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WHETHER THEY
BE THOUGHTFULLY RESEARCHED, ANALYZED, AND
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CALLING ALL ARTISTS , COMMUNITY BUILDERS, PATHFINDERS, EDUCATORS, VISIONARIES,
AND CHANGEMAKERS
At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, we empower you to make a positive impact on the world using art as your personal voice.
At our school, we won’t tell you how to work or what to make. Instead, you’ll chart your own way. Our individualized curriculum offers all of the resources you need to realize your ambitious goals after graduation.
As a BFA or Combined Degree undergraduate student, you’ll have access to unparalleled studio facilities, the vast resources of a top research university, and a community to lean into for life.
Our faculty, all practicing artists themselves, will guide and challenge you along your journey. Every course, exhibition, and internship will matter.
Your degree will carry weight and value. We incubate and shape powerful artists and creators who go on to have sustainable careers on their own terms.
Tufts was recently named a top institution for community engagement. This viewbook is filled with examples of how SMFA students, alumni, and faculty are shaping their practices to make a difference, whether by making the world more inclusive, kinder, safer, more sustainable or using art to raise awareness and build bridges.
THE WORLD IS WAITING TO HEAR YOUR VOICE.
“You’ll have total agency in determining what you want to learn and how you want to learn it, and you’ll have the tremendous resources of Tufts University at your fingertips. We are proud of our financial aid program that meets 100 percent of admitted students’ demonstrated need.”
Scheri Fultineer
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY
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“THERE IS A CERTAIN PUNK ROCK WILDNESS TO THIS PLACE THAT WE DO REALLY WELL. THERE AREN’T A LOT OF BARRIERS WHEN IT COMES TO HOW WE CREATE ART HERE. PART OF IT IS ABOUT THE SCHOOL’S SIZE. IT’S PART OF A BIGGER INSTITUTION BUT AT THE SAME TIME, AT SMFA WE ALL KNOW EACH OTHER. IF YOU’RE IN THE CERAMICS STUDIO AND YOU WANT TO RUN UPSTAIRS AND USE THE 3D PRINTER OR TO THE PRINTMAKING STUDIO TO BURN A SCREEN, IT’S ALL POSSIBLE. WE MEET EACH OTHER IN THE HALLWAYS AND HEAR WHAT EVERYONE IS WORKING ON—THAT GOES FOR FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS.”
Cathy Lu
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, BFA+BA ’07
THE SMFA STUDIO CURRICULUM IS UNIQUE —LIKE YOU
NO MAJORS. At SMFA, we believe that strong art comes from experimentation, collaboration, theory, play, failure, and breakthrough.
Confining students to a single medium is limiting. With faculty guidance and encouragement, SMFA students discover the studios, coursework, and mentoring they need to succeed in today’s world.
The SMFA Fenway Campus in Boston is the hub of specialized studio facilities and workshops, an art-focused library, an art supply store, the media stock-
room, and multiple galleries. All doors are open to you: ANIMATION, BOOK ARTS, CERAMICS, DIGITAL MEDIA, DRAWING, FIBERS, FILM, GRAPHIC ARTS, ILLUSTRATION, INSTALLATION, JEWELRY, METALS, PAINTING, PAPERMAKING, PERFORMANCE, PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTMAKING, SCULPTURE, SOUND, VIDEO, VIRTUAL REALITY...
“If you want to go to college for art, the best advice I can give you is to never put yourself in a box. Being multidisciplinary is the best thing that you could possibly be. SMFA is a school that actually supports that.”
Vict “Marka27” Quiñonez
BFA ’03, INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED STREET ARTIST / CO-FOUNDER + CREATIVE DIRECTOR, STREET THEORY
DANIEL BARRETO, BFA ’16
DESIGNER, ILLUSTRATOR, + ANIMATOR FOR BRANDS LIKE UNIQLO AND MUSICIANS INCLUDING NATALIA LAFOURCADE, Y LA BAMBA, COLLEEN, + CALONCHO
“I transferred to SMFA because I didn’t want to have to choose a specific medium. You are allowed to be completely free at SMFA and control the direction of your work.
