Cambridge Science Festival Returns September 2024

This year's festival has a focus on our shared humanity – how humans interact, explore, and discuss together. It will also be the first festival under the leadership of the newly appointed MIT Museum Director, Michael John Gorman. 
"Science festivals have the power to bring together a staggering and inspirational variety of people and ideas," says Michael John Gorman, Director of the MIT Museum. "I couldn't be more pleased to be joining an institution which has such a strong legacy in producing the Cambridge Science Festival, and I look forward to welcoming the community to our exciting line-up of over 200 free events."
The Cambridge Science Festival showcases the newest ideas and innovations in science, art, technology, engineering, design, and more, that spark conversations about the role of science and innovation in our society and for all humankind. The festival includes four thematic days as well as a slate of one-time events that are presented by organizations and venues across Greater Boston during the 7 day event. Among the 200+ events are events aimed at adults, workshops and demonstrations for students and graduates, activities for children and families, professional networking events and open houses, walking tours, nature walks, keynote lectures, expert panels and more.
All Cambridge Science Festival events are free of charge, and in addition, the MIT Museum will also provide free admission to all during the week of the festival, providing a complementary opportunity to explore the museum. Cambridge residents who enjoy their time at the MIT Museum are encouraged to sign up for a free membership at the museum’s welcome desk or online. Free admission to the museum is extended year round to active military, EBT cardholders, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and MIT ID holders.
This is the 17th year of the Cambridge Science Festival, and the City of Cambridge has partnered with the MIT Museum throughout the Festival’s history. 
“The Cambridge Science Festival represents an opportunity for inquisitive visitors of all ages to celebrate our diverse, creative community and experience our rich innovation,” said Yi-An Huang, Cambridge City Manager. “This has become one of Cambridge’s signature events of the year and we are thrilled to once again partner with the MIT Museum for this special week-long showcase.”
Of special note for 2024’s Festival, curated thematic days will bring a focused set of programs. 
<ul><li dir="ltr">For the Win: Games, Puzzles, and the Science of Play includes multiple afternoon and evening events clustered around Kendall Square on Thursday September 26. </li><li dir="ltr">Frontiers: A New Era of Space Exploration showcases our need to explore the unknown, with programs throughout the City on Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28, co-curated by <a href="https://spaceconsortium.org/about/">The Space Consortium</a>, organizers of <a href="https://spaceconsortium.org/space-week-schedule/">Massachusetts Space Week</a>.</li><li dir="ltr">Electric Skin: Wearable Tech and the Future of Fashion offers a full program of day and evening events at the intersection of science, fabric and fashion, taking place at The Foundry and co-curated by <a href="https://www.bostonfashionweek.com/">Boston Fashion Week</a> and <a href="https://affoa.org/">Advanced Functional Fabrics of America</a> on Saturday, September 28.</li></ul>
Festival Producer Brooke Ciardelli says “As we enter a politically charged fall, we put a lot of thought into how Cambridge Science Festival can be a week of connection, community, and discussion. Our themes for 2024 reflect deep, shared human needs: how we play, how we explore, and how we dress. We can’t wait to share our full program guide later this month.”
Series for this year include In the Neighborhood – celebrating the full range of talent and expertise across the City of Cambridge with many topics, formats, and venues; Lunch &amp; Learn – a program of events scheduled daily between 12-1pm; and Carnival, the family-friendly science extravaganza, returning to the Kendall/MIT Open Space on Sunday September 29 from 12p-4p. As just one example of our exciting line up, the program Democracy in the Age of AI will feature Audrey Tang, the recent inaugural Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan, Claudia Chwalisz, the Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, and Deb Roy, the Director of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. This program will be at the MIT Museum on Tuesday, September 24 from 7p-9p.
A full program guide will be available in late August. Join the <a href="https://cambridgesciencefestival.org/newsletter">Cambridge Science Festival mailing list</a> and be the first to know about Festival news, events, offers and more.
 CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL Monday September 23 - Sunday September 29, 2024 <a href="https://cambridgesciencefestival.org">CambridgeScienceFestival.org</a>


IMAGERY <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pIaJ9ESk7uEN9ASyrQBUv8ZNc9etZv1w?usp=sharing">A selection of images from CSF 2023</a>

