Tracy K. Smith, 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her book Life on Mars, will speak at the 83rd annual McKinney Writing Award ceremony on Friday, April 19 at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The event is free and open to the public.

President Marty Schmidt ’81 and his wife, Lyn, invite the Capital Region to join them for RPI’s free Annual Holiday Concert, which will take place on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on RPI’s campus.

For the first time ever, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the National Organic Chemistry Symposium (NOS) June 22-26, 2025 at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. NOS is the premier event sponsored by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Organic Chemistry.

EMPAC, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic University, releases complete event info for its buildingwide Shifting Center exhibition, previewed in June and announced in September 2023. Public receptions in Kingston and Troy, the Hudson River itinerary and recommended viewing locations for Ilopango, the Volcano that Left, exhibition tours with the curators, and more, invite audiences to experience sound, sculpture, and moving-image artworks from internationally significant artists throughout the center October 27-29 and November 3-18.

On October 13, 2023, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and IBM held a ceremonial groundbreaking to celebrate the first-ever deployment of an IBM Quantum System One on a university campus. The event, held at the RPI’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), featured a grand reveal of the IBM Quantum System One chandelier, the intricately wired golden structure containing the quantum processor chip.

IBM Quantum System One Groundbreaking Celebration October 13, 2023 Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Theater Welcome John Kelly III '78G, '80 Ph.D., D.H.L. (Hon.) Board of Trustees Chair, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Remarks

EMPAC / the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center announces its Research program to host Deep Listening: Creativity, Accessibility, and Well-being with the Center for Deep Listening and the International Symposium on Assistive Technology for Music and Art (ISATMA), September 28-30, 2023.

In partnership with the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the 2023 City of Troy mayoral candidate forum on October 3 at 6 p.m. at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). A reception will follow.  

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has retained the Arts Consulting Group (ACG), an international organization dedicated to advancing the arts and culture, to conduct in-depth discussions with internal and external stakeholders to understand the culture, philosophy, and aspirations underpinning the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). This community input will inform the strategy for EMPAC moving forward and will lead to the recruitment of the center’s next director by the end of the year. EMPAC’s founding director, Johannes Goebel, retired last year after 20 years of service.

Recently, the Albany Business Review hosted the Elevate Albany: Education and Workforce Development Summit at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). The lively conversation around the tight labor pool in the Capital Region and how to address it, in the name of economic growth, kept the audience captive.