The MIT Museum has appointed Andrea S. Lipps as its inaugural Senior Curator of Visual Arts, Media, and Technology, charged with realising the MIT Museum’s next incarnation as MIT’s public laboratory and transdisciplinary experimental platform.
“Andrea is a highly accomplished and innovative curator of groundbreaking exhibitions and collections. We are thrilled to have her bring her curatorial talents and expansive curiosity to the MIT Museum. Together with Andrea in her new role as Senior Curator of Visual Arts, Media and Technology, we are excited to embark on a journey to evolve the MIT Museum into a true public laboratory for MIT, inviting all to experience at first hand MIT’s unique culture of problem solving and playful creativity.”
Michael John Gorman, The Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director, MIT Museum
Tasked with inventing a new kind of collection for the MIT Museum, Lipps’ work will draw on her breadth of experience and deeply innovative approach to curatorial programming spanning both digital and
physical collections. Pushing the boundaries of exhibition curation is not new to Andrea, who most recently served as Curator of Digital Design and Founding Head of the Digital Curatorial Department at
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There, she developed and implemented award-winning
transdisciplinary loan-based exhibitions and publications to expand understanding of contemporary
design, including An Atlas of Es Devlin and its accompanying publication, and Nature—Cooper Hewitt
Design Triennial. Moreover, Lipps’ collecting practices led her to pioneer an entirely new department—the Digital Curatorial Department, for the collection and care of born-digital work—which Cooper Hewitt
established in 2022 as the museum’s first new collecting department in 125 years.
“Andrea’s pioneering work in digital collections at Cooper Hewitt and across the Smithsonian is just the catalyst the museum needs to forge new partnerships with the MIT Media Lab, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Morningside Academy for Design, and the Schwartzman College of Computing. Andrea brings new excitement and bold ideas about how we might reimagine contemporary museum collections and curatorial practice.”
Deborah Douglas, Senior Director of Collections,
Prior to the Cooper Hewitt, Lipps served as adjunct faculty at Parsons School of Design and as Research Assistant in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art. She holds a
Bachelor of Arts in French, Sociology, and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan and a
Master’s Degree in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Parsons The New School.
“It’s an honor to join the MIT Museum at this pivotal moment in its fifty-year history, and I thank Director Gorman for bringing me into the fold as we look to new means and methods of presenting the most cutting-edge technologies to our audience and community. I’ve long sought to highlight work that happens in the liminal spaces between disciplines, where creativity and curiosity bridge deep expertise, and am thrilled to bring this to the MIT Museum. I very much look forward to working with my colleagues across departments, amplifying the impact of the museum and our collections by generating highly original exhibitions in support of our shared curatorial vision.”
Andrea S. Lipps, Senior Curator of Visual Arts, Media, and Technology, MIT Museum
Lipps, through this new role, will further the MIT Museum’s mission to welcome all to participate in MIT’s
unique culture of problem solving and playful creativity through exhibitions, education, speaking engagements and programming, while increasing and disseminating knowledge, fostering collaboration,
and developing creative initiatives that serve a broad public audience.
Enacted at the beginning of 2025, the MIT Museum Strategic Plan 2025-2030 sets course to cement the
Museum as MIT’s living laboratory for cross-disciplinary innovation and engagement, reshaping the role
of the university museum in today’s cultural landscape.
MORE: mitmuseum.mit.edu
