Kaitlyn Becker, a junior studying mechanical engineering, has been playing the flute since she was in the fifth grade, and working in MIT’s Glass Lab since her first year at the Institute. During the summer between her sophomore and junior years, she brought those two interests together, working with an MIT instructor designing a collection of experimental musical instruments. The instruments are made of glass, and she created them in the Glass Lab.

Becker chose to come to MIT because of its engineering program, but also because of the strength of the Institute’s art programs and its emphasis on creativity. About 70 percent of incoming first-year students have a strong interest and involvement in the arts.

“For a problem that’s never been solved before, you need to have a creative process. I needed to find some place that would challenge me in that area,” Becker says. “Our mechanical engineering department does a very good job nurturing the creative side, but there are always certain limitations in engineering. When you get down to it, it’s not a very qualitative measurement — have you learned the material, have you not learned the material. That’s where I need to break out. I need to push that creative process farther. I’m not just working with my mind. I’m working with my mind through my hands. There’s another dimension you can’t get if you’re only reading textbooks. The design process is now so much more internalized for me.”

The arts are central to the MIT student experience and, like so much of the Institute, rooted in the idea of making and creating, in understanding materials and taking risks, in solving problems and finding solutions. And, as is the MIT way, a strong emphasis is placed on interdisciplinary study.

“The arts are a vital contributor to the world of creativity at the Institute,” says Philip S. Khoury, associate provost. Three non-curricular art programs highlight our students’ creativity and the role that the arts play in improving student life: the Glass Lab, the Student Loan Art Program, and the Student Art Association.

The Glass Lab

Sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), the Glass Lab teaches glass-blowing, providing an excellent opportunity for students to discover connections between art and science. The beginning glass-blowing class is the most oversubscribed class at MIT with over 100 students participating in a lottery to be one of 16 to take the class each semester.

With glass, students create objects of form and luminosity, and learn about materials and technology in the context of glass forming. Because glass blowing is a craft that must be performed by a team, students develop a valuable skill learning to work with other students, faculty, and staff on projects.

Currently, the Glass Lab is funded entirely by its annual glass pumpkin sale, known as the MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch. An endowment would cover the lab’s recurring expenses, including:

• a half-time appointment through DMSE for the lab director;
• equipment, tools, maintenance costs; and
• other program costs.

Further, because of the high demand for Glass Lab classes, an additional work station and some smaller, more energy-efficient pieces of equipment would enable the lab to serve 50 percent more students annually.

The Student Loan Art Program

Every year, approximately 1,000 MIT students enter a lottery to borrow artwork from the MIT List Visual Arts Center’s Student Loan Art Collection. Only the lucky one-third who win the lottery are able to hang the work of art in their dorm room or apartment for one school year at no charge. The works of art are by major contemporary artists, and along with the art, students receive texts that discuss the artist in context of 20th-century art, the particular technique or media employed, and suggestions for further readings.

The popularity of the Student Loan Art Program has grown beyond individual students, and now the List Visual Arts Center receives requests from student living groups and clubs to install thematic works of art that are relevant to the particular group. An endowment would triple the number of purchases possible annually, as well as enable the List to frame and conserve some of the works currently in storage. The result would be a quickly and significantly increased collection able to give more MIT students intimate access to art, an experience unique to the Institute.

The Student Art Association

The Student Art Association is a non-credit, hands-on art space open 24 hours a day, serving over 500 individuals annually. The association is a suite of studios including:

• a clay studio equipped with electric potter’s wheels, a glazing room, and a kiln room, offering both class instruction and non-class independent use; and
• a photo studio committed to teaching and experimenting with chemical photography, featuring a “wet” lab, and offering classes that cover non-silver-printing, hand-coloring, and color printing.

For each of these studios, an endowment would nearly eliminate class fees for students, provide free class materials, account for depreciation of equipment, and increase the technical instructors’ employment time.