DISCIPLINES
WHETHER THEY
BE THOUGHTFULLY RESEARCHED, ANALYZED, AND
UN BOUND
THAT EXPRESS OUR UNIQUE CULTURAL CONDITION.
CALLING ALL ARTISTS , COMMUNITY BUILDERS, PATHFINDERS, EDUCATORS AND VISIONARIES
The graduate programs at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University offer an unparalleled opportunity to hone your practical and critical skills.
We are a school dedicated to making connections, testing boundaries, and empowering our students to bridge disparate disciplines. Together, we nurture a rigorous academic setting where diverse artists and practices are in conversation with each other every day.
Over our nearly 150-year history, our school has supported generations of artists as they emerged into their careers. As a museum school, we offer a unique perspective on the history of art, industry, and culture while incorporating new ideas and disciplines to continuously engage in current conversations.
As a top tier research institution with a prestigious R1 ranking, Tufts University offers SMFA graduate students the opportunity to study with researchers across the liberal arts and sciences—challenging and expanding their artistic practices.
As a graduate student, you’ll have access to two campuses, centralized research hubs for creative
and academic pursuits comprising specialized art-making facilities, art galleries, libraries, labs, and classrooms. You’ll also be given an individual studio space inside our Mission Hill building with 24/7 entry.
We pride ourselves on building diverse and collaborative cohorts within our programs. Here, your work will be supported by dozens of faculty advisors who are Guggenheim and Mellon Fellows, Artists for America, Infinity Award winners, best-selling authors, museum exhibitors, civic leaders, and entrepreneurs. We’ll help you build the networks of support that will carry you into your professional career.
Our alumni are based around the globe, working as studio artists, community leaders, creatives, mission-driven educators, and nonprofit changemakers.
Find your place in the art world at SMFA at Tufts, where you’ll define your practice and your future.
THE WORLD IS WAITING TO HEAR YOUR VOICE.
“At the School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, we are looking for serious artists who already have a strong sense of who they are but want to grow in a tightly knit community.”
Laurel Nakadate PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE & DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES, BFA ’98
“I’M A PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER BY TRADE, BUT I WORK PRIMARILY IN CHARCOAL. I WAS RAISED IN LIBERIA WHERE WE USED CHARCOAL FOR COOKING AND FUEL IN OUR HOME, AND MY MOM OWNED A CHARCOAL BUSINESS. I PLAYED WITH CHARCOAL AND THERE WAS A LOT OF USING IT TO DRAW ON OUR WALLS. I MOVED TO BALTIMORE WHEN I WAS 14, AND WHEN I GOT TO COLLEGE AND STARTED PLAYING WITH DIFFERENT MEDIUMS, CHARCOAL JUST FELT NATURAL. IT’S SOMETHING I’VE BEEN USING MY WHOLE LIFE, AND I UNDERSTOOD THE TEXTURE BECAUSE I’D PLAYED WITH IT AS A KID.”
ALPHA MASSAQUOI, MFA ’24
THE SMFA CURRICULUM IS UNIQUE —LIKE YOUR PRACTICE
At SMFA, we believe that powerful art comes from a process of experimentation, theory, play, failure, and breakthrough.
With faculty guidance and encouragement, graduate students discover the studios, coursework, and mentoring they need to succeed in today’s world.
The interdisciplinarity of the SMFA curriculum will challenge you to conceive art that defies boundaries and labels. Our program consciously brings together artists from all backgrounds in seminars, critiques, and conversations. Whether you are working intensively
within a single discipline or building a practice which spans across multiple mediums, you’ll benefit tremendously from being part of an interdisciplinary cohort. Your peers will strengthen and inspire your conceptual process. The SMFA curriculum makes it easy to connect across studios, departments, and research centers.
At SMFA, 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...
UN BOUND BY DISCIPLINE
“I didn’t want to be boxed into working in just one medium. SMFA is supportive of artists with interdisciplinary practices. Sometimes the artwork tells you what it needs and other times you don’t find out that answer until you start exploring.”
Amanda Pickler
SAYAKO HIROI, MFA ’24
“The great thing about SMFA is that I can not only take fine arts classes but I can also take liberal arts courses. For example, I took a feminist philosophy class that really influenced me.
My main interest as an artist is to examine issues of implicit and muted restraints, suppression, assimilation, and suffocation in society. I looked at images of Japanese and East Asian females from the viewpoints of Feminism and Anti-Orientalism in that class—and now I’m seeing the influence in my studio practice.”
UN BOUND
ABIGAIL CLEMENS, MFA ’23
“I deeply appreciated the ability to take classes at Tufts University outside of SMFA, particularly Introduction to Asian American Studies with Courtney Sato. She was a huge help to my initial research into material studies, and the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora is one of the most unique at the University. My practice was also impacted by Hosea Hirata’s class focusing on Haruki Murakami’s works of modern Japanese fiction.”
“MY CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING AN MFA PROGRAM WERE CLEAR: I NEEDED A DEDICATED STUDIO SPACE FOR MAKING WORK, SOME TYPE OF FINANCIAL AID SCHOLARSHIP, AND THE BENEFITS OF BEING BASED AT A LARGER ACADEMIC INSTITUTION. I FOUND ALL OF THOSE RESOURCES AT SMFA.”
BY ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS
WHAT’S IN THE MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN STUDIO ART DEGREE?
The MFA is a two year, 68-credit, full-time, in-person program. Your conceptually driven practice will be informed by studio, academic, and seminar courses–not to mention your peers and the wider Boston art scene just outside our doors.
Your curriculum will include STUDIO ART classes like the following examples:
EPHEMERAL ARCHIVE
BODY , CULTURE, MEDIA
SHAPING THE BODY POLITIC
NONBINARY OBJECTHOOD
ART & ECOLOGY
FOOD : POLITICS ON THE TABLE
RESISTANCE & TEXTILE PRACTICE
MEDIA CULTURE NOW BIGGIESMALLS
GRAPHIC NOVEL : HISTORY & CRAFT
GRADUATE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES
IMAGINING EXHIBITION DESIGN
WOMEN & ABSTRACTION
FUTURE TECHNO IMAGINARIES
RESEARCH METHODS FOR PARTICIPATORY ART
A HISTORY OF SONIC ART
STAGED MEDIA FOR PERFORMANCE
EXPERIMENTAL 3D ANIMATION
GRADUATE CRITIQUE gives students the opportunity to give and receive constructive feedback in a weekly check-in with an interdisciplinary group of fellow students and faculty. While critiques are notorious in the art world for breaking down artists’ spirits, at SMFA our “crits” are supportive, personalized, and actionable.
