György Kepes, who taught at the New Bauhaus (now the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago), founded the Center at MIT as a way to encourage artistic collaboration on a large civic scale.
[3] During its 45-year existence, the CAVS hosted more than 200 artists and fellows that "pioneered collaborative works in light, kinetic, environmental and inflatable sculpture, laser, steam, video, electronic music, holography, dance, computer graphics and animation, among other media".
Some of the later visitors included Marjetica Potrč, Miranda July, Vito Acconci, Simon Starling, Harrell Fletcher, John Malpede, David Robbins, Fritz Haeg, and Mel Chin.
Archives, artworks, and artifacts from the history of the CAVS are preserved in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection (CAVSSC).
[7] Some of the center's early fellows included artists Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, Jack Burnham, Wen-Ying Tsai, Stan Vanderbeek, Jürgen Claus, Maryanne Amacher, Joan Brigham, Lowry Burgess, Peter Campus, Muriel Cooper, Douglas Davis, Susan Gamble, Dieter Jung, Piotr Kowalski, Charlotte Moorman, Antoni Muntadas, Yvonne Rainer, Keiko Prince, Alan Sonfist, Aldo Tambellini, Joe Davis, Bill Seaman, Tamiko Thiel, Alejandro Sina, Don Ritter, Luc Courchesne, and Bill Parker.