, April 11, 2026
New York–based artist Gordon Hall presents 1–2 pm, a lecture-performance that explores waiting as both subject and method and engages Scott Burton's Granite Bench (1985)—a cornerstone of the List Center's public art collection—as an active participant. In doing so, Hall draws connections between Burton's philosophy of seating, the architecture of the Wiesner Building, and the embodied politics of pause, delay, and attention.
3:00 PM – Saturday, April 11, 2026
Artist and performer Autumn Knight, featured in Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Form, presents M _ _ _ ER, a nonlinear, immersive performance combining improvisation with sculpture, sound, and light. Through a balance of humor, tension, and what she describes as "controlled chaos," Knight navigates the tangled relationships we form with people, objects, and the spaces we inhabit in both performance and daily life.
Special Reception with Creative Direction by Nayland Blake
4:30 PM – Saturday, April 11, 2026
A reception following the performances will feature creative direction by Nayland Blake, who will curate the event with artist-designed food, beverage, and decor for the celebration.
Over the next year, the List Center has launched a bold new public art engagement and conservation initiative, made possible by an anonymous $1 million challenge grant. Honoring the List’s lasting impact while broadening and energizing its base of supporters, the 1:1 challenge invites the List’s community to match the grant.
Together, these investments will strengthen the visibility, longevity, and educational reach of more than sixty major works of art on campus—the Boston area’s only free outdoor sculpture park. This builds on a long tradition of collaborations among artists and architects, from I.M. Pei and Scott Burton, Richard Fleischner, and Kenneth Noland, to recent commissions with SANAA and Sanford Biggers, and NADAAA with Agnieszka Kurant.
From March through August, 2026, a complementary archival installation in the List Center atrium presents rarely seen photographs, documents, and materials from the institution’s early years, offering a closer look at the origins of the Wiesner Building and the List Center’s founding vision.
Can’t make it to the List Center this year? Discover the milestones that have shaped the List Center through our 40th Anniversary Timeline, an evolving digital record, and hear from enduring voices with our List Center at 40: Oral Histories, tracing key moments in the museum’s history—from the Hayden Gallery era to the founding of the List in 1985 and beyond.
To celebrate forty years of leadership and innovation, the List Center has established an Honorary Board of Advisors, recognizing artists, architects, and former directors whose contributions have guided the museum’s evolution and influenced its mission. Their perspectives strengthen the List Center’s role as a hub for contemporary inquiry and interdisciplinary exchange.
List at 40 is supported by generous donors to the 2025 McDermott Award Gala, hosted by the Council for the Arts at MIT.