At SMFA at Tufts you will have full access to instrumental courses that will deepen your practice, make it more rigorous, and make your work even more powerful.
As an SMFA student you’ll take ELECTIVE CLASSES at Tufts’ Graduate School of Arts & Sciences to support your research and drive the conceptual advancement of your studio work. You’ll have an enormous toolbox to draw from to give context to your work and expand your artistic inquiry.
That’s access to interdisciplinary centers and institutes, tenured faculty mentors, seven libraries with a 1.2 million-volume collection, and multiple campuses to draw on for reaching your academic and life goals. Here are some examples of elective classes:
MESOAMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
AMERICAN MEAT
FOOD FOR ALL: ECOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY , & SUSTAINABILITY
LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA
REPRODUCTIVE POLICY & RIGHTS
CYBERLAW & CYBERPOLICY
DANCE MOVEMENT & CREATIVE PROCESS NOTHINGNESS
ANTHROPOLOGY OF COLONIALISM
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION , & ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING
THE INVISIBLE UNIVERSE
WHO OWNS THE PAST? ART, HERITAGE & GLOBAL CONFLICTS
THE GAP BETWEEN LAW & JUSTICE
Your THESIS PROJECT, the culmination of two years’ worth of study, will apply theory to method. This final body of work will be shown in a widely attended, thoughtfully curated exhibition that the SMFA and greater Boston communities come together to attend each spring.
BOUND
“I RESEARCH THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY, SPECIFICALLY CATHOLICISM, HOW IT EVOLVED INTO ITS CONTEMPORARY FORM, AND WHAT IMPLICIT MEANINGS ARE PRESENT IN RITUAL AND ART. IN MY WORK, I SEARCH FOR AREAS OF FRICTION BETWEEN ANCIENT IDEALS AND CURRENT DIALOGUE WHILE ALSO HIGHLIGHTING AREAS OF UNCANNY ALIGNMENT. I AM INVESTED IN THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN MAN-MADE ARTIFICE IN RELIGION, PROPELLED BY CAPITALIST SYSTEMS, AND THE DEEPLY SPIRITUAL, TRANSCENDENTAL IDEAS BEHIND RELIGION AND THE ABSTRACT IDEALS PROMISED BY OBJECTS. IN THE SPACE BETWEEN THESE DICHOTOMIES, I TRY TO INSERT MY OWN PERSPECTIVE AND HUMOR, DRAWING ATTENTION TO THIS DISPARATENESS WHILE POSITING ALTERNATIVES.”
Sophia (Phi) Day
UN BOUND
“WORKING WITH VIDEO, SOUND, AND INSTALLATION, I CONFRONT THE PERVASIVE PATTERN OF MALE ENTITLEMENT IN THE FILM AND MEDIA LANDSCAPE. AS PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, CAMERA OPERATOR, EDITOR, AND ACTOR, I IMMERSE MYSELF IN EVERY FACET OF PRODUCTION, DISRUPTING LONGSTANDING POWER STRUCTURES THAT HAVE SYSTEMATICALLY EXPLOITED WOMEN ON SCREEN WHILE PERPETUATING INEQUALITY WITHIN THE INDUSTRY. MY WORK NAVIGATES THE COMPLEXITIES OF IDENTITY AND REPRESENTATION, DECONSTRUCTING THE CULTURAL INFLUENCES THAT HAVE SHAPED THE FEMALE IMAGE AND PERCEPTIONS OF SELF.”
I COMBINE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH PERFORMANCE, PLAY, SATIRE, AND SUBVERSION TO DISARM OBJECTS THAT EXERT TOO MUCH CONTROL OVER US. RUNNING AND HIDING FROM CAMERAS, DRAINING THEIR BATTERIES ON REPETITIVE AND USELESS TASKS, AS WELL AS DELIBERATELY MISTREATING MY COMPUTER BY WASHING IT WITH WATER AND SOAP ARE METHODS FOR UNDERMINING THE EXCESSIVE POWER OF THESE DEVICES. BY PARTICIPATING IN SUCH REBELLIOUS ACTS, I HOPE TO GAIN SOME SEMBLANCE OF PRIVACY AND AGENCY
“WHILE CRITICALLY INVESTIGATING THE VIOLENT HISTORY OF THE CAMERA, I EXPLORE WAYS IN WHICH PHOTOGRAPHY AND TECHNOLOGY CONTRIBUTE TO THE MILITARIZATION OF THE EVERYDAY, MAINLY THROUGH SURVEILLANCE. IN MY WORK, I CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF THE CAMERA AND COMPUTER BY DIVERTING THEM FROM THEIR INTENDED USES.
WHAT’S IN THE POST-BACC IN STUDIO ART?
The Post-Bacc is a full-time, in-person program. You’ll immerse yourself in rigorous studio art-making and prepare to apply to MFA programs or strategically launch your professional practice as an emerging artist.
STUDIO ART COURSES
in one or multiple mediums will offer the depth your portfolio needs to develop.
If you feel called to a career in the visual arts but need to make a pivot to get there, our intensive one year Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (Post-Bacc) in Studio Art will give you all of the tools and the portfolio you need to make your next move.
In the POST-BACC SEMINAR, you’ll deep dive into professional development through presentations, small-group discussions, and critiques. Faculty, visiting artists, and curators will invite you into their studios and institutions on a weekly basis. Boston’s art scene will be your library and lab, with class visits to local museums and gallery spaces bringing theory to practice.