At SMFA, I could access the sound art studio, the printmaking studio, the installation art studio— all of the facilities were open and it was easy to get the materials I needed. I made it a point to work in every medium and I learned a lot of techniques in the studios outside of my classes too— like how to use a large format printer. That’s what helped me launch my practice even before I graduated, with an award that led to my first big breakthrough collaborations. I graduated feeling like I was on the right path.”
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VIVIAN TRAN, BFA+BS ’25
“I’m a Combined Degree student—a BFA and a BS in Cognitive and Brain Science. I believe that the more I learn about the world and myself, the more I can give to my art. A topic I’ve been investigating lately is time and how it’s uniquely perceived by individuals. Understanding that is informing the way that I approach portraits of my family.
My parents are Vietnamese immigrants to Canada, and when I began making art about them, the language barrier between us and our generational differences shifted. My portraits began on canvas and have transitioned to videos that build on that work, but with connections to the wider world.”
“AT SMFA, YOU CAN TAKE ANY CLASS YOU WANT OR ACCESS ANY STUDIO. MY QUESTIONS CAN’T BE ANSWERED BY A SINGLE DISCIPLINE OR MEDIUM. IT’S BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO BE ABLE TO TAKE CLASSES ACROSS MULTIPLE MEDIUMS AND ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY.”
BY DISCIPLINE OR MEDIUM
CRISTOBAL
“I’M CURRENTLY CO-TEACHING A CLASS CALLED, ‘3D AT THE END OF THE WORLD,’ WITH MY COLLEAGUE, LAUREN O’CONNER-KORB, WHO TEACHES SCULPTURE. IT’S ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL MODEL
IMAGING IN THE POST-INTERNET WORLD. TEN YEARS AGO, GOING TO ART SCHOOL WAS MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD. NOW THERE ARE SO MANY TOOLS IN OUR TOOLKIT OF POSSIBILITIES.”
ART & ACADEMICS
Undergraduate students have all the benefits of a progressive visual arts education with the resources that Tufts University, a top-ranked R1 research institution, offers. SMFA students are Tufts University students.
That’s eight degree-granting schools, 45 interdisciplinary centers and institutes, 1,200 tenured faculty mentors, seven libraries with a 1.2 million-volume collection, and two state of the art campuses to draw on for reaching your academic and life goals.
That means, if you want to paint, you never have to put down your brush. You can spend almost all of your time refining your painting practice and studying painting theory at SMFA. But with a tremendous breadth of academic and pre-professional offerings at Tufts (that’s 150 majors, minors, and programs), you might want to be a painter who also sculpts, studies math for social change, astrophysics, or American Sign Language.
At Tufts, you might find an artist collaborating with biomedical engineers to create implantable silk biosensors nanoimprinted with poetry written from the perspective of a silkworm. You might watch a drag performance with faculty who ask you to study the intersection of gender, nationality, race, class, and disability to understand the implications of performing identity. You might find sculptors and designers collaborating with a math professor whose research dives into the social foundations of authority, and mathematical interventions for justice. You’ll be the student weaving artmaking into that fabric of University scholarship. (BTW, that’s Tufts University Art Galleries exhibiting artist and poet Jen Bervin, plus Professors Fiorenzo Omenetto, David Kaplan, Kareem Khubchandani, and Moon Duchin, respectively.)
“I really appreciate the small class sizes at SMFA, because art can be vulnerable. People are coming from all different backgrounds and levels, and being comfortable in a space, having one-on-one time with professors, and the opportunity to speak freely with other students is a meaningful way to grow a practice.”
BYACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS BOUND
“I CHOSE SMFA BECAUSE I KNEW I WANTED TO PURSUE A CAREER IN ART, BUT I ALSO WANTED ACCESS TO LIBERAL ARTS CLASSES. I TOOK A CLASS ON THE AFROBRAZILIAN DIASPORA THAT REALLY IMPACTED MY PRACTICE.”
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JULIE FRANCOIS, BFA ’24
“I came to college knowing that being a Black artist was part of my identity, but this class opened my eyes to a specific diaspora. It eventually led to my thesis project. GLJ, one of my printmaking pieces, connects my siblings’ different perceptions of the same event we all experienced as kids with materials used in Haitian voodoo and the sacred arts.
Tufts provides a lot of funding opportunities to SMFA students. I received a 2023 Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize from the International Relations department which funded a photography-based project that sent me to Haitian diasporic communities, artist studios, and archives in Miami and Rio.”
