The artist and designer Es Devlin has received the award Eugene McDermott Prize in the Arts 2025 at MIT. The $100,000 prize, which will be presented at a gala in her honor, also includes an artist residency at MIT in spring 2025, during which Es Devlin will present her work at a conference open to the public on May 1, 2025. .
Devlin's work explores biodiversity, linguistic diversity, and ai-generated collective poetry, all areas that are also being explored within the MIT community. She is known for public art and installations in major museums such as the Tate Modern, kinetic stage designs for the Metropolitan Opera, the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games, as well as monumental stage sculptures for large-scale stadium concerts. .
“I'm always energized by work I haven't done yet, so I'm immensely grateful to have this trust and investment in ideas I haven't yet conceived,” says Devlin. “I am honored to receive an award that has been given to many of my heroes and look forward to collaborating closely with the brilliant minds at MIT.”
McDermott 2025 Announcement
Video: Arts at MIT
“We look forward to presenting Es Devlin with MIT's highest award in the arts. Their work will be an inspiration to our students studying visual arts, theatre, media and design. “His interest in ai and the arts dovetails with a major initiative at MIT to address the societal impact of GenAI (generative artificial intelligence),” says Philip S. Khoury, MIT vice chancellor and Ford International Professor of History. “With a new performing arts center opening this winter and a campus-wide arts festival taking place this spring, there couldn't be a better time to expose MIT's creative community to the extraordinary artistic practice of It's Devlin.”
The MIT Eugene McDermott Prize in the Arts recognizes innovative artists working in any interdisciplinary field or activity. The $100,000 award represents an investment in the recipient's future creative work, rather than an award for a particular project or lifetime achievement. The official announcement was made at the Arts Council at MIT's 51st annual meeting on October 24. Since its inception in 1974, the prize has been awarded to 38 people working in the performing, visual and media arts, as well as authors, art historians and patrons of the arts. Previous winners include Santiago Calatrava, Gustavo Dudamel, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Lepage, Audra McDonald, Suzan-Lori Parks, Bill Viola and Pamela Z, among others.
A distinguishing feature of the award is a brief residency at MIT, which includes a public presentation of the artist's work, substantial interaction with students and faculty, and a gala convening national and international leaders in the arts. The goal of the residency is to provide the recipient with unparalleled access to the creative energy and cutting-edge research at the Institute and to develop mutually enlightening relationships in the MIT community.
The MIT Eugene McDermott Prize in the Arts was created in 1974 by Margaret McDermott (1912-2018) in honor of her husband, Eugene McDermott (1899-1973), co-founder of Texas Instruments and long-time friend and benefactor of MIT. The award is presented by the MIT Arts Council.
The award is presented to individuals whose artistic career and body of work have achieved the highest distinction in their field and indicate that they will continue to be leaders for years to come. The McDermott Prize reflects MIT's commitment to risk-taking, problem-solving, and connecting creative minds across disciplines.
Es Devlin, born in London in 1971, sees the public as a temporary society and often invites public participation in community choral works. His canvas ranges from sculptures and public installations at the Tate Modern, V&A, Serpentine, Imperial War Museum and Lincoln Centre, to kinetic stage designs at the Royal Opera House, the National Theater and the Metropolitan Opera, as well as Olympic ceremonies, Super Shows halftime with bowling and monumental illuminated stage sculptures for large-scale stadium concerts.
Devlin is the subject of a major monographic book, “An Atlas of Es Devlin,” described by Thames and Hudson as their most intricate and sculptural publication to date, and of a retrospective exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. In 2020, she became the first architect of the UK Pavilion at a World Exhibition, conceiving a building that used ai to co-author poetry with visitors on its 20 meter diameter façade. His practice was the subject of the 2015 Netflix documentary series “Abstract: The Art of Design.” He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music at the University of the Arts, London, and a Royal Designer for Industry of the Royal Society of Arts. He has received the London Design Medal, three Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, an Ivor Novello Award, doctorates from the Universities of Bristol and Kent, and the Commander of the Order of the British Empire award.