“I have an undergraduate degree in Art + Art History with an emphasis in Photography, but I spent eight years working in philanthropy and public relations. In my spare time, I taught digital photography to children at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and I used to walk by SMFA’s campus on my commute. Covid-19 allowed me to reevaluate my career path. It was always a goal of mine to pursue an MFA and I was finally in the position to make it possible. I knew that I needed a Post-Bacc Certificate to prepare my portfolio for MFA applications. I left my career and it felt daunting to go back to school after so long, but my Post-Bacc advisor, Karmimadeebora McMillan, had also worked through the same program at SMFA and then got into the MFA as well. She was incredibly supportive along with other faculty and staff including Laurel Nakadate, Laura Beth Reese, Rachelle Mozman Solano, and Pam Pecchio. I knew from the beginning that I had made the right decision.”
Quincey
Spagnole i
POST-BACC ’22 + MFA ’24
BOUND
CROSSING BORDERS , MEDIUMS, + DISCIPLINES
Let your SMFA education take you places: to the cities, museums, archives, schools, and studios you’ve only imagined until now.
Tufts University is on a mission to empower civically engaged global scholars and a community that encourages diverse viewpoints. As a SMFA graduate student, you’ll be invited to apply for remarkable opportunities to study, research, or develop your artistic practice locally and globally.
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.
TRAVELING FELLOWS AWARDS
Each year, SMFA at Tufts awards ten Traveling Fellowships to selected alumni. Fellows receive up to $10,000 each to pursue travel and research related to their art, and on alternating years the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston dedicates a solo show to one of the recipients.
With the support of a 2020 Fellowship, multidisciplinary artist Dinorá Justice, MFA ’14 traveled to Paris
Helina Meteferia’s breakout exhibition Generations at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston was bolstered by a 2021 Travelling Fellows grant in which Helina traveled across the American South mining archives and oral histories of Black liberation communities. Her research journey culminated in a collaborative exhibition which celebrated the “everyday revolutions” of women of color through collage and film, outlining legacies of inheritance which become paths to the future.
BY PLACE
“It was an honor to have my work on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as an alum for the Traveling Fellows program. The opportunity gave me the experience necessary to present my work at a larger scale in international museum exhibitions soon after. The curators Michelle Fisher, Dina Dietsch, and the SMFA community were a delight to work with.”
Helina
Metaferia MFA ’15
MORE TRAVEL , OPPORTUNITIES
HAMBURG EXCHANGE
PROGRAM
The University of Fine Arts, Hamburg (HFBK) created a semester exchange program for students from several international art schools, including SMFA at Tufts, where MFA students live and work together in the creative hub of Hamburg, Germany. Each year, one first-year MFA student who has submitted a proposal is selected by faculty to enter the program and receive a scholarship from HFBK covering rent and tuition fees. Upon their return, the selected student will give a public presentation to the SMFA community about their experience in Hamburg and its effect on their art practice.
DEAN’S RESEARCH AWARD
provides financial support for SMFA students working on extraordinary artistic projects.
MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT
MFA students are invited to apply to a Montague Grant to travel to international locations prior to the completion of their degree.
Each week, you’ll also receive
THE PIT,
a useful newsletter from the SMFA Graduate Programs team highlighting the many calls for residencies, travel grants, and funding opportunities open to students and alumni.
GEOGRAPHIC
BY BORDERS
Kaylee Rose
MFA ’24, MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT, 2023
“My parents moved to a house in Salt Lake City when I was a child, and a DEAN’S RESEARCH AWARD made it possible for me to spend the summer there and in another part of Utah. My work is continuing a project on who my mom is and our relationship. My mother was sentenced to 25 years to life, and I’ve only ever known her behind bars my entire conscious life. We have old family video footage of her as a girl visiting Utah County and giving a report about it to her class. It has a feeling of childhood adventure and freedom. In the context of my mom today, a human who is not free now, I’m creating a body of work that brings together stills from the original video with new photography I’m shooting. Coming to SMFA, which is part of Tufts, I noticed right away that there are many funding opportunities available to graduate students because the art school is part of a bigger university.”
Niko Krivanek
MFA ’24, DEAN’S RESEARCH AWARD, 2023, GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD, 2023 FUTURE LEADERS FELLOW, 2022
TEACHING ASSISTANT, TUFTS UNIVERSITY PRISON INITIATIVE OF TISCH COLLEGE
“Working closely with SMFA faculty has pushed my work a lot. When I received the MONTAGUE FELLOWSHIP to travel back to Liberia for the first time in 14 years and tap into the art community, I came back with a lot of photos. It was Professor Bonnie Donohue who convinced me that they are high-quality enough to be in a gallery. Yanyun Chen in the Drawing department has an amazing knowledge of charcoal that she shared with me. I got the chance to really work closely with faculty who speak to my practice and really understand what I’m trying to do.”
“The MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT made it possible for me to go to Amsterdam and visit a variety of different museums while also studying in the Rijks Museum Library. The purpose of my visit to the Netherlands stemmed from my attempts at finding ways to bring the concept of trompe l’oeil into a modern-day sense. I was able to see a multitude of masterworks in person. Nothing truly comes close to being able to experience paintings and sculptures in real life with all their nuances. Seeing Wilhelm Joliet’s tile works and Mannus de Vogel’s still life paintings, and getting to experience Clara Peeters’ still life paintings was enlightening. Having been allowed to research European restoration practices in the library on the premises of the Rijks Museum had a huge impact on my practice in a way that wouldn't be reachable without this opportunity.”
“In the HAMBURG EXCHANGE PROGRAM , I lived in Germany in an apartment and studio space with ten other artists. Sharing this space and working alongside other artists was very helpful because we saw each other’s work progressing and also got to see one another’s processes. We all worked in different mediums and got to exchange ideas and dialectics every day. Over the semester, I invested deeply into exploring the way that artists make and use space in installations. I was able to compare American and European ways of approaching this issue by visiting experimental gallery spaces firsthand in Germany, France, and Italy. It was an incredibly productive time, and I took that perspective back to SMFA for my final year.”
Sayako Hiroi
MFA ’24, GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD, 2024 HAMBURG EXCHANGE FELLOW, 2023
“Having the opportunity to travel to Montreal, Canada, on the MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT aided in my current studio practice and helped to push my work forward in a different and exciting new direction. With the support of the grant, I was able to visit the Barbie Expo, which carries the largest permanent collection of Barbie Dolls in the World and the Montreal Museum of Art during the Marisol Retrospective. Having the opportunity to visit both of these institutions allowed me the time and space during winter break to take a step away from my studio practice and engage in more research-based work. I came back from my trip to Montreal ready to start my final semester.”
