Living with Art

MIT List Visual Arts Center

Since 1968, MIT has run one of the country’s most active percent-for-art programs, devoting 2% of its construction and renovation budgets, up to $250,000, to commission public art. The List Visual Arts Center, MIT’s contemporary art museum, now curates 66 site-specific works campus-wide, with recent additions by artists including Cai Guo-Qiang, Anish Kapoor, and Sarah Sze. Art is further woven into daily MIT life, thanks to a “Student Loan” lottery each September through which up to 600 pieces from the List’s collection find temporary homes on dorm walls.