FACTS &amp; FIGURES
<ul><li dir="ltr">200+ events and activities in 7 days</li><li dir="ltr">90+ venues across Cambridge and beyond</li><li dir="ltr">More than 500 programmatic partners</li><li dir="ltr">Every event free and open to the public</li><li dir="ltr">Many events aimed at adults, as well as families</li></ul><div> </div>
About Cambridge Science Festival - Cambridge Science Festival, the first of its kind in the United States, was founded by the MIT Museum in 2007 with the support of MIT, Harvard and the City of Cambridge. The first Festival drew 15,000 attendees and has grown over the years into a week-long, city-wide STEAM celebration receiving more than 50,000 annual visitors, offering more than 200 individual events in more than 90 venues across Cambridge and beyond. Modeled on community centered art, music, and film festivals, the Cambridge Science Festival offers activities, demonstrations, workshops, tours, debates, contests, talks, and behind-the-scenes glimpses to illuminate the richness of scientific inquiry and the excitement of discovery. This year's Festival runs from Monday September 23 - Sunday September 29. Find out more about CSF at <a href="https://cambridgesciencefestival.org">cambridgesciencefestival.org</a>.
About the MIT Museum - The MIT Museum “turns MIT inside-out,” offering compelling examples of ongoing and past research that raise questions of how science and innovation will shape the future of society. The museum makes innovation available to all, by presenting the best of STEAM in its newly designed space in the heart of the Kendall Square Gateway on MIT’s campus. Highlights include exhibitions on a range of topics featuring objects from the Museum’s prodigious collections of over 1.5 million objects, along with loans of art and artifacts; the Lee Family Exchange event space for public dialogue and conversation; a hands-on Heide Maker Hub, where audiences can experiment with putting scientific ideas into action; and a Store of memorable STEAM and MIT-inspired items.
The MIT Museum is open daily 10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. For more information, including accessibility and amenities, please visit <a href="http://mitmuseum.mit.edu">mitmuseum.mit.edu.</a>
FESTIVAL SPONSORS
The 2024 Cambridge Science Festival (CSF) is produced by the MIT Museum with support from our premier sponsor The British International School of Boston. CSF is presented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the City of Cambridge with major support from the Biogen Foundation and Takeda Pharmaceuticals; additional support from Akamai, Alnylam, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Evolv, Google, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Merck, Millipore Sigma, MITIMCo, MuRata, Russian School of Mathematics, Sanofi, Siena Construction, and Snapdragon Chemistry: A Cambrex Company.

CAMBRIDGE (AUGUST 7, 2024) – The MIT Museum and the City of Cambridge announce the return of Cambridge Science Festival, an annual week-long celebration of ingenuity, creativity and innovation featuring more than 200 free programs across Cambridge and Greater Boston between Monday, September 23 and Sunday, September 29, 2024.

The six holograms on view are: Crystal Beginning, Rind II, Motif I, and Head of Aphrodite (“The Bartlett Head”), all by Benton, as well as Equivocal Forks II, and Medusa by Benton’s collaborators and students. With this installation, the public will be able to view a small but significant selection of the key experimental holograms created by Benton and his collaborators between 1968 and 1978, when he honed his technique, pushing the technical and artistic boundaries of holography and creating new works with each investigation. 
Stephen Benton called himself an “optiker” – someone who works at the intersection of light and vision – Benton innovated a new way to create holograms. His white-light transmission, or rainbow, holograms are viewable in the readily accessible light of a light bulb or the sun. Up to that point, most holograms required a laser to be seen. Benton’s invention injected energy into the field, opening new possibilities in imaging across scientific and commercial applications, and creating a new medium for artists to explore.
“I don’t believe that these four pioneering works by Benton have ever been shown together before,” said Deborah Douglas, Senior Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology. “Each represents a milestone, revealing the complex interplay between art and science in Benton’s inventive process.” 
The Stephen A. Benton Holography Collection accessioned in 2023 includes archival materials and holograms created by Benton and his students as well as works donated by Benton’s many collaborators. It joins the 2,000 holograms and related artifacts in the collection of the MIT Museum, significantly expanding what has already been recognized as the largest such collection in the world. The installation will be on view from June 28, 2024 through July 2025, and was curated by Deborah Douglas with technical advising by Seth Riskin, Studio Director of the MIT Museum Studios.
About Stephen Benton and his holograms 
The MIT Media Lab founding faculty member, known for his pioneering work in spatial imaging, grew up in the 1940s and 50s fascinated by 3D movies.Renowned photographer and electrical engineering professor Harold Edgerton, Benton’s mentor during his undergraduate years at MIT, introduced him to Polaroid founder Edwin Land, who offered Benton a lab at Polaroid to conduct experiments.
 