Alpha Massaquoi
MFA ’24
MLK STUDENT VOICES AWARD, 2024
MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT, 2022
Quincey Spagnole
i
POST-BACC ’22 + MFA ’24, DEAN’S RESEARCH AWARD,2023, MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT, 2023, SUMMER DOMESTIC TRAVEL GRANT, 2023
“My trip to Pietrasanta, Italy, to take part in a five-day marble carving workshop was an exceptional opportunity to gain a new skill set in my sculptural practice. The city of Pietrasanta is fifteen kilometers south of the famous Carrara marble quarries. Pietrasanta’s proximity to the historic mountain range offers facilities, materials, and individuals with expertise that I would not have access to in the United States. All of the tools and materials required were provided. They included a block of marble, angle grinders with multiple heads that cut, sand, and polish the stone, as well as air hammers, hand chisels, and pumice stone. I found myself totally exhausted by the end of the first few days, discovering muscles I never knew I had in my arms and hands. While the experience was physically demanding, it was the most fulfilling art process I’ve experienced. It enriched me as an artist and altered the path of my practice in ways that I could not have predicted.”
Lillian Pennypacker
“My mentors at SMFA encouraged me to reach out to folks in other schools at Tufts. For example, Tufts Data Lab, which supported me with my own research in ecological data collection but also offered me the chance to become a TEACHING FELLOW to show other students how to apply certain computer programs typically used for resource management to their own art projects. The MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT funding and a Fellowship at Tufts Institute of the Environment enabled me to carry out my thesis project investigating the Arctic marine environment and its responses to climate change.”
MFA ’24, MONTAGUE TRAVEL GRANT, 2023
THE CHANCE TO EXHIBIT AGAIN + AGAIN
THE TUFTS UNIVERSITY ART GALLERIES (TUAG)
is a public center for 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. Members of the Committee help manage the exhibition space on the SMFA Fenway campus and work with students on annual shows like Student Curate Students, which is curated by rising second year MFAs.
Opportunities to showcase your work and connect to other contemporary artists are integral to professional preparation and are offered throughout each year:
The Annual SMFA ART SALE, which is attended by more than 4,000 collectors, gallerists, and art enthusiasts every November, offers a remarkable experience to current students to price, exhibit, and sell work.
OPEN STUDIOS
is an annual event which invites the regional art community, gallerists, and museum professionals into our graduate studios to engage with the students about their work as a moment of celebration and a networking opportunity.
THE MFA THESIS EXHI-
BITION: In addition to the written component and thesis defense, the thesis exhibition is the culmination of two years of thesis work. Each student is given space in the beautiful Aidekman Arts Center, and the cohort works together with the support of the TUAG team to design and promote the exhibition.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS,
BOSTON: Our decades-long partnership includes an exhibition each year dedicated to SMFA students and alumni. It alternates between an exhibition of current student work and a solo show for one recipient of the Traveling Fellows grant. To have your work shown in an institution of this magnitude is a phenomenal opportunity.
The MISSION HILL BUILDING GALLERY SPACE
hosts graduate student shows, typically in small groups, so students can show work and practice skills ahead of the thesis exhibit. The gallery space also hosts the Hamburg Exchange Exhibition and Post-Baccalaureate group exhibition at the culmination of each program.
FACULTY WHO ARE PRACTICING ARTISTS THEMSELVES
They troubleshoot, encourage, and push your work forward. When your work ultimately makes its way out into the world, faculty will be there to celebrate. Don’t be surprised if you stay in touch for years after graduation or even go on to collaborate on exhibitions, installations, performances, and other projects. Our faculty are invested in your practice because each of them remembers what it was like to break into the art world too. In fact, many of them did it as SMFA graduates themselves and then returned to teach because they care so much about our school’s values and community. Here are some of the ways that you’ll benefit from individualized faculty support:
MFA faculty advisors do way more than just help you pick your classes—they’re in your corner encouraging you, looking out for funding opportunities to further your practice, and stopping by your studio to see what you’re working on.
ADVISING:
As a graduate student, you’ll be thoughtfully paired with a faculty advisor to help you assess and achieve your unique artistic and academic goals. As soon as you begin at SMFA, you’ll experience extensive personalized advising that supports the trajectory of your work through coursework, research, and studio practice. Your advisor will be a key player in the network that you build at SMFA, which continues to support, inspire, and connect you with opportunities long after graduation.
REVIEW BOARD:
Held at the end of each semester, the Review Board is an essential aspect of the SMFA experience. It’s an opportunity to engage in extended discussion about your body of work across studio and liberal arts disciplines with faculty and peers. Rather than looking at your work as a set of isolated pieces created in different classes, the Review Board considers your work as the product of an idea-driven creative process. It presents an invaluable moment to reflect on your progress and calibrate for the next steps in your coursework and studio practice.
THESIS COMMITTEE:
MFA students entering their second year also work with a thesis committee composed of faculty advisors and external advisors selected from an impressive group of art world insiders, including gallerists, curators, and directors from the MFA Boston, ICA Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Harvard Art Museums. The committee will support you as you work towards your professional debut: the THESIS EXHIBITION .
“At SMFA, faculty guide students through the curriculum, and it’s the mentorship and relationship-building that really shapes students’ experience here. What I love about SMFA is that every student can create their own pathway depending on their art practice and desired future career. Many of us believe that there is more than one way of practicing art. That’s our strength. What has kept me at SMFA are my committed colleagues, the students and the interdisciplinary curriculum. Every year is a new learning journey for me while I try to build deep relationships with young artists. We continue these relationships with our alumni as well. I’m always excited about starting a new academic year.”
Neda M idpour
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE
“The conversations that came out of my time in the MFA program, the liberal arts classes I took at Tufts University, and the rich cultural environment of Boston itself was quite honestly, life-changing. At SMFA, I began to envision all of the possibilities for a future career as a full-time artist and I also found true community. My peer group was a tremendous cohort of artists, many of whom I stay in contact with today. They’re studio artists, prominent arts writers, art advisors, and curators and we’re all connected. I was taught to dedicate time to framing a project before even beginning. I started to refer to my practice as a researchbased practice at SMFA, and that continues to inform every single project that I work on today.”
