The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a community for contemporary art in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More_

"The idea of 'engineering chance encounters' is very popular today in both architecture and urban planning -- if you somehow plan people’s courses so they’ll bump into each other, imaginative thoughts that would not have occurred to them otherwise can and will. One thing about university life is the siloization -- like grain silos -- where everyone is so over-taxed looking after their own turf it's very hard to look across to the next silo. Universities need to build organizations that counteract the effects of siloization. And for the MIT campus, CAVS does that in a way that is efficient and wildly productive. The arts are the draw, but a very interesting cross-section of the MIT intellectual life attends those events.”

Bill Arning, Curator,
List Visual Arts Center

"The Center’s role at MIT is one of generous host, coupled with an intuitive sense of what might interest a visitor or whom might spark a productive relationship with whom. Their potential seems to exist somewhere between the role of ‘knowing janitors’, unlocking doors to new ideas and experiences, as ‘deal brokers’, negotiating access and as ‘intellectual cupids’, cementing collaborations and friendships."

Simon Starling, 2005-6 visiting artist, 2007-8 research affiliate

Thank You_
The National Endowment for the Arts
The MAP Fund
The LEF Foundation
The Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Milton & Sally Avery Foundation
The Arts Council at MIT

2008-9 Projects_ John Bell, Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), John Malpede, Jane Philbrick.

Fall 2008 visitors and events_
Red Lines, Death Vows, Foreclosures, Risk Structures, Welcome John Malpede!, Mortgage crisis roundtable, Alan Abel, Triple Candie, Martha Rosler