The Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute (BIAI) is led by Neil Leonard, a professor in the Electronic Production and Design Department and a transdisciplinary artist whose career has included saxophone performance, composition, and multimedia art installation. The institute was founded on Leonard’s vision that active collaboration across the arts (music, film, dance, theater, visual art, and emerging technologies) is a foundation for innovation and creativity, and provides a broader set of opportunities for musicians.
To this end, the BIAI provides training in interdisciplinary arts and a platform for Berklee students to collaborate with artists from around the world and across all artistic practices to explore our shared humanity.
Graduates of the institute have gone on to become multimedia artists and music technology developers, and have worked with visual production companies and on multimedia festivals. One BIAI graduate established a Grammy-winning Broadway-based music production company.
Over the past decade, BIAI workshops and seminars culminated in some of the most aesthetically rich and technically innovative presentations at Berklee. BIAI performances worldwide show how art can make connections across disciplines, cultures, and socio-economic divides. The institute’s model for experiential learning led us to choose BIAI to host and perform for Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education, in the fall semester of 2022.— Lawrence J. Simpson, Berklee Provost
About the BIAI
Curriculum
The BIAI curriculum provides intense experiential learning. Students work across disciplines in the BIAI seminar (MTEC-475) and directed study (MTEC-480) courses, present workshops around the world, and participate in clinics with visiting artists at Berklee. In classes, students develop professional-level work and often collaborate with students from other disciplines, classes, and schools. Most recently, BIAI students collaborated with students from MIT Media Lab and the Harvard New Music Ensemble.
Visiting Artists
The BIAI helps students develop relationships with practicing professionals, often visiting them on site at concert venues, museums, and studios in Boston, New York City, and abroad. Visiting artists share their own work, critique student work, and perform with students.
See past visiting artists.
Performance and Exhibition Opportunities for Students
The institute benefits from experienced interdisciplinary artists at Berklee who provide students with opportunities to work in art installations, music and dance performances, theater, film/video, emerging technologies, and more. BIAI students have presented in Cuba, Italy, Germany, China, Brazil, and elsewhere, and have performed at the Venice Biennale, Bienal de Bahia, and Shanghai Conservatory.
Alumni Mentoring
Alumni of the institute often return to campus to establish a direct connection with BIAI students, performing with them and engaging in discussions on how to begin a career after Berklee.
"As a student, the BIAI provided me with unprecedented opportunities to create large-scale audio-visual installations, compose and direct an interactive music/dance performance, and present concerts worldwide," said Jason Lim ’13, BIAI alumnus and founder of Instruō, a hardware modular synthesizer company based in Glasgow, Scotland.
"Implementing BIAI’s 36-point exterior lighting array for the inauguration of Berklee’s dormitory tower helped me develop and explore skills that ultimately led me to launch my own company," said Lim. "It is a pleasure to accept current BIAI students as interns to our Glasgow-based workshop and share the technical and entrepreneurial skills that BIAI helped me develop."
I believe that society can move beyond isolation and polemic divisions. The post-COVID era presents a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary work within the arts that can support local, national, and global healing. The BIAI was founded with the intention of collaborating with artists from around the world and across all artistic practices, both by bringing people to Berklee and affording opportunities for our students to work to create and perform in a manner that celebrates of our shared humanity.— Neil Leonard, Artistic Director, Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute
