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MIT's campus art collection rated among nation's best

Cambridge, MA...The public art collection at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been named one of the 10 best campus art collections in America by Public Art Review, considered the leading national journal in the field of public art. The announcement was made in the magazine's Spring/Summer 2006 "Art on Campus" issue.

Administered by MIT's List Visual Arts Center, the Institute's collection of public art consists of a collection of nearly 50 publicly sited artworks in addition to a permanent collection of approximately 1,600works, many of which are displayed in offices and other semi-public spaces. Also, each year over 350 works of art, primarily prints and photographs, are borrowed by MIT students through a highly popular Student Loan Art Program.

Public Art Review came up with the list for their "Big Ten" article by polling 500 art professionals, architects and artists, taking into consideration the sculpture and new architecture on campuses. MIT's acclaimed outdoor sculpture collection features works by international artists such as Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and Louise Nevelson.

MIT's got a great public program, with great artists and world-class architecture," said Jack Becker, editor and publisher of Public Art Review. "Plus [they're] a part of the community, which isn't always the case when colleges are a separate independent entity," he continued.

"MIT's programs provide a legacy for future generations of significant and identifiable art that is of its time and timeless," wrote Pallas Lombardi, manager of the Art in Transit Program of the Charlotte (N.C.) Area Transit System and former executive director of the Cambridge Arts Council.

MIT's Percent-for-Art policy, established in 1968, allots funds to commission art for each new major renovation or building project on the Institute's campus. This program brings internationally known artists into the architectural design and planning process. MIT's Percent-for-Art policy is unusual for a private university, according to Patricia Fuller, curator of public art at MIT who notes that most similar programs are mandated by legislation at state universities.

"Through the Public Art Program MIT students, faculty, and staff have the opportunity to live with works by some of the most important artists working today. Similarly, selecting the artists and implementing their works provides artists direct contact to great scientists and scholars. It's a wonderful process, and I feel it's a privilege to be a part of it," said Jane Farver, Director of the List Visual Arts Center.

One of MIT's recent Percent-for-Art installations, Dan Graham's "Ying/Yang Pavilion" sited at Simmons Hall, was pictured in Public Art Review's "Big Ten" article. Other recent installations include Sarah Sze's "Blue Poles" at the Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence, Mark di Suvero's "Aesop's Fables II," installed on the landscaped area near the Stata Center, and Matthew Ritchie's "Games of Chance and Skill," a three-part map of time and space that graces the walls of the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center.

Examples of art-and-architecture collaborations on the MIT campus that predate the formal Percent-for-Art Program include Harry Bertoia's altarpiece and Theodore Roszak's bell-tower, created for Eero Saarinen's MIT Chapel, built in 1955.

The other schools named to Public Art Review's "Big Ten" are Arizona State University-Tempe, Johnson County Community College in Kansas, Pratt Institute in New York City, Texas Tech, the University of South Florida, Western Washington University, Wichita State University, the University of California-San Diego, and the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis/St. Paul.

For more information on MIT's List Visual Arts Center and its collections and exhibitions, see http://web.mit.edu/lvac/www or call (617) 253-4400.

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