The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film, from prehistoric times to the present.
The Center supports research in the visual arts from a variety of approaches by historians, critics, and theorists of art, as well as by scholars in related disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. It is also committed to the exploration of new media and computing technologies that promote advanced research and scholarship in the visual arts.
The annual report, Center, has been published since 1981 and records the activities and research conducted at the Center during each academic year.