“AT SMFA, I DELVED INTO DIFFERENT PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL MEDIUMS. I DEVELOPED NEW MODES OF COMMUNICATING MY IDEAS THROUGH LENSES INCLUDING ART, CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES. ”
TRISHA HAUTÉA, BFA+MAT ’16
“I challenged myself to maximize my time collaborating with Boston’s academic institutions, and multifaceted learning approaches laid the groundwork for where I am now.
My career in the creative and entertainment industry, STEM and the arts, and academia has spanned New York City and Los Angeles, where I have operated as an artist, educator, and advisor at various points. Through my consultancy, I help C-suite and executive leaders strategize and translate complex information into accessible and understandable content for broader audiences.
As an artist and a Filipino woman of color at SMFA at Tufts, I developed artistic languages that speak about critical issues such as climate change, social justice impact, and environmental sustainability. This commitment is not just a part of my visual arts practice. It also echoes through workshops I offer as an educator and my work supporting senior leaders in refining their brand positioning and communications, or educating their stakeholders for corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.”
SMFA STUDENTS ARE MAKING POSITIVE CHANGE THROUGH ART
SMFA students are using their art and ideas to speak up, connect, and create true belonging both on and off campus. Here are some projects and initiatives that have helped shape our school’s shared culture:
DENZEL ODURO, BFA ’22 puts equity and accessibility at the center of his design thanks to coursework in Psychology, leading to an internship and then a fulltime role with Meta designing tools to make Facebook safer to use.
MARIA FONG, BFA ’21 examined the impact of urban planning and infrastructure design in Boston, advocating for pedestrian safety initiatives with a large installation in Chinatown. Maria also made a mark on the Asian American Center at Tufts, brightening the space with murals.
IAN CHOI, BFA ’25 received a Summer Scholars grant, which included faculty mentorship from Timothy Hyunsoo Lee and supported the research behind a series of paintings exploring the textiles and traditional garments of Korea.
JULIE FRANCOIS, BFA ’24
worked with the Tufts Archival Research Center on her senior thesis, a public installation titled A Love Letter to Black Jumbos, which combined her own photographs of the Black community at Tufts with material from the Africana Center Records, the Department of Physical Education and Athletics Records, and the Melville S. Munro Papers.
Students promote sustainable practices in campus-wide programming for the annual Health, Safety, & Sustainability Day. The 2024 celebration included lectures and workshops about indigenous jewelry materials with Aquinnah Wampanoag visiting artist Elizabeth James-Perry, using ceramics to restore coral reefs with Professor Jennie Jieun Lee and ROBBIE MOSER-SAITO, BFA+BA ’25, creating a crochet installation with the Fiber Arts Club, and making DIY 3D printing machines that recycle plastic with YAQI CAI, BFA ’25.
PROPOSE YOUR OWN OR
JOIN ONE ORSEVERAL OF TUFTS’ 300+ STUDENTORGANIZATIONS
YOUR PEOPLE nd
“THE FIRST THING THAT MY COLLEAGUE JENNIE JIEUN LEE AND I DID WHEN WE CAME TO SMFA AS FACULTY WAS TO START CLAY CLUB. ONE TRADITION THOUGHT UP BY OUR CLUB PRESIDENT, ZELDA MAYER, BFA+BA ’25, IS AN ANNUAL DINNER. FOLKS CAN COME WITH THEIR OWN HANDMADE CUPS AND POTTERY, AND WE ALL EAT TOGETHER. CLAY CLUB IS A PLACE WHERE THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH CLAY CAN COME TO LEARN AND MAKE FRIENDS. YOU CAN SEE OUR FLIERS ALL OVER CAMPUS AND JOIN IN.”