Benton made his first conventional hologram there in 1965, together with John and Mary McCann and his wife Jeannie. In 1968, he made his own groundbreaking contribution to holography – the first white-light transmission, or “rainbow,” holograms. 
Benton continued his pioneering research at Polaroid until he returned to MIT as a visiting scientist in 1980. In 1982, he founded the Spatial Imaging Group and in 1984 became one of the founding faculty members of the MIT Media Laboratory. He would pioneer new technologies in digital holography, medical imaging, and holographic video.
“Steve Benton was not only a gifted engineer and inventor, enthusiast for all things optical and art-science collaborator-extraordinaire, he is also the reason the MIT Museum became the world’s most significant repository,” said Deborah Douglas, adding, that “when the New York Museum of Holography closed in 1992 due to financial difficulties, Steve, with the support of Charles Vest, then president of MIT and a former holographer himself, raised the funds to purchase the NY museum’s entire collection and bring it to MIT. Steve then helped curate the MIT Museum’s original holography exhibitions and served until his untimely death in 2003 as the our unofficial curator of holography.”
 <figure><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeAx69a2aEMiTC_zIoNQveXFdQTpzW1u6Br_Gy0qH0JegkCeuY6hYWLkySGSRdzB3P7gXKn8ejvRdiClfDhRCoK3dLJvhPmmVrNyOZPdoTzX9STvqlDNvznLBdHXqe0Isnazu3uHwC9VxRXBUqv6E2E79w?key=UVdZC4uE3lr53wJ86lR9lg" width="624" height="469" alt="" /></figure>


About the works on view
Motif I (1968) is the first white-light transmission hologram. Created by Stephen. A. Benton, this work represented a proof of concept for his invention that uses full-spectrum light to generate a sharp, 3D image in a single color that changes as the viewer moves up and down. Motif I marked the beginning of a decade of experimentation to refine and apply the technique in fields as varied as medical imaging, commercial printing, and visual art.
Crystal Beginning (1977) was developed as a spatial testing mechanism and later as a showpiece of white-light transmission holography. These two versions of the work differ in the type of aperture used – horizontal slit (right) and open aperture (left). The use of a horizontal slit in the making of the hologram reduces information along its vertical axis, clearing from the image the repetition of points in different colors. The result – a sharp, deep, single-color image of a 3D point grid – was a technical achievement that Benton used as a teaching tool, challenging students to figure out how it was created. This White-light transmission hologram was created by Stephen A. Benton, Herbert S. Mingace, Jr., and William R. Houde-Walter.
 
Rind II (1977) represents one of the formative explorations Benton conducted as he refined his white-light transmission holography technique. The hologram is based on M.C. Escher’s “Rind,” a woodcut of a spiraling ribbon that articulates a band of inner and outer contours of a human head. Benton created many versions of this hologram, on the way to achieving precision effects in holograms he called “primo.” Here, while reflecting on the past, Benton demonstrates the artistic potential of his new method of generating depth through the manipulation of light waves. This white-light transmission hologram was created by Stephen A. Benton, Herbert S. Mingace, Jr., and William R. Houde-Walter.
 
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head") 1978, was described by Benton as “the best-ever achromatic image.” This work represents a culminating moment in Benton’s development of white-light transmission holography. It began when Edwin Land at Polaroid boldly asked to borrow the Head of Aphrodite, a centerpiece of the classical Greek sculpture collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. Guards from the MFA brought the sculpture to Polaroid disguised in a wicker picnic basket for a two-day shoot. Land considered Benton’s work to be a supreme technical achievement, and the choice of this sculpture underscores the significance he and Benton placed on this new holography technique in the historical context of human image making.
 
In the end, Benton was able to present the 3D light field of the object, separated from its solid form, as he unveiled white-light transmission holography to the Board at Polaroid. This hologram illustrated the commercial potential of his technique – which retains the natural connection between white light and the human brain – while exploiting the information-encoding power of holography. This white-light transmission hologram was created by Stephen A. Benton, Jeannie L. Benton, Herbert S. Mingace, Jr., and William R. Houde-Walter.
 
As Benton developed the Head of Aphrodite hologram, he kept technical notes and took Polaroid photos of the work in progress. Along the way, he even documented the excitement as well as the pressure he felt around the upcoming Polaroid Board meeting, where he was to present his results. Benton’s scrapbook is presented in the exhibition. 
 
