The Arts at the Heart of Rice

Rice University was founded on a bold and enduring idea: that the advancement of knowledge depends on the partnership of science, the humanities and the arts. When the Rice Institute opened its doors in 1912, it set out to be a university that would serve as a home for both discovery and creativity, a place where innovation and imagination would grow together. That founding principle still guides us today.

During my inaugural address, I reaffirmed that pledge: Rice will recommit to the importance of the arts and humanities as a foundation for addressing today’s most pressing challenges. These fields deepen our awareness of our place in society, inspire us to create and challenge us to test our beliefs. 

At Rice, the arts are not an accessory to education; they are an integral part of it. From the first notes played in Alice Pratt Brown Hall to the stirring performances that fill Brockman Hall for Opera, music has long been a central part of our story. Our Shepherd School of Music faculty — globally recognized performers, composers and collaborators — bring their expertise to the classroom and the stage, elevating Rice’s reputation around the world while enriching Houston’s thriving cultural scene. Across the university, we see creative practice standing alongside research, and that creative energy is visible everywhere.

Nowhere is that commitment more evident than in our investment in world-class facilities for the arts. With the opening of Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall, our new home for visual arts, we continue to enhance Rice’s on-campus arts district — joining the Moody Center for the Arts, Brockman Hall for Opera and Alice Pratt Brown Hall in a vibrant constellation of creative spaces. Standing proudly at one of our most visible campus gateways, Sarofim Hall symbolizes Rice’s vision for the future: one where the arts are celebrated, deeply integrated into the life of the university and connected to the city we call home. In a metropolis as dynamic and culturally rich as Houston, this new facility strengthens our role as both a contributor to and a catalyst for artistic innovation.

Since its founding in 2017, the Moody Center for the Arts has been vigorously engaged in this important work, with its space for experimentation, interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement. The Moody mounts three gallery exhibitions a year, curates numerous temporary and permanent public art installations across campus, and hosts performances, classes and hands-on workshops in partnership with artists, scholars and students from various disciplines. 

This new era of investment extends beyond buildings and spaces. Reflecting the growing importance of the creative disciplines, Rice’s School of Humanities has been renamed the School of Humanities and Arts. The name change reflects a broader vision — one that recognizes how deeply intertwined the arts and humanities are in fostering human understanding, expression and progress — crucial to our academic future.

That future also includes the creation of a new Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, which will welcome its first cohort in fall 2026. This milestone, years in the making, signals Rice’s growing strength as a destination for emerging writers who want to hone their craft within a rigorous and supportive academic environment. 

As we move forward with our 10-year strategic plan, Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact, the arts and humanities are central to our mission. Whether our students pursue degrees in engineering, business, science or the arts, we want them to approach their work with the courage to ask bold questions, challenge assumptions and envision new possibilities.

At Rice, we believe that creativity and intellect are inseparable — that imagination is as essential to invention as it is to artistry. In nurturing both, we prepare our students not only to succeed, but to shape a better, more empathetic and inspired world.

From the Winter 2026 issue of Rice Magazine