Curatorial Program

The EMPAC curatorial program is dedicated to commissioning, producing, and presenting ambitious performances and artworks across music, time-based visual art, theater, and dance. Its polyvocal curatorial approach resonates through each project, generating time-based artworks that are diverse in content, method, technology, and audience experience. Since hosting its first artist residency in 2003, the program has supported hundreds of artists to create and present new works that foster deep artistic inquiry and meaningful audience engagement.

The curatorial program is committed to the in-depth support of artists over extended periods of time to develop and realize complex projects. These projects utilize not only the building’s technological infrastructure, but also the interdisciplinary expertise of EMPAC's curatorial, production, and administrative staff. 

The program provides patrons with a breadth of experiences from theater productions, concerts, and installations to a rigorous interdisciplinary program of screenings, talks, and workshops. EMPAC’s resident artists open their studio doors to share artistic research with audiences at various stages of development.

Many artworks produced at the center are made in collaboration with peer institutions, presenters, and museums, expanding the audience for artists and their work beyond the region, while placing Rensselaer at the forefront of international discourse around time-based arts and technology.