Benton was keenly interested in seeing his white-light transmission holography method adopted and expanded, and Harriet Casdin-Silver was the first artist to collaborate with him. She pursued holography as an artistic medium, while pioneering technical innovations, as this piece demonstrates. Designed to be spatially deep and dynamic and lit by the sun, this hologram Equivocal Forks II (1977) was one of eight included in the groundbreaking outdoor sculpture Centerbeam, a collaborative artwork created at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies and shown at the documenta 6 exhibition in Germany in 1977.
 
Several of Benton’s students created a pioneering holographic stereogram entitled Medusa (1985-86). They used holographic film to encode both photographic and computer-generated images in stereo strips that the eyes see as a 3D scene. This work illustrates the critical relationship Benton nurtured with the next generation of holographers. It also represents a time of transition, as work expanded from analog white-light transmission holography to computer-generated stereograms. Following Benton’s lead with white-light transmission holography, his students began inventing and adapting technologies with a vision of mainstreaming applications like holographic video, holographic printing, and haptic holography. The computer generated artwork and rendering is by Mark Holzbach, Alejandro Ferdman, David Chen, MIT Spatial Imaging Group, MIT Media Laboratory; and the production is by Craig Newswanger, Advanced Dimensional Displays.
 
About the holography collection of the MIT Museum
 
The MIT Museum has the largest and most comprehensive collection of holograms in the world, with over 2,000 holograms, including many “rainbow” holograms. A key contributor to the Museum of Holography in New York City, MIT Professor Stephen Benton was instrumental in helping raise funds for the MIT Museum to acquire its collection after that museum closed in 1992. In 2021, Benton’s family donated his personal collection of holograms to the MIT Museum, significantly enhancing the story of white-light transmission holography within the Museum’s collection.

Three chess pieces as a rainbow hologram.

The MIT Museum presents Optiker, an intimate new installation of groundbreaking holograms to celebrate the recent donation by the family of the late MIT Professor Stephen A. Benton, inventor of white-light transmission or  “rainbow” holograms.

MIT Museum Presents "Optiker" Hologram Installation

On view are 41 works from leading architects of the 1970s and 1980s including Thomas Beeby, Laurence Booth, Melvin Charney, Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, John Hejduk, Arata Isozaki, Helmut Jahn, Louis Kahn, OMA – Rem Koolhaas, Peter Pran, Aldo Rossi, Paul Rudolph, Robert A.M. Stern, Stanley Tigerman, Bernard Tschumi, and James Wines. The drawings represent a broad spectrum of graphics, each an intimate record of creative expression blurring the lines of art and practice.
 
The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Duval, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design. “For architects who saw themselves as originators of creative ideas rather than just creators of buildings, drawing was the medium closest to the original concept. On their own, these drawings are captivating works of art,” Duval says. “In this period, drawing was increasingly viewed as a primary medium of expression for architectural ideas, as opposed to just a necessary step in the design process.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, many architects sought to overturn the traditions of modern architecture, finding it dull, rigid, and formulaic. Their goal was to upend both the look and purpose of modern architecture through experimentation and individualism—a set of trends that became known as postmodernism.
 
In these same decades, commercial galleries, museums, and private collectors began buying, selling, collecting, and exhibiting architectural drawings like never before. This mutually sustaining network elevated architectural drawings from utilitarian documents to objects of artistic merit. Martin E. Zimmerman ‘59 was among these collectors, and all of the drawings on display in this exhibition were gifted to the MIT Museum by him and Danielle Zimmerman in 2017. 
About the MIT Museum Architecture Collection
The works on view in this exhibition are among the over 30,000 architectural drawings that make up the expansive collection of the MIT Museum. Established in 1867, MIT’s architecture program is the oldest in the country and emphasizes both the artistic and practical elements of education. Historic student work and drawings used for teaching are the core of the MIT Museum architecture collection. In recent decades, the collection has expanded to include the work of faculty, alumni, and other relevant works from the sixteenth century to the present.

Image of "The Anti-Cruelty Society Addition" by Stanley Tigerman

The MIT Museum announces the new architectural drawings exhibition Drawing After Modernism, in its Ronald A. (1954) and Carol S. Kurtz Photography Gallery from April 12 - October 27, 2024.