ACCESS BETTERS THE LIVES OF EVERYONE (ABLE)
ACTIVE MINDS
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL) SOCIETY
ANIME CLUB
ART GALLERIES STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
ARTISTS OF COLOR UNION
ASSOCIATION OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDENTS
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS
BIRD CLUB
CHABAD
CHINESE STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION
CHOCOLATE CLUB
CLAY CLUB
CLIMATE ACTION
CLIMBING TEAM
CLUB SQUASH
CURRENTS MAGAZINE
DEBATE SOCIETY
DIVERSE MINDS
Cathy Lu
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, BFA+BA ’07
ECO ARTS CLUB
ENCENDIDO
ETHICS BOWL
FENCING
FIGURE DRAWING CLUB
FIRST-GENERATION COLLECTIVE FUTURE HISTORIES LITERARY MAGAZINE
GAMING CLUB
GRAPHIC NOVEL CLUB
HER CAMPUS
INDIGENOUS STUDENTS’ ORGANIZATION
INTERNATIONAL CLUB
INVESTMENT CLUB
JUMBOCODE
KOREAN DANCE ASSOCIATION
LATINX & CARIBBEAN WOMXN ARTISTS CLUB
THE LEONARD CARMICHAEL SOCIETY
MAGICIAN SOCIETY
MOCK TRIAL TEAM
MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATION
ONYX MAGAZINE
PRISON INITIATIVE
QUADBALL
ROBOTICS CLUB
SARABANDE DANCE ENSEMBLE
SEX HEALTH REPRESENTATIVES
SKATE/SCULPTURE CLUB
SMFA STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION
SOCCER
STRONG WOMEN STRONG GIRLS
STUDENT GARDEN
TAE KWON DO
TEDXTUFTS
TUFTS COMMUNITY UNION
TUFTS MOUNTAIN CLUB
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
YOGA CLUB AND HUNDREDS MORE!
YOU BELONG HERE
Diversity and inclusion are at the very foundation of the transformational experience at Tufts. It’s not just about making opportunities available to all; we believe by doing so, we enrich the lives of all. Those values are not just on paper. They are alive in every classroom and every hallway of our school, every performance and exhibition. SMFA students are welcomed into, receive support from, and create community in eight identity centers through Tufts’ Division of Student Diversity and Inclusion:
AFRICANA CENTER
ASIAN AMERICAN CENTER
FIRST RESOURCE CENTER*
INDIGENOUS CENTER
LATINX CENTER
CENTER FOR STEM DIVERSITY
LGBT CENTER
WOMEN’S CENTER
*The FIRST Resource Center was founded to create a community of support and to develop a network of resources for Tufts University’s first generation, low-income, and undocumented populations.
“Each of Tufts’ eight identity centers works to support students on the Medford and SMFA campuses, depending on their individual needs. Centers provide programming, heritage celebrations, academic support, and student-led events. There are also paid internship opportunities, peer-to-peer leadership initiatives, and occasions for student groups to initiate additional programming that really matters to them.
SMFA undergraduates are a part of every one of these communities.”
Ellise M. D. LaMo e
ASSOCIATE PROVOST FOR STUDENT SUCCESS
GEOVANI ALBERTO CRUZ ALFARO, BFA ’23
“I was born in El Salvador but grew up in South Central Los Angeles. I was raised by a single mom who showered me with acceptance, love, and encouragement. I took a leap and applied to SMFA at Tufts. After getting admitted as a first-generation and low-income college student, I boarded an airplane for the first time in my life to visit during Jumbo Days and was pulled aside by the director of the FIRST Resource Center. Her warmth made me realize that I belonged here.
As a Freshman, FIRST helped me adjust, succeed, and get involved. I became the secretary for student government at SMFA at Tufts and then beginning my sophomore year, served on the Tufts University Art Galleries’ Student Advisory Board, a group that aims to make the Galleries’ resources more available and relevant to the student body.”
CROSSING BORDERS , MEDIUMS, + DISCIPLINES
Tufts University is on a mission to empower civically engaged global scholars and a community that encourages diverse viewpoints. In fact, more than 40% of Tufts undergraduates participate in a full-year or semester-long education program abroad. As an SMFA student, you’ll be invited to apply for remarkable opportunities to study, research, or develop your artistic practice. Here are some examples:
Let your SMFA education take you places: to the cities, museums, archives, schools, and studios you’ve only imagined until now.
SUMMER SCHOLARS
PROGRAM
A full-time, tenweek independent research program where students work closely with a faculty mentor and a cohort ACROSS ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES.
DEAN’S RESEARCH
AWARD Supports SMFA students working on extraordinary artistic projects.