Vanessa Platacis
MFA ’05
“At SMFA, we believe in the transformative power of creativity. Our MFA program uniquely merges studio art with experimentation, technology, and interdisciplinary research, positioning students to achieve technical mastery, critical thinking, innovation, and holistic artistic excellence. Embedded within the School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University, SMFA offers an unparalleled curricular experience that empowers students to forge their own artistic paths while building collaborative relationships across disciplines. Here, artists are not only creators but also innovators and thinkers, equipped to redefine the boundaries of art and influence the world around them.”
Scheri Fultineer
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE FACULTY
Qais Assali
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, GRAPHIC ARTS
Interdisciplinary artist from Palestine who uses visual analogy, translation, substitution, and appropriation strategies to rethink forms of communication architectures. Exhibited at Hauser & Wirth, NY; Middle East Institute, DC; Station Museum of Contemporary Art, TX; Stamps Gallery, University of Michigan, MI; Toronto Queer Film Festival 2021, Canada; SculptureCenter, NY; Chicago Cultural Center, IL, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX; Temporary Art Center (TAC), Netherlands; and Qalandiya International, Palestine. Recipient of Art Matters Foundation grant; Chicago Artists Coalition Spark Grant; Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts—Idea Fund; and Palest’In & Out Festival—Plastic Art Prize.
Claudia Ma os Avolese
SENIOR LECTURER, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Brazilian scholar of visual and material culture and indigenous art in Brazil, committed to decolonizing the field of art history and helping to produce a more inclusive and diverse approach to the art and material culture created across the planet. Recently co-organized the exhibition Véxoa: We Know with Naine Terena at the Tufts University Art Galleries, plus partnered with Professor Mary McNiel (Tufts’ Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora) and The Tufts Art Galleries to present a workshop on Indigenous Curatorship.
Michael Barsanti
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, CERAMICS
Interdisciplinary sculptor working in steel, wood, stone, sound and digital photography to explore the advances humans have made in creating technological forces that seem to constantly surpass our ability to socially integrate their use. Equally fluent in functional pottery and large-scale site-specific installation. President, board of directors, Seven Stars Art Center in VT. Exhibitions and site-specific installations across the US.
Silvia Botinelli
SENIOR LECTURER + CHAIR, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Italian scholar of contemporary food-based art as well as twentieth and twenty-firstcentury Italian art. Author of four books, co-editor of two volumes and three special issues of peer-reviewed journals, and published widely in art magazines and scholarly journals. Her 2024 book, Artists and the Practice of Agriculture, discusses global examples of art farming.
Cristobal Cea S.
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DIGITAL MEDIA
Chilean artist focusing on the relationship between digital media, history, and memory through a multidisciplinary practice mixing digital media and archives as a way to re-examine forgotten histories. Exhibited internationally in venues including Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Denmark; Microscope Gallery, NYC; Ars Electronica, Austria; National Museum of Fine Arts, Chile; Lund Konsthal, Sweden; Sala Alcalá, Spain. Residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Kohler Arts/Industry Program. Recognitions include the Fulbright Fellowship, Goethe Institut 18O Grant, UC Artistic Research Grant, and RISD Bridge Academic Research Grant.
Yanyun Chen
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DRAWING
Runs a drawing, new media, and installation practice in which works delve into aesthetic, cultural, and technological inheritances on the body. Recognized by the Georgette Chan Fellowship, Andreas Teoh Contemporary Asian Art Fellowship, and the prestigious National Arts Council Young Artist Award. Exhibited internationally and received numerous festival and museum awards, most recently at the Prague International Indie Film Festival.
Kate Conlon
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PRINT AND PAPER
Multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the various ways that we make sense of the world. Sculpture, print, and book works exhibited at venues including 68 Projects, Berlin; OC OSAKA; Julius Caesar, Chicago; Goldfinch, Chicago; MANA Contemporary, Chicago; Museu do Douro, Portugal; Co-director (with fellow SMFA faculty Boyang Hou) of Limited Time Engagement Press and former founding director of Fernwey Gallery and Editions.
Soulé Déesse
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DRAWING, PAINTING
Multi-ethnic multidisciplinary artist. Her Afrobaroque practice is rooted in the vision and practice of Afrofuturism, a commentary on our human and post-human identity and the future of race and sexuality. Participated in national and international residencies, including Yaddo, NY; the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Hungary; the Cholamandal Artists Village, Injambakkam, India; the Residencia Internacional de Arte Can Serrat, in Spain.
Bonnie Donohue
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer, video artist, and writer whose work focuses on geographic areas of conflict, including South Africa, Northern Ireland and Vieques, Puerto Rico. Examines displacement and loss as military structures transform human settlements into uninhabitable spaces. American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award winner.
Joel enzer
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, ANIMATION
Multimedia artist, animator, filmmaker, and performer. Founder of boredcardboard, an online community forum/production company whose mission is to boost mental health through the recrafting of garbage and upcycled corporate waste into creative products. His work has been featured in international festivals, galleries, television, and online events.
Emily Gephart
SENIOR LECTURER, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Historian of art and visual culture of the United States, with an emphasis on ecocriticism and the history of perceptual psychology. Her research spans many forms of visual culture, exploring how modern scientific approaches to the unconscious mind informed artists of the early 20th century. Presents at conferences and symposia worldwide, including at the History of Science Society, the Nineteenth Century Studies Association, the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.
Riccardo Giacconi
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, SOUND
Artist, filmmaker, and researcher. Exhibited globally, including the New York Film Festival; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Visions du Réel; FID Marseille, where he won the Grand Prix of the International Competition. His most recent film, premiered at the Torino Film Festival, and was awarded Best Italian Documentary in 2023. Co-founded the collective listening festival Helicotrema and the audio storytelling studio Botafuego.
Nate Harrison
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, MEDIA ARTS
Charles Goss
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DRAWING
Cross-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, photography, video, and filmmaking, as well as drawing and writing. Solo exhibitions include Boston; Charlotte; Hull, England; Berlin, Germany; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Alberta, Canada. Publications include text and image books 90 Days In Paris and Everything I Don’t Know-Volumes 1 and 2.
Artist and writer working at the intersection of intellectual property, cultural production and the formation of creative processes in modern media. Exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany among others. Co-Chair of the College Art Association Committee on Intellectual Property.