MIT Museum Presents New Exhibition "Drawing After Modernism"

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Gorman to MIT,” says Philip Khoury, Ford International Professor of History and Vice Provost at MIT. “He brings a wealth of experience in creating and leading dynamic institutions bridging science and the arts, and we were impressed with his vision for the MIT Museum as a center for transdisciplinary public engagement. We look forward to a bright future with Michael John leading the way.” 
To learn more, please read this <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2024/michael-john-gorman-named-mit-museum-director-0111">MIT News article</a>.

The Museum is pleased to announce that Michael John Gorman has been named the next Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director of the MIT Museum with an anticipated start date of Summer 2024.

Michael John Gorman Named MIT Museum Director

Cambridge, MA, October 26, 2023 -- The MIT Museum announces <a href="https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/exhibitions/so-easy-to-see-berenice-abbotts-super-sight">So Easy to See: Berenice Abbott’s Super Sight</a>, a new exhibition featuring the work of acclaimed photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) in its Ronald A. (1954) and Carol S. Kurtz Photography Gallery, on view October 27, 2023 through March 2024. The exhibition is the first historically focused on her photographs from the 1940s created using her innovative Super Sight method that pushed the boundaries of existing photographic practice. With 62 works, including photographs and archival materials from the MIT Museum collection, along with works on loan, the exhibition is curated by Gary Van Zante, Curator of Architecture and Design.
The exhibition includes many photographs from the museum’s collection of Abbott’s work gifted by Ronald and Carol Kurtz such as Fish Head, Eye [Muriel Rukeyser’s Eye], Moth Wing, and others. Among the photographs newly printed for this exhibition from Abbott’s original negatives are Light Bulb, Grass Roots, Magnetic Field, Electrical Relay, and Doll, alongside an additional 23 objects on loan. Archival materials from the MIT Museum collection will accompany the photographs. 
A relentless experimenter and inventor, Berenice Abbott found a natural affinity with scientific inquiry and recognized in photography a largely unrealized potential to communicate scientific truth to the public. In March 1942, she developed a method to produce large photographs of small objects without the intervention of a photographic enlarger. Her technique of direct image capture, which she called the “Abbott Process,” or “Super Sight,” was loosely based on the ancient camera obscura and produced images of definition and transparency that were astonishing in their realism. Her ambitions for Super Sight as a means of communicating science reached across decades. 
Although Abbott’s artistic legacy as an acknowledged master of twentieth century photography was secure long before her death in 1991, her science work has only recently gained full recognition. In her own vision of artistic practice, science was most closely aligned with photographic realism, and she never lost confidence in Super Sight as an innovative solution to producing the most real photographs imaginable.
“In this new exhibition in our new building’s Kurtz Gallery we are revisiting Abbott’s artistic legacy by focusing on a different and little–known aspect of her science work, her Super Sight photography,” says Gary Van Zante.
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Image: Fish Head, 1946. Gelatin silver print. Berenice Abbott Collection, MIT Museum. Gift of Ron and Carol Kurtz. 
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Leah Talatinian
+1-617-253-5351
<a href="mailto:leaht@mit.edu" title="mailto:leaht@mit.edu">leaht@mit.edu</a>
Martha Davis
+1-617-253-4422
<a href="mailto:marthad@mit.edu" title="mailto:marthad@mit.edu">marthad@mit.edu</a>

So Easy To See: Berenice Abbott’s Super Sight on view October 27, 2023 - March 2024

Press Release - MIT MUSEUM PRESENTS NEW BERENICE ABBOTT PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

Please read this <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/john-durant-steps-down-mit-museum-director-0608">MIT News article</a> on John Durant's announcement and the legacy he leaves.

John Durant to Step Down as Museum Director

Cambridge, MA, September 8, 2022 -- On October 2, 2022, the <a href="https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/">MIT Museum</a> will re-open in a new location at 314 Main Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Reinvented with new exhibitions and programming, an enlarged Museum Store, and more, all within a 56,000 square foot space, the MIT Museum aims to make innovation and research available to all by presenting the best of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math).

