The Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute (BIAI) was founded in 2008 by Neil Leonard, a composer, saxophonist, interdisciplinary artist, and professor emeritus at Berklee College of Music. The vision underlying the institute is that collaboration across the arts—including music, film, dance, theater, visual art, and emerging technologies—is a foundation for innovation, creativity, and expanded opportunities for musicians.
Neil led this vision to success in his tenure at BIAI. The institute offers courses in intermedia arts, bringing together sound, image, interactivity, and technology to develop new forms of artistic expression. The institute provides students with opportunities to collaborate across disciplines, engage with artists from around the world, and explore modern and global forms of art.
Graduates of the institute have gone on to become multimedia artists, installation artists, music technology developers, and creative leaders, contributing to multimedia festivals, award-winning productions, and visual production companies.
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, founder, Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute
