Fast Company reporter Nate Berg spotlights the grand opening of the redesigned MIT Museum. “Braiding the science and the art together, I think it places the science into the context that it is part of our culture and our lives, it’s not a white tower experience,” says Ann Neumann, director of exhibitions and galleries at the museum.
GBH Open Studio reporter Jared Bowen explores the new MIT Museum in Kendall Square. “The reimagined MIT Museum looks at all the advances in technology and their positive – and controversial – effects on society, from genetic engineering to the increasing role that artificial intelligence is playing in art and media,” says Bowen.
MIT Museum Director John Durant speaks with Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney about the significance of the new location of the MIT Museum and what makes the museum such a special place. Of the museum’s new home in the heart of Kendall Square, Durant says, “I think MIT is committing itself here to the importance of its museum as a kind of gateway institution, as a way of helping the wider community understand what MIT is about.”
The new MIT Museum includes an exhibition by kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson called “Gestural Engineering,” which features a collection of table-top sized kinetic sculptures. Boston Globe reporter Murray Whyte notes that “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and The Biosphere,” an exhibition highlighting the collision of art and science, will premiere at the List Visual Arts Center on October 21 and run through February 26.
Prof. Tod Machover’s multi-sensory musical score, “Brain, Body + Breath,” will premiere at the MIT Museum the weekend of Oct. 14, reports Lauren Williams for WBUR. “The concert will explore how music affects our entire beings, whether we are performing or listening to it,” writes Williams.
The new MIT Museum, a “purpose-built exhibition and gathering space in the heart of Kendall Square,” writes Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay, “seeks to demystify some of the school’s opaque inner workings, makes itself broadly approachable with expanded gallery space, forum areas, learning labs, and a maker hub where visitors can work on museum-led projects.” MIT Museum Director John Durant explains: “We want people to feel that this is their museum.”
The Engine has moved into a new building situated between Kendall and Central Square in Cambridge, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Katie Rae, chief executive and managing partner of The Engine, said having a physical place for startups to work was a crucial part of the original ‘tough tech’ concept,” writes Chesto.
The new MIT Museum opens to the public this weekend in its new location in Kendall Square, which is “quite significant because this is the heart of innovation,” notes GBH’s Jared Bowen. Museum visitors will not only get a sense of MIT’s long history of innovation, but also get a sense of the scientific process, with exhibits featuring “part of the machinery that was used to help sequence the human genome, [and] the star shade petal that allowed NASA to photograph exoplanets,” Bowen explains.
Boston Globe correspondent Necee Regis spotlights this year’s Cambridge Science Festival, which is being produced by the MIT Museum and hosted at the Kendall/MIT Open Space. “Programming falls into four categories: Science + Climate, Science + Food, Science + Fashion, and The Science Carnival, the latter of which includes a midway, main stage, sideshows and more,” Regis writes.
A time capsule buried in 1957 by former MIT President James R. Killian and Prof. Harold Edgerton will be unveiled in 2957 a full millennium after its burial, writes Michele Debczak for Salon.
The MIT Museum is hosting a virtual movie night on April 24, during which participants can join “other Mars and Matt Damon enthusiasts to view The Martian, followed by an online conversation with MIT researchers who’ve worked on real Mars missions,” reports The Boston Globe.
The MIT Museum is hosting a virtual Girls Day on Saturday, March 13th, aimed at celebrating women who are exploring, researching and innovating in the STEM fields. During the free online event, participants can, “meet researchers who study everything from insect larvae to, um, poop, and how important those things are to science and society."
The MIT Museum is hosting a virtual screening and discussion of the movie Jurassic Park, reports Joel Lau for The Boston Globe. “Join researchers from MIT’s Sculpting Evolution group on Zoom for an introduction to the film,” writes Lau, “then participants will watch the 1993 blockbuster and rejoin for a post-show discussion on everything from movie effects to the science and ethics of reviving long-lost species.”
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney spotlights how the MIT Museum is offering a virtual installment of “The Polaroid Project, Part II.” The show, which also includes a display of cameras, documents and other objects, features a “stellar array of photographers. Among them are Ansel Adams, Chuck Close, Marie Cosindas, Elsa Dorfman, Gisèle Freund, Philippe Halsman, David Hockney, [and] the actor Dennis Hopper.”
Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney spotlights the “Arresting Fragments: Object Photography at the Bauhaus,” exhibit on display at the MIT Museum. The exhibit “conveys a particular sense of why the Bauhaus was so influential,” writes Fenney.