The MIT Museum turns MIT inside-out, inviting visitors to take part in on-going research and demonstrate how science and innovation will shape the future of society. The opening exhibits are both informative and interactive, allowing visitors to write poetry with an artificial intelligence (AI) in one room while considering the impact of AI on the future of work nearby. Highlights throughout the galleries include: a prototype of Nobel winner Rainer Weiss’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), which proved Einstein’s theory of relativity; the NASA-MIT Starshade Rendezvous Mission star-shade petal designed by Sara Seager to allow photography of exoplanets; the 1892 diploma of pioneering architect and professor Robert Robinson Taylor, the first Black graduate of MIT; the Apollo Guidance Computer (Block II), critical to the success of Apollo missions; and selected photography including Edward Weston’s Jiddu Krishnamurti
(1935) and Judy Dater’s Lovers
(1964).
The Museum will offer free general admission to all Cambridge residents through its <a href="https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/connection/membership">Cambridge Resident Membership</a>
program and will host a Cambridge Community Day on October 1, providing residents with an advanced look at the new Museum. Starting on October 2, the Museum will open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition, a newly imagined Cambridge Science Festival will kick off the Museum's opening programming from October 3-9. The MIT community is invited to preview the Museum first on September 23. 
The Museum is now located in the heart of the Kendall Square Gateway of MIT’s campus, which provides easy access for the MIT community and the general public alike. The Museum, with three floors of space purposely designed by architects <a href="http://www.howeleryoon.com/">Höweler + Yoon</a>, is located in the recently constructed multi-use building designed by <a href="https://www.weissmanfredi.com/">Weiss/Manfredi</a><a href="https://www.weissmanfredi.com/"> </a>Architecture / Landscape / Urbanism. 
“The opening of the MIT Museum completes the trio of spaces – including the Welcome Center and the two acres of community greenspace – that make up the heart of the gateway to our campus,” said MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart. “Open to the public and made possible by a generous group of donors and supporters, the Museum showcases MIT’s historical contributions to science and technology and makes the Institute’s art and artifacts accessible to the world. We look forward to welcoming the public to the Museum this fall to celebrate this significant milestone for MIT.”
Highlights of the Museum include freshly conceived exhibitions featuring objects from the Museum’s prodigious collections of over 1 million objects, along with loans of art and artifacts; The Exchange event and meeting space for public dialogue and conversation; and a hands-on Maker Hub, where audiences can experiment with putting scientific ideas into action. 
“It is with great anticipation that we welcome the MIT community and the public to the new MIT Museum this fall,” said MIT Museum Director John Durant. “The MIT Museum is consciously standing at the interface between a world-famous research institute and the wider world. We plan to ‘turn MIT inside out,’ by making what MIT does visible and accessible to all. Visitors will see that we are focused on the question: what does all this intensive creativity, research, innovation, teaching and learning mean - not least, for the wider community of which we're all part?” 
For more information about the new Museum, you can <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2022/3-questions-john-durant-new-mit-museum-kendall-square-0728">read a Q&amp;A with John Durant</a>, the Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director of the MIT Museum. 
“The new MIT Museum is planned as a place where you can really learn something new. The exhibits present high-level research in a way that is interactive and meets visitors where they are, whether they are entirely new to science or already experts,” said Phillip A. Sharp, MIT Institute Professor and Chairman of the MIT Museum Advisory Board.
THE GAMBRILL CENTER
The Museum’s three floors designed by Höweler + Yoon are situated in the Gambrill Center, which is located in the multi-use building at 314 Main Street, Cambridge designed by Weiss/Manfredi. 
The Museum’s light-filled lobby connects it to campus through its glass facade and to the Kendall T stop and Main Street through an open space concept that dissolves the boundaries between store and soon-to-be opened cafe. Two broad staircases that function as amphitheaters and gathering areas lead visitors from the lobby to the second and third floors, surrounded by spacious galleries on each floor. Together with the stair sequence, the Museum’s exhibitions inform an architectural spiral bookended with explorations of cutting edge ideas in science, art and technology, bracketed by MIT’s current research and its historic contributions. Gathering spaces and MIT’s only public Maker Hub punctuate the galleries, making room for visitors to enjoy the inspiring, spontaneous encounters that spark innovation within the university. The exterior of the building shifts and changes as one approaches, a chameleon-like experience designed by Weiss/Manfredi that amplifies the Museum’s long-standing interest in questions of visual perception. The facade of the building emphasizes the Museum’s position as a permeable membrane between MIT, Cambridge and the wider world.