Jennie Jieun Lee
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, CERAMICS
Sculptor whose work challenges traditional conventions of ceramics. Created a ceramic sculpture piece for the 2022 Alexander McQueen special project, and had work featured on Russian Doll (Netflix). Supported by Artadia, Pollock Krasner Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, ArtMatters, and a Tisch Faculty Fellowship. Profiled in the New York Times, the Guardian, Artforum, and Hyperallergic.
Angelina Gualdoni
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PAINTING
Painter working in the genre of still life and interiors. Through use of dyeing, pouring, staining and historic textile patterning, she links various women’s creative practices from industrial to domestic, decorative to metaphysical. Solo and group shows at Queens Museum, NY; St. Louis Art Museum, MO; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Museum de Paviljoens, Netherlands; the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; reviewed by the New York Times, the New Yorker, Art in America, ArtNews, and the Huffington Post.
Ihnmi Jon
LECTURER, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Eulogio Guzmán
DISTINGUISHED SENIOR LECTURER, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
GRADUATE FACULTY
Specializes in the sculpture and architecture of the Mexica (Aztec) and socio-political history and visual culture of colonial Mexico. Published on topics including shamanism, urbanism in Mesoamerica, and the political representation of authority in the art and architecture of post-classic Mesoamerica.
Consulted on the design of the Museo Arqueológico at the Olmec site of La Venta; member of the conceptual development team for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition Made In California: Art, Image and Identity; developed The Latino Museum in Los Angeles’ Curriculum Guide.
Scholar of art history studying visual and material cultures within and beyond East Asia after 1945. Participant in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Binghamton University; College Art Association; the IFAFrick Annual Symposium on the History of Art. Working at the intersections of the academic discipline of art history and the practice of museum curating, Ihnmi has also worked as an exhibition facilitator in Korea.
Pa e Loper
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PAINTING
Mags Harries
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE
Installation artist whose public art projects Asaroton and Glove Cycle have become icons of the Boston area. Chair of the Cambridge Public Art Commission. Exhibited internationally, and at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. Awards include the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation, Massachusetts Governor’s Design Awards, Design Excellence Award for Public Art in Transportation, The Grand Bostonian, and the Bunting Institute Fellowship at Radcliffe College, Harvard University.
Interdisciplinary artist based in painting who experiments with sculpture and video to explore a range of subject matter including feminist utopianism and the environmental humanities. Shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and abroad, including the Mattress Factory; the Bronx Museum; the Licini Museum, Italy; the Tacoma Art Museum; the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art and Design.
Cathy Lu
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, CERAMICS
Ceramics based artist that manipulates traditional Chinese art imagery and presentation as a way to explore how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity, and cultural assimilation become part of American identity. Residencies at Root Division, Bemis Center for the Arts, Recology SF, and the Archie Bray Foundation. 2019 Asian Cultural Council/ Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation Fellow and 2020 NCECA Emerging Artist.
Karmimadeeb a McMillan
PART-TIME LECTURER, PAINTING DIRECTOR, POST-BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM
Painter influenced by southern childhood, synthesizing inspiration from fragmented, quilted landscapes and appropriated historical racist propaganda. Served as the business manager to well-known street artist Swoon for five years and established the non-profit organization Heliotrope, where she later served as director of the foundation. In addition to her painting practice, she performed with her mentor Magdelena Campos-Pons at the Guggenheim and at the Havana Cuba Biennnale 2012.
Megan McMillan
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE
Multidisciplinary artist who has exhibited large scale, collaborative video installations at Mass MoCA in Massachusetts; the Kunsthallen Brandts Museum in Odense, Denmark; The State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece; The RISD Museum in Rhode Island; the deCordova Museum in Massachusetts. Included in Nuit Blanche in Toronto; the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art; the International Istanbul Biennial; the Ikono On-Air Festival in Berlin.
Rick Moody
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, GRAPHIC ARTS
GRADUATE FACULTY
Critically acclaimed novelist. Editions of The Ice Storm, have been published in more than 20 countries, and a film version was released by Fox Searchlight in 1997. Recipient of the Addison Metcalf Award and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the NAMI/Ken Book Award, the PEN Martha Albrand prize, the Mary Shelley Award from the Media Ecology Association. Past member of the board of directors of the Corporation of Yaddo and currently serves on the board of Archipelago Books. Co-founded the Young Lions Book Award at the New York Public Library. In 2019 he became an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, as awarded by the Republic of France.
Neda M idpour
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PERFORMANCE
Z a J Mur
SMFA ENDOWED PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PHOTOGRAPHY
Artist and educator interested in liberation from anti-Blackness. Created multiple books of his work including his latest monograph, True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) published by Aperture Foundation. Exhibited and collected widely by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, LACMA, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the V&A Museum. International Center for Photography Infinity Award Winner.
Ethan Murrow
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DRAWING
Iranian artist, educator, organizer, and co-founder of two artist-activist collaboratives, LOUDER THAN WORDS and [P]Art Collective. Her practice crosses disciplines and boundaries to investigate cycles of violence that lead to dislocation and gender and racial inequality, while establishing dialogue and mobilizing communities. [P]Art Collective’s short animation, LA DOLCE VITA, has been screened as an official selection at international film festivals such as the Buffalo International Film Festival and the Burbank International Film Festival in 2020. LOUDER THAN WORDS received the 2014 Women’s Caucus for Art International Honor Roll award.
Rachelle Mozman Solano
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PHOTOGRAPHY
Works on paper, books, and large-scale wall drawings focus on historical narratives and the idealized and uncomfortable ways in which they are told, retold and molded into powerful, absurd and subjective tales. Recently awarded the Stein Prize by MOCA Jacksonville, participated as Artist in Residence at Expedia Group and Facebook Inc., was a fellow at the Ballinglen Foundation in Ireland, received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and Massachusetts Book Award Honor and has worked extensively in France in collaboration with D+S Editions on stone lithography projects.
Laurel Nakadate
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Photographer, filmmaker, video and performance artist. Her first feature film, Stay the Same Never Change, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be featured in New Directors/New Films at The Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center. Her second feature film, The Wolf Knife, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. Her 10-year survey show, Only the Lonely, premiered at MoMA PS1 in 2011, and her photo series Strangers and Relations opened the 2015–2016 season at The Des Moines Art Center. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Princeton University Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, the Saatchi Collection and other private collections in the US and abroad.