EDUCATION ABROAD
Spend your summer at Tufts’ overseas campus in Talloires, France, a semester or year abroad at one of OVER 80 PRE-APPROVED PROGRAMS, or select one of the education abroad programs administered by Tufts University in Chile, China, France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, or the United Kingdom. Our partnerships include three programs exclusively offered to our visual arts students:
BEAUX-ARTS DE PARIS
PARIS COLLEGE OF ART
UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON
TRAVELLING FELLOWS
AWARDS
Each year, SMFA at Tufts awards up to ten Traveling Fellowships to selected alumni. Fellows receive up to $10,000 each to pursue TRAVEL AND RESEARCH related to their art.
With the support of a 2020 Travelling Fellows Award, multidisciplinary artist Dinorá Justice, MFA ’14, traveled to Paris and Florence to study gendered power dynamics in portrayals of women in nineteenth century paintings. The research trip influenced the work in a landmark 2023–2024 solo show at the MFA Boston. Dinorá Justice: The Lay of the Land, examined the place of women in traditional landscapes across the canon.
BOUND BY BORDERS GEOGRAPHIC
SMFA
“I studied abroad in Madrid last year, a place where some of my family is from. While I was in Spain, the Asian American Center at Tufts exhibited one of my drawings in their annual exhibition and 40th anniversary celebration. It came from a nearly impossible prompt in one of my SMFA classes to draw a portrait of everyone we know. I began with my family, working off of photographs including some of relatives I’d never met. Most of my work relates to my family, weaving in individual stories, my upbringing, cold facts, and larger historic trends.”
Anneke Chan
BFA+BA ’25
“Tufts offers tons of open calls and student-run exhibitions. I’ve been taught by faculty to just go for it and keep applying no matter what—just keep putting your work out there if being an artist is what you want to do in the world. They are super supportive but also challenging at exactly the right times. Each class is a community, and SMFA students are always trying to help each other grow. As a result, I was awarded the 2022 Museum Council Sculpture Prize from SMFA.
Then in 2023, I won the Yale Norfolk School of Art summer residency as a result of a nomination from my SMFA professor, Angelina Gualdoni, who also helped me pull together the funding needed to attend. The residency was a life-changing experience that gave me more confidence and made me a better artist and person. I lived close to nature with 25 other rising seniors, working closely with Yale School of Art faculty.
I have recently been shifting from paintings to other mediums in order to explore questions I have about love and being human. At the residency, I worked even more in video, using my own childhood as a starting point, and pulling in 90’s and early 2000’s footage from Vietnam and China. I realized there that this is something I want to keep exploring and adding to over time.”
Vivian Tran
BFA+BS ’25
THE CHANCE TO EXHIBIT AGAIN + AGAIN
Imagining, creating, installing, and exhibiting your work are critical components of any SMFA education. Each year brings new opportunities to showcase your work and collaborate with other contemporary artists as well as curators, collectors, and the media.
“Showing my work in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston had such a big impact because it’s not just representational work. For me it’s like art history being produced in current times. I see this as documentation, not only of my life and experiences, but of the subjects in my paintings and the communities and cultures they belong to. I wanted to embrace my identity and reclaim that space to reflect the histories of other women of color, and people of color.”
Perla Mabel Ledesma BFA ’19
THE TUFTS UNIVERSITY ART GALLERIES
(TUAG) is a public center for the visual arts at Tufts University, creating a dynamic learning space through a responsive program of contemporary art exhibitions, events, collecting, and scholarship, across two locations in Medford and Boston. Each year, TUAG hosts four exhibitions with local, national, and international artists. In partnership with faculty, TUAG also coordinates the exhibition of student work and offers opportunities for professional preparation. TUAG offers hands-on experience in the gallery setting, including gallery attendant positions, research opportunities, and the Student Programming Committee.
Our decades-long partnership with the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON includes an exhibition every year, alternating between a juried current student exhibition and a solo show for a recipient of the Travelling Fellows Award. It’s a phenomenal chance to experience preparing for and exhibiting work at a world-class institution.
SMFA COURSES
like Senior Thesis and Intermediate Studio Seminar CULMINATE IN EXHIBITIONS PRESENTED TO THE PUBLIC. Students work together to mount an exhibition from concept to installation, and spend a semester diving deep into a body of work surrounded by a supportive community of peers and mentors.