IN THE GALLERIES
A list of MIT Departments, Labs and Centers, Artists, Groups and Companies whose work is on view can be found <a href="https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/mit-museum-fall-2022">here</a>. The following exhibitions and installations are on view:
Essential MIT - A look at the experimental culture and collaborative spirit of the MIT community via an interactive exploration of groundbreaking projects and ongoing innovation. Whether encompassing global issues, ventures into space, or efforts to improve our daily lives, these are all stories of challenges addressed through innovation and collaboration. The Essential MIT exhibition is supported by the Biogen Foundation. Located in the Brit J. (1961) and Alex (1949) d'Arbeloff Gallery.
Gene Cultures - In the last twenty years genetic research and biotechnology have developed astonishing innovations that offer possible solutions to some of the most intractable problems facing society today, but also create new moral and ethical challenges. This exhibition presents contemporary genetic and genomic research in conversation with Bioart. Located in the Henri A. Termeer Gallery. 
Tracing Threads - A thought-provoking installation on the shifting movement of people and goods in an increasingly globalized world. The movement of population clusters and shifting cultural identities define our times. The highlighted projects, American DNA from MIT’s Senseable City Lab, and the textile art installation Coring America from the MIT Future Heritage Lab and Azra Aksamija, show the effects of international migration on the genetic histories of the United States and the environmental and social impacts of forced displacement.
A Life in a Day - Designed by Random International, the collaborative studio for experimental studies, this experience will have visitors contemplating what it might feel like to share the world with other forms of intelligence. The projected “swarms” developed for the piece – continuations of the artist’s Swarm Studies, ongoing since 2008 – move across the walls of the gallery, reacting to the presence of visitors and evolving and adapting throughout the lifespan of the exhibition. Located in the Martin J. (1959) and Eleanor C. Gruber Gallery.
In Concert: Ganson and Cavatorta - Interdisciplinary by nature, the field of art-science embraces a wide spectrum of creativity that spans the areas of making, mechanics, play, technology, the sciences, and engineering-based disciplines. Built around the work of Arthur Ganson and Andy Cavatorta (a graduate of MIT’s Media Lab), this exhibition offers up a harmony of sound and motion and a physical embodiment of a relationship forged on the MIT campus. A selection of Ganson’s sculptures will be on view alongside the American debut of Cavatorta’s Whale (2022), which plays a 200-year-long song inspired by the compositions of Hildegard von Bingen and the music of bowhead whales. Located in the Martin J. (1959) and Eleanor C. Gruber Gallery.
AI: Mind the Gap - The ubiquitous presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, from the home to robots in the workplace, compels us to ask questions about its potential and its risks, and about machine ability versus human ability. The contemporary and historical research presented in this exhibition spans computer science, mechanical engineering, neuroscience, and the social sciences. 
To Look and Learn: The Creative Photography Laboratory at MIT
presents the innovations and far-reaching influence of an unconventional curriculum and the photographer and educator behind it. The CPL taught scientifically-minded students to “see creatively” from 1965 to 1983 and left behind an expansive archive and visual collection. The exhibition features longtime director of the Lab, Minor White, as well as photographers such as Ansel Adams, Judy Dater, Emmet Gowin, Lotte Jacobi, Pirkle Jones, Milton Rogovin, and Edward Weston among others. Located in the Ronald A. (1954) and Carol S. Kurtz Photography Gallery.
MIT COLLECTS
- objects from the Museum’s vast collection, arranged in topic areas: Located in the Edward O. Thorp Gallery.
Technology and the Dream - Recordings of students, staff, researchers, and community members offer a sense of the Black experience at MIT.
Modeling Everything - A wide array of models for teaching, discovery, research, and documentation, from ships to crystal structures to architectural design.
Virtual MIT - A virtual time capsule of MIT and the community that came together to create it.
A Sequence of Actions - A look at historical components and artifacts from a critical era in programming during the mid-20th century. 
Totally Useless Things - Learn how curiosity is the fuel that discovery runs on.
Exhibition design by Studio Joseph
AND FEATURING
The Museum’s lobby will be a public and social hub: freely accessible to anyone, the space offers an opportunity to feature art installations, new technologies, and civic science. A Counting is the first of the offerings the space will hold. This art piece from the MIT Media Lab’s Ekene Ijeoma and the Poetic Justice Group of the MIT Media Lab uses sound and video to produce voice portraits of cities. A Counting is an evolving and participatory livestream linguistic portrait of the diverse spoken and sign languages of the Boston and Cambridge community in a count from 1 to 100, featuring the voice of each person and language for each number. 
