MIT List Visual Arts Center

The List Visual Arts Center is MIT’s contemporary art museum and  calls itself “a creative laboratory that provides artists with a space to freely experiment and push existing boundaries." It has been in the Weisner Building since 1985, but the collection began in 1950 in the Hayden Library. Their mission statement reads: “The List Visual Arts Center, MIT’s contemporary art museum, collects, commissions, and presents rigorous, provocative and artist-centric projects that engage MIT and the global art community.” 

The List pursues this mission by bringing contemporary art into the life of the MIT community in multiple ways:

• a permanent collection (1,500 works) extensively distributed throughout campus; 
• temporary exhibits in gallery spaces; 
• educational programming and 
• scholarly publications.

The List is located in the Weisner Building, which was designed by architect I.M. Pei and finished in 1985. The building and grounds were designed in collaboration with artists, for example, Kenneth Noland’s Here-There comprises both exterior and interior building surfaces:

Temporary Exhibitions are curated and shown in the List’s three spaces: the Bakalar Gallery, Hayden Gallery & Reference Gallery.

The Permanent Collection consists of over 1,500 works. Because the first pieces were acquired before an arts center had been built, they were displayed in various campus buildings, a tradition that continues today. Students, faculty and staff can borrow works from the permanent collection through art loan programs.

The Percent-for-Art program, started in 1968, sets aside 2% of the total funding for any renovation or building project to be used to commission new site-specific art work for that project. An example from 2006 is Blue Poles by Sarah Sze:

The List is well known for its Public Art Collection. An interactive online map offers information about the public works within the context of their location.

The public collection now also has an audio guide with commentary for some of the works, which was produced through an IMLS grant.