List Visual Arts Center

WBUR reporter Amelia Mason spotlights MIT Visiting Scholar Wasalu Jaco (Lupe Fiasco) and his work exploring “the creative possibilities of site-responsive music.” Jaco “calls the process of making these songs ‘ghotiing,’ which is confusingly pronounced “fishing” – a phonetic joke in which the “f” sound is drawn from the “gh” in ‘rough,’ and so on,” explains Mason. “Fiasco uses ghotiing as a teaching tool, sending his MIT students on outings to various public art pieces across campus to ‘fish’ for musical inspiration. He ultimately hopes to make a song for every piece of art on MIT’s campus.” 

Working with the List Visual Arts Center, MIT Visiting Scholar Wasalu Jaco (Lupe Fiasco) has created GHOTIING MIT: Public Art, “nine original compositions using ghotiing, a term of his own invention, which proves that rap is a reactive form of expression,” reports Candace McDuffie for The Boston Globe. “Ghotiing (pronounced “fishing”) encourages students to engross themselves in different art forms and environments to devise original work,” explains McDuffie. “According to Fiasco, inspiration is taken from appreciating the landscape and outdoor painting as opposed to a recording studio. The result is usually music that feels deeper and more organic.” 

The Guardian reporter Veronica Esposito spotlights GHOTIING MIT: Public Art, a collection of raps inspired by seven of the Institute’s public artworks developed by MIT Visiting Scholar Wasalu Jaco (Lupe Fiasco) in collaboration with the MIT List Visual Arts Center. “The nine-track effort (seven of which are currently available) is a cohesive collection of music with a distinct jazz flavor that feels like a throwback to the Native Tongues era of hip-hop,” writes Espositio. For Jaco, “these tracks are an emanation of the environment that he fished them from.” 

WBUR’s Maddie Browning spotlights “List Projects 32: Elif Saydam,” a new exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center by Elif Saydam that explores gentrification through art. Saydam paints “urban scenes like gas stations and apartment buildings, then layers them with gold,” explains Browning. “Saydam’s work references historical painting traditions like miniature painting and illuminated manuscripts.” 

As part of MIT’s Artfinity festival - a new festival of the arts at MIT featuring 80 free performing and visual arts events, celebrating creativity and community – this month’s After Dark event on Thursday, March 13^th at the MIT Museum will be free and open to the public, reports Marianna Orozco for The Boston Globe. Attendees will be able to enjoy “a night of activities, including a ‘Flash Portrait’ drawing and textile design, as well as live DJ sets, open exhibits by faculty, and a talk from Behnaz Farahi, the interdisciplinary designer behind ‘Gaze to the Stars,’ which has brought the MIT dome to life,” explains Orozco. 

“Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning,” the newest exhibition at the List Visual Arts Center, features “an orchestra of sculptures meticulously curated with hidden instruments to create sound,” reports Marianna Orozco for The Boston Globe. The show will be on display through July 2025. 

MIT’s Artfinity festival kicked off with a performance of “SONIC JUBILANCE” at the newly opened Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, reports Maddie Browning for WBUR. The campus-wide festival, which runs through May 2, is open to the public and features student, faculty and staff participation in “concerts, augmented reality experiences, exhibitions, films and more,” writes Browning. Artfinity is an opportunity "to show that the arts are very important and very central to the lives of people at MIT,” said Prof. Marcus Thompson, festival co-lead.

MIT’s Artfinity Festival kicks off on Saturday, February 15^th with a celebration of the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building and Thomas Tull Concert Hall featuring a free afternoon open house and evening concert, writes A.Z. Madonna for The Boston Globe. “What this building brings to us is support for performance of all different types of music, whether it’s classical or jazz or world music, and then the ability to support various functions with our students,” says Keeril Makan, associate dean of SHASS. 

Cambridge Day reporter Susan Saccoccia spotlights the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, which opens to the public on Saturday, February 15^th, with a celebratory concert called “Sonic Jubilance,” the start of a “monthslong festival of 80 events across the campus, free and open to the public.” Prof. Marcus Thompson notes: “The extent of art-making on the MIT campus is equal to that of a major city. It’s a miracle that it’s all right here, by people in science and technology who are absorbed in creating a new world and who also value the past, present and future of music and the arts.”

Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay spotlights the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, a “new hub for music instruction and performance” for MIT’s 30 on-campus ensembles and more than 1,500 students enrolled in music classes each academic year. Gay notes that: “The more than 35,000-square-foot structure offers a variety of classroom, performance, rehearsal, and studio spaces.” He adds that there will be “more than 25 concerts at Tull Concert Hall that are open to the public this spring.”

WBUR’s Maddie Browning spotlights the MIT Student Lending Art Program, which allows undergraduate and graduate students to bring home original works of art from the List Visual Arts Center for the academic year. “I really felt like every student had a deeper relationship with the work after having lived with it for a period of time,” says Gwyneth Jackman, marketing coordinator for the List. “I think that they really care for these pieces. And I think that they know how wonderful of an experience and opportunity this is.”

WBUR reporter Solon Kelleher spotlights “List Projects 29” – the final show in a series at the MIT List Visual Arts Center that focuses on “collaborations between artists.” The show features work from Brittni Ann Harvey and Harry Gould Harvey IV. “The artists co-founded the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art and share a vision for artist-led spaces and art that engages with the wider community,” writes Kelleher.

Writing for The Messenger, graduate student Kartik Chandra highlights the MIT Art Lending Program, which allows students to select one piece from the List Visual Arts Center’s collection to keep in their dorm rooms for the duration of the academic year. “Three years into my time at MIT, I’m convinced the program works well,” writes Chandra. “Our relationship with art changes from the moment we walk into the gallery. As students wander, pondering what to take home, conventional measures of fame, monetary worth, and even beauty fall away, and the only question that matters becomes: Does this piece speak to you, personally? And something always does — as if it were put there just for you.”

The MIT List Visual Arts Center is offering free admission on Juneteenth for visitors to view three exhibits, reports Abigail Lee for The Boston Globe. “In the exhibitions, New York-based Alison Nguyen explores the cultural effects of cinematic storytelling, Philadelphia-based Lex Brown combines social issues and satiristic humor, and Berlin-based Sung Tieu uses different spatial configurations to reflect political questions,” writes Lee.

Artist Alison Nguyen’s exhibition, “History as Hypnosis” - a video installation that “surfaces themes of alienation and assimilation through three narratives” - opens this weekend at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, reports Jenn Stanley for WBUR. “Nguyen’s work explores digital media’s psychological effects on the public,” writes Stanley, “reflecting on how images are produced, circulated and consumed in mainstream U.S. culture.”