Spatial Frequencies - Connections between visual art, vision neuroscience and computational methods of representing and understanding human vision are in play in this work created through the MIT Museum Studio.
OTHER SPACES
MAKER HUB AND LEARNING LABS 
A range of guided drop-in activities offered daily, free with Museum admission, along with group workshops in the fully-equipped education space. Located in the Ulf B. Heide (1960) Education Suite.
THE EXCHANGE
The Yuchun (1989) and Agustina Lee Family Exchange, a double-height space featuring a massive media wall, hosts face-to-face meetings including short talks, demonstrations, panel discussions, and debates. 
COLLECTIONS WORKSHOP
A space where students and instructors, whether from MIT or elsewhere, can discuss subjects aided by close-up engagement with artifacts. Located in the Ann Chase Allen Workshop.
EVENT SPACE
The Museum’s event room, which is available to rent, accommodates meetings and other gatherings in its light-filled space. Located in the Phillip A. Sharp Room (made possible through the generous support of the Biogen Foundation). 
OPENING EVENTS
MIT Community Day - September 23, 12-6:00 p.m. - preview for the MIT community including students, faculty, staff. 
Cambridge Community Day - October 1, 12-5:00 p.m. - preview for all residents of Cambridge, MA, with the opportunity to register for Cambridge Resident Membership.
Cambridge Science Festival - October 3-9 - This <a href="https://cambridgesciencefestival.org/">week-long celebration</a> will be action-packed with events, demonstrations, workshops and performances, many taking place at the MIT Museum and in the adjacent outdoor MIT Kendall/Open Space. Themes for the festival are Science + Climate October 6; Science + Food October 7; Science + Fashion in collaboration with Boston Fashion Week October 8; Science + Carnival October 9. Experience the magic of the Northern Lights right here in Cambridge with the experiential art installation <a href="https://cambridgesciencefestival.org/borealis/">Borealis</a> by Dan Archer on October 6-9 each evening from 8pm-11pm (free admission).
Brain, Body + Breath - October 14 and 15 - Featuring three world premieres, a multisensory musical experience created by composer and innovator Tod Machover, Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media at the MIT Media Lab, for the opening of the new MIT Museum.
PROJECT AND DONOR SUPPORT
The MIT Museum greatly appreciates the generosity of the <a href="https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/connection/give">donors</a>
whose contributions helped make the new MIT Museum at 314 Main Street a reality, as well as those who supported the former location at 265 Massachusetts Avenue. 
These consultants and companies helped make the project possible as follows: Höweler + Yoon, Museum architecture; Pentagram, branding and graphic design; Studio Joseph, exhibition design; Kubik Maltbie, exhibition fabrication; Bluecadet, exhibition media design and development; Tillotson Associates, lighting design; Cogapp, website development; Turner Construction, Special Projects Division, builders; Weiss/Manfredi, multi-use building architecture.
VISITATION
The MIT Museum will be open daily 10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Its store is now open daily 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, including accessibility and amenities, please visit mitmuseum.mit.edu.
Address: 314 Mass Ave, MIT Building E28, Gambrill Center, Cambridge, MA 02142.
Located next to the Kendall/MIT MBTA Red Line stop at the new Kendall Gateway to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Campus.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Leah Talatinian
+1-617-253-5351
<a href="mailto:leaht@mit.edu">leaht@mit.edu</a>
Martha Davis
+1-617-253-4422
<a href="mailto:marthad@mit.edu">marthad@mit.edu</a>

NEW MIT MUSEUM OPENS TO THE PUBLIC ON OCTOBER 2, 2022

MIT Museum opens in a new building at 314 Main Street, Cambridge, MA

New MIT Museum Opens to the Public October 2, 2022

Dear Friends,

As I write, it is 100 days until the re-opening of the all-new MIT Museum.

Dear Friends,
As I write, it is 100 days until the re-opening of the all-new MIT Museum.
When the pandemic obliged us to shut the doors of the old museum more than two years ago, we could not have imagined that they would not open again at 265 Massachusetts Avenue, where we were housed for 50 years. There was no way to predict that we would need to execute our plans for the new museum remotely, across Zoom screens.
The new MIT Museum in Kendall Square is a total reset: new building, new museum spaces, new galleries and exhibitions, new store, new brand, new website.
The work has been exciting, but as museum people what we look forward to most of all is welcoming back you, our visitors. Your energy feeds ours, and your feedback – whether praise, or calls for corrections – makes us better. Your participation is critical to the experience we hope to host, and your voice is entirely necessary to our success.
We can’t wait to welcome you back on October 2 (Cambridge residents: look for a special preview day on October 1 just for you). In fact, we’re counting the days. 
100….
In keen anticipation,
John Durant The Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director

Announcements & Notes