Artist and clinical psychoanalyst exploring how culture shapes individuals, how environment conditions behavior, and the intersection of mythology, history, economics, and the psyche through photographs and films that confound fact and fictional narrative. Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellow and has exhibited work in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama; the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, Costa Rica; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Friese Museum, Berlin.
Ng’endo Mukii
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, ANIMATION
Annie Award winning and British Animation Award-nominated film director focused on the experiences of indigenous African women and best known for ‘Enkai,’ an episode on the Disney+ animated anthology, Kizazi Moto. Supported by Berlinale Talents, the Urucu Media REALNESS Screenwriter’s Residency, and the Goethe Institute Bahia Vila Sul artists’ residency.
Lauren O’Conn -K b
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, SCULPTURE
Sculptor devising machines, objects, and contraptions designed to entice the viewer to question the nature of the object and its absent creator. Recipient of the juror’s award at the 2020 Wiregrass Biennial, the International Sculpture Center’s 2019 Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture, and the 2020 Excellence in Graduate Research Award from the University of Georgia.
Pamela Pecchio
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer utilizing analog and digital tools to address American history and American landscape, the climate crisis, the relationship between history and mythology, and the conceptual parallels between the collage of materials and the collage of stories that become history. Author of two books: eight, an artist’s book published by Nexus Press, and 509, a limited edition monograph published by Daniel 13 Press. Exhibitions at Aperture, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, and Wallspace Galleries in New York, as well as The Jordan National Gallery of Art, International Art Camp in Beijing, China, the Amsterdam DreamBike Festival, and Köeln Art in Cologne, Germany.
GRADUATE FACULTY
Kurt Ralske
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, DIGITAL MEDIA, SOUND
Artist whose video installations, films, sound art, and performances enact a dialogue with history: an exploration of the past that proposes a new view of the future. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 2009 Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Bilbao, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship, and received First Prize at the Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin. Programmed and co-designed the 9-channel video installation that is permanently in the lobby of the MoMA in NYC.
Kendall Reiss
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, METALS
Focuses on the design and fabrication of contemporary jewelry alongside material experiments, resulting in sculptural objects and time-based installations. Exhibitions and presentations of her work include Finnish jewelry triennial, KORU8 with exhibitions at The Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju and The Oulu Art Museum, Finland; Jewelry & Nature at Tincal Lab in Porto, Portugal; New York City Jewelry Week; the Baltimore Jewelry Center; Greenville Center for Creative Arts; Bristol Art Museum, RI; Haskell Public Gardens, MA. Initiated and moderated a panel corresponding with the opening of Past is Present: Revival Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Owns and operates the local arts initiative, Kendall Reiss Gallery & Studio in Bristol, RI.
Leslie Rogers
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, SCULPTURE
Background in puppetry and quilting. Shown and performed at The Hammer Museum and Human Resources in LA, Threewalls, Links Hall, ACRE TV in Chicago, The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit as part of ESPTV, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, as well as out of her van over a 9000-mile ‘Merikan Merkintile tour with musician Nelly Kate. Curated exhibits as a member of the Little Berlin cooperative exhibition space, performed with Puppet Uprising, was a founding member of PuppeTyranny performance collective, and has shown or performed at Fjord, Practice Gallery, Vox Populi, AUX, AWFUL Wrestling, International House, Bodega, and Little Berlin.
Jennifer Schmidt
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PRINT AND PAPER
Multi-disciplinary artist who works with print media, graphic design, writing, and sound to create site-responsive installations, video, and performances that question the role of visual iconography and repetitive actions within a given environment. Two-time fellow in Printmaking/ Drawing/ Book Arts from the New York Foundation for the Arts and grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jeannie Simms
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, FILM AND VIDEO
Works are rooted in the history of photography and the moving image with interests in language, labor, citizenship, and migration. Past exhibitions & screenings include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Currier Museum; The Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco Camerawork; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Courtisane Video and New Media Festival in Belgium; the ICA in London; the ARS Electronica Center in List Austria; the Alternative Film Center in Belgrade and Montenegro; Los Angeles County Exhibitions; the Provincetown Art Association & Museum; the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.
Mike Smoot
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, PRINT AND PAPER
Printmaker using enduring printmaking techniques along with contemporary technologies to articulate his interest in past, present, and future social-political-economic-ecological interactions, phenomena, and potentials. Has worked at several professional fine art print studios including Atelier Towson, The Experimental Print Institute, Tamarind Institute, Landfall Press, and Janus Press, plus community organizations including School 33, Art with Heart, Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, Governor’s Institute of Vermont, Empty Bowls, Seedlings Program.
Mary Ellen Strom
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, FILM AND VIDEO
Artist known for temporary public artworks and video/performance installations. Strom’s artworks about place study the impacts of settler colonialism, extraction, and human-induced climate change. Projects have been exhibited on farms, cattle ranches, public pools, on rivers, on trains, grain terminals, horse arenas, in galleries and museums. Her artworks’ subjects have most recently focused on segregated recreation, restoring Indigenous histories, draught, fire, water and returning place names to Indigenous names. Strom is a co-founder of the public art organization, Mountain Time Arts in Southwestern, MT. Awards include an International Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, Creative Capital, Artadia The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art, Art Matters, ArtPlace America, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tina Wasserman
SENIOR LECTURER, VISUAL AND MATERIAL STUDIES
Historian with expertise in moving image studies, visual culture studies, trauma and memory studies, avant-garde and non-fiction cinema, cinematic ontologies and temporalities, and modernity studies. Faculty Fellow, Holocaust Education Foundation Summer Institute at Northwestern University; Faculty Research Award, Tufts University; Cushman Family Fund Faculty Enrichment Grant, SMFA; Media Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Great Lakes Regional; Individual Media Arts Grant, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Film/Arts Residencies: Banff Center for the Arts, Ragdale Foundation, and Ucross Foundation.
