Public program online
December 9, 2020
Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT Capstone Event with Thomas Heatherwick
Join us for the capstone event of the 2020 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT honoring designer Thomas Heatherwick. This online public program will include a special address to MIT from Thomas Heatherwick filmed in his London studio, premiere a behind-the-scenes documentary telling the inspiring story of his design challenge for MIT students, and a Q&A between Heatherwick and Dean Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
We will present three premiere screenings for three time zones:
Wednesday, December 9 at 5pm Eastern Time (Boston/New York)
Thursday, December 10 at 5pm China Standard Time (Shanghai/Singapore)
Thursday, December 10 at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time (London)
Register to watch at arts.mit.edu/mcdermott
About the Award
The Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT plays a unique role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by bringing the MIT community together to support MIT’s principal arts organizations: the Department of Architecture; the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT); the Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST); the List Visual Arts Center; the MIT Museum; and Music and Theater Arts (MTA).
The McDermott Award is presented to innovative talents by the Council for the Arts at MIT, a group of alumni and friends. The award was established in 1974 by Margaret McDermott in honor of her husband Eugene McDermott. The Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT recognizes innovative talents and is awarded to artists working in any field or cross-disciplinary activity. The 100,000 USD prize represents an investment in the recipient’s future creative work, rather than a prize for a particular project or lifetime of achievement. Past recipients include Audra McDonald, David Adjaye, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Lepage, Gustavo Dudamel, Bill Viola, Suzan-Lori Parks and Santiago Calatrava, among others.
About Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Heatherwick, the 2020 Recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, is a British designer whose prolific and varied work over two decades is characterized by its ingenuity, inventiveness, and originality. Defying the conventional classifications of design disciplines, he founded Heatherwick Studio in 1994 to bring the practices of design, architecture, and urban planning together in a single workspace.
London’s Coal Drops Yard, Singapore’s Learning Hub, Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA, Shanghai’s 1000 Trees, Tokyo’s Toranomon-Azabudai, and New York’s Vessel are among the many spaces created by Heatherwick Studio.
Thomas Heatherwick leads the design of all Heatherwick Studio projects, working in collaboration with a team of 200 highly-skilled architects, designers, and makers. Thomas’ unusual approach applies artistic thinking to the needs of each project, resulting in some of the most acclaimed designs of our time. Based in London, Heatherwick Studio is currently working in four continents. Heatherwick has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a Royal Academician, and in 2004 became the youngest Royal Designer for Industry.