The Annual SMFA ART SALE, which is attended by more than 4,000 collectors, gallerists, and art enthusiasts every November, offers practical experience to current students in pricing, exhibiting, and selling work–often for the first time. Our popular SMFA SIDEWALK SALE takes place twice a year and is organized by Student Life to give everyone the chance to curate and sell their work to the SMFA and wider Boston art communities.
“The Sidewalk Sale my senior year was the first time I ever set up a table and sold things. That’s all I’ve done since then too—just on a larger scale. It started on that sidewalk and then moved on to craft fairs, expos, and trade shows.”
Isa Wang
BFA ’11
“I was involved in the TUAG Student Programming Committee for three years. It’s a group of students from different classes, and we create programming based on the galleries’ exhibitions. Then I was a Curatorial Fellow in 2022 and got really involved in supporting the exhibition Sofía Córdova: Backed up into Dawn by creating a library resource guide with the help of SMFA librarians.”
Anneke Chan
BFA+BA ’25
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Each year, SMFA brings dozens of visiting artists to campus to share behind-the-scenes perspectives about their established contemporary practices and engage with students in a close knit and welcoming setting. An annual SMFA tradition since 1978, the Beckwith Lecture features artists and cultural thinkers of national and international stature and is hosted by TUAG in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts,
An important part of any SMFA education is getting the chance to work with, listen to, and exchange ideas with visionary working artists and arts professionals from around the world.
Boston. Beckwith Lecturers have included Catherine Opie, Lynda Benglis, Robert Irwin, Sanford Biggers, and Raquel Gutiérrez.
With a strong presence in both the art world and academia, our faculty take pride in making connections for students during their time at SMFA and long after graduation.
BY INFLUENCE OR METHOD
YOUR CAREER IN THE ARTS
See where your SMFA degree can take you. Resources like the Tufts University Career Center give students practical skills through workshops, counseling, and a network extending across the University, transcending industries. These are some of the recent workshops that the Career Center facilitated to support SMFA undergraduates in taking their first professional steps in the arts:
HOW TO PRICE WORK
INSTALLATION WORKSHOP
ARTIST RESIDENCIES OVERVIEW
PATHWAYS FOR CREATIVES IN MARKETING & ADVERTISING
OX-BOW RESIDENCY INFO SESSION
MAKING THE MOST OF THE ART SALE
STUART WEITZMAN CAREER TALK
DERBY ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER AT TUFTS INFO SESSION
INTERNSHIP WORKSHOP
PORTFOLIO REVIEW DAY
The Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts offers training and competitions to secure funding to incubate creative business ideas–including the Tufts New Ventures Competition, the University’s flagship competition in which teams pitch their new ventures in the hopes of receiving cash and in-kind valued services valued at more than $250,000 to make their entrepreneurial ideas a reality.
You’ll have the chance to apply for paid internships and residencies while building up a strong portfolio of work.
COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING, AND MEDIA NETWORKING NIGHT
Because of our curriculum and resources you’ll be well-prepared to chart your own path in the art
world and wider creative industries. SMFA alumni go on to become studio artists, educators, graphic designers, entrepreneurs, curators, directors, and community organizers. 96% OF OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED OR HAVE CONTINUED ON TO GRADUATE PROGRAMS WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF GRADUATION.
Our school is small enough that you have personal connections with faculty and other mentors. Our wider alumni network is strong, friendly, and international. Everyone wants to help you succeed and is available as a resource–one day you’ll be a resource for students and return the favor too.
VICTOR “MARKA27” QUIÑONEZ, BFA ’03
INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED STREET ARTIST / CO-FOUNDER + CREATIVE DIRECTOR, STREET THEORY
“Many times in my 15 years in the corporate world before I went out on my own, I’d be working or collaborating with a big company on design projects and they’d tell me they felt so lucky to have an artist on board. I brought an outside-the-box mentality to teams that had been trained only on a technical level. When it comes to exploring different mediums, and trying different ways to come up with a solution, not everybody has that experience. It’s what SMFA gave me.”