Chantal Zakari
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE, GRAPHIC ARTS
Turkish-Levantine graphic designer accessing contemporary social issues by making connections with personal narratives, history, and popular culture. Combines research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from various disciplines such as photography, documentary, graphic design, performance, storytelling, installation, and social interventions. Publishes under the imprint of Eighteen Publications. Recognized and reviewed in Artforum, ArtPapers, Afterimage, Wired, Le Monde, the Boston Globe, and Lenscratch.
BOUND
Felipe López
TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH IDEAS OF NATION AND NATIONAL PRIDE. USING IMAGERY FROM MOSTLY COLOMBIAN COLONIAL MONUMENTS AND FOUNDATIONAL HISTORY AS SUBJECT MATTER, LINKING THEM WITH FOREIGN HISTORY, INCLUDING THE US HISTORY, I WONDER ABOUT THE PLATITUDES BETWEEN NARRATIVES AND WHERE THE POWER AND RELEVANCE THAT THEY CARRY RESIDE.”
HOW THEY RELATE ACROSS THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRIES, AND HOW THEIR SIMILARITIES, MEANINGS AND IDEALS LINGER ON AS SYMBOLS, AS A WAY
“AS A COLOMBIAN EXPERIENCING A PROCESS OF MIGRATION, I WONDERED ABOUT THE IDEA OF POWER STRUCTURES LEFT OVER FROM COLONIALISM,
YOU ’LLBENEFIT FROM CAREER CENTER RESOURCES
YOUR CAREER in the arts
.
AS A GRADUATE STUDENT, YOU’LL BENEFIT FROM CAREER CENTER RESOURCES INCLUDING STAFF EXCLUSIVELY DEDICATED TO HELPING SMFA STUDENTS AND ALUMNI ACCESS NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES, JOB BOARDS, COUNSELING, AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS GEARED SPECIFICALLY TOWARDS THOSE IN THE ARTS.
IN 2024, THAT LINEUP INCLUDED:
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
COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING, AND MEDIA NETWORKING NIGHT
“Having had an eight-year break between college and graduate school, I was hungry to start an MFA program. Having access to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, taking challenging courses in art theory, and rigorous critiques, helped me develop a whole new language around my work. Ultimately, this allowed me to find my footing as a mixed media artist. After graduation, I moved to New York City and dropped my resume off at all the major museums and miraculously got a call from the Whitney Museum of American Art letting me know they had a position in their Exhibitions Department. I felt like I’d won the Golden Ticket. The Whitney has been part of my life for 25 years because of that one unsolicited resume. These days, I work at the Whitney three days a week as the Executive Coordinator of the Conservation Department and I’m in my studio the rest of the time. Institutions are looking for people with creative thinking and problem-solving skills. I believe that the kinds of humanities-based backgrounds that SMFA provides are only going to become more and more needed and necessary.”
Heather Cox MFA ’98
“SMFA faculty are constantly connecting students to the local Boston arts scene and regularly take students on field trips to area institutions to meet with artists and curators. Each year we invite a curator to come and curate the MFA thesis exhibition, which gives students the opportunity to see what working on a professional show might look like. In addition to students’ faculty advisors, the students also pair with external advisors, which could be other curators, artists, or gallerists in the Boston area to help guide them through their thesis projects. Our most recent curator was Danni Shen from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. Other recent external advisors were Ian Alteveer from the MFA Boston, Kendall DeBoer from Colby College, Jeff De Blois from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Almitra Stanley from Art Maven Consulting and the Arts & Business Council, and Selby Nimrod from the MIT List Visual Arts Center.”
Kenson Truong
DIRECTOR
MFA ’18 + ASSOCIATE
OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS
“I use art for social justice. For me, it’s about mobilizing communities to create social, emotional, political, and societal change. Organically, I started working with other people and realized that as a human being, I’ve always learned better in a collaborative setting than just working by myself in the studio. What has kept me at SMFA are relationships with my colleagues and my students. What has kept me working in the performance area is the link between performance studies and socially engaged art, and how my own research and art practice is related to embodiment of knowledge and utilizing one’s body to resist injustice. Over time, I’ve realized that as an artist, I think and understand better in a collaborative setting because I want to constantly learn from other people and make sure that other voices are included. I bring this attitude into my SMFA classes too. I’m breaking the stereotype for my students of the artist working alone in a studio and only showing and selling their work in galleries and museums. Artists are educators and they can work in many other spaces such as nonprofits, educational or political institutions, publishing, and healthcare. I always try to guide my students to think about all of the different ways to make a career for themselves through the visual arts.”
Neda M idpour
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE
SMFA UN BOUND
“I’ve always made art and been excited to think about art, talk about art, and encourage other people to make it, too. I worked for 12 years as an interpreter in the Massachusetts court system before and after I chose to pursue an MFA at SMFA at Tufts. Issues around justice, understanding, and accessibility defined my work in court and continue to anchor my practice. These ideas also inform my current work as Deputy Director of Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and a faculty member at MassArt. Today, whenever I do an exhibition or installation, I prioritize community programming. Whether I’ll hold a writing workshop, a performance, or another participatory activity, I’m constantly thinking of alternative ways for people to be involved with the work.”
Gabriel Sosa
MFA ’16
VANESSA PLATACIS, MFA ’05
“I came to SMFA’s Post-Bacc program and ultimately the MFA program from a totally different field: Environmental Studies. I had never been in an academic context with an art practice and was exploring what it would open up to me. It was important to me that the school was so interdisciplinary because my work integrates art and science in a critical way. I felt supported not only within SMFA in experimenting with different mediums, but also in working cross-disciplinarily with other departments at Tufts’ Medford campus. The faculty are a huge part of the SMFA culture and why many people choose the school. I studied with a lot of different SMFA faculty and found every single one of them to be excited to work with students and to be very supportive advisors. All of the SMFA faculty are still engaged in their own contemporary practices. The best learning you can get is witnessing the way artists are working today and tuning into the art world.”
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.
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 MFA Boston. Beckwith Lecturers have included Catherine Opie, Lynda Benglis, Robert Irwin, Sanford Biggers, and Raquel Gutiérrez.
Additionally, SMFA brings in dozens of visiting artists across disciplines each year to share behind-
the-scenes insights about their established contemporary practices and engage with students.
Every MFA student will have the opportunity for a one-on-one studio visit from a visiting artist during the program. Meