The Gus Solomons Jr. Visiting Artist Series

Gus Solomons Jr. (1938-2023) was a groundbreaking American dance artist and a graduate of MIT (Architecture, 1964). An important element in the performing arts DNA of MIT, Solomons offers a legacy that continues to inspire our students and faculty.

The Gus Solomons Jr. Visiting Artist Series brings a contemporary dance artist to MIT Theater to share and create work with students and the broader arts community. Each year, a participating artist makes a brief exploratory visit to campus; meets with possible collaborators, faculty, students, and staff; and visits one of our performance or design studio classes. Each artist then returns later in the year for a second, extended residency wherein they develop a performance and present a work-in-progress or premiere a new work. While each residency may differ aesthetically or functionally, each prioritizes opportunities for meaningful exchange with students and members of the expanded MIT community. These opportunities, for example, might include artist-led workshops alongside public lectures or demonstrations allowing students to engage with new artistic practices. Selected artists will, as Gus did, exemplify openness and generosity, and personify impact and expansion in the contemporary performance landscape on a national and/or international scale.

Enabled by a generous gift from the MIT Council of the Arts and patrons of the McDermott Prize Gala, we are thrilled to welcome and support artists in bringing their uniquely creative approaches to embodied performance to share with the MIT community—inspiring others to do the same.