“I attempt to be as ethical as possible with my design and one vehicle for that has been my work at the South End Technology Center, a makerspace with one of the first Fab Labs in the country. An internship there turned into a program coordinator position after I won a grant from the City of Boston. During my time there, I got the work experience of creating a curriculum, and hiring youth participants. It was amazing to help each of the students gain knowledge in two fabrication tools and create a personal project that connected to their community.”
Jamie Brewton
BFA+BS, MS ’23
“I transferred to SMFA from a community college in Miami. Initially, I was worried about being intimidated socially and artistically and didn’t know what to expect from a bigger school.
“I’m based in Mexico City, but I work with global brands, like a recent collaboration with Japanese brand UNIQLO, in which totes and t-shirts with my designs were sold in stores worldwide. I also create animation videos for musicians. It’s a heavy process, going through storyboards to draw and color frame-by-frame, but at some point, I start to feel like I’m inside the song. At SMFA, I already knew that I liked music, but the sound art courses gave me the tools that I could refine later on.”
Daniel Barreto
BFA ’16
At SMFA, I gained the technical skills I needed as an artist, and I also liked how the professors emphasized developing my conceptual ideas. I learned how to color separate my designs for the Risograph to print individual layers of color. I also learned how to design with code, which helped me marry my love for digital and analog processes. My graphic arts professors, Triton Mobley and Chantal Zakari, always believed in me and gave me such great feedback and critique that only pushed me harder.
Winning the 2023 Stephen D. Paine Scholarship from the Boston Art Dealers Association and getting to exhibit my photography series, Video Girl, was amazing because it funded all of my photography materials for the year—but it was also a validating moment that made me believe I can make a living as an artist. Three weeks after graduation, I got a job as a graphic designer with HNTB, an engineering consulting firm in Boston, where I mainly design long format documents and create graphics for engineering proposals.”
Daniela Gonzalez
BFA ’23
“WE’VE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN CREATING A CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION AND CAMARADERIE HERE AT SMFA. IN THE CERAMICS STUDIO, THERE IS A SURPLUS OF CLAY AND STUDENTS COME AND GET THEIR HANDS MESSY. IT’S A MEDIUM THAT INVITES A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER. YOU NEED TO TALK IN ORDER TO OPERATE THE EQUIPMENT, TO LIFT PIECES, MIX GLAZES, OR USE THE SLAB ROLLER OR WHEEL.”
Jennie Jieun Lee
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DIP ’91
SMFA IS IN THE CENTER OF BOSTON’S ART MAP
SMFA at Tufts is located between the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the Avenue of the Arts neighborhood—a thriving community of students, visitors, and art-world professionals. It’s a perfect place to explore the richness of Boston’s art collections (there are 56 museums in the city!) and to make connections with scholars, artists, and art world insiders from across the globe. Students
Need inspiration? Your next-door neighbor is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a world-renowned museum with a permanent collection encompassing more than 500,000 works of art. You’re within a walk or short public transit ride to Boston’s rich arts ecosystem of museums, galleries, studio collectives, design centers, and more than 40 other academic institutions.
can cross-register for classes at any of the five other schools in the Pro-Arts Consortium, a group of visual and performing arts schools in Boston.
Whether you’re attending a First Friday celebration in one of our many arts districts or interning at one of the startups in the city, you’ll feel the same groundbreaking energy that draws tech and design firms, gallerists, researchers, writers, and filmmakers to our city.
“SMFA is very close with other institutions in the Boston area. Our students attend lectures at surrounding schools as well as Boston-area museums, galleries, pop-ups, and conferences. There is a lot of camaraderie in the arts community, and we really prize our positive relationships.”
Laurel Nakadate
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, BFA ’98
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
CAMBRIDGE
MEDFORD / SOMERVILLE CAMPUS
BRATTLE THEATER
BEACON STREET
INTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS
SOWA ART + DESIGN DISTRICT
RESIDENCE HALLS
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
FENWAY CAMPUS
MBTA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS STOP
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM
FORT HILL
MISSION
O CURRICULUM
DON’T CHOOSE BETWEEN A LIBERAL ARTS CURRICULUM AND ART SCHOOL
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BY DO BOTH MEDIUMS OR MATERIALS
MULTIPLE METHODS
MULTIPLE INFLUENCES
MULTIPLE MEDIUMS
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
MULTIPLE METHODS
MULTIPLE INFLUENCES
MULTIPLE MENTORS
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UN
