This Fall, EMPAC welcomes audiences back for the first time since March 2020 for a packed season of commissioned works and performances spanning mediums, methods, and subjects, as well as a series of rigorous conversations on a range of politically and culturally pressing issues.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson today announced the launch of the Rensselaer Institute for Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Computing (DAIC).

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson will be joined by Commencement honorands Dr. Francis S. Collins, Acting Science Advisor to President Joe Biden, and Dr. Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, for the 2022 President’s Commencement Colloquy. The theme of this year's discussion is “Intersecting Vulnerabilities with Cascading Consequences.” The event will take place on Friday, May 20 in the concert hall of the Curtis R.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson announced that Dr. Francis S. Collins, Acting Science Advisor to President Joe Biden, and Dr. Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, will receive honorary doctorates at the Institute’s 216th Commencement on Saturday, May 21.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson was recognized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for her outstanding contributions to the community. FBI officials presented President Jackson with the FBI Albany Division’s 2020 Director’s Community Leadership Award at a ceremony on Tuesday.

More than two decades ago, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson became the first African American woman to lead a top-ranked research university when she was named the 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Today, President Jackson announced to the Rensselaer community that she intends to step down from her historic post in 2022.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will receive a Grants for Arts Projects award this year to support the commissioning of new time-based art works at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). Grants for Arts Projects is the principal grants program of the National Endowment for the Arts, awarding a total of nearly $25 million to support 1,073 projects in the arts across America in this first round of fiscal year 2021. This award marks the fifth consecutive year that EMPAC has received funding from the Arts Endowment.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the President’s Holiday Concert at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will — for the first time ever — be an entirely virtual experience this year. The concert will be available for free public viewing beginning on Sunday, December 13, 2020 at 3 p.m.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has awarded the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute a $50,000 grant to support three new works of time-based visual art by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Clarissa Tossin, and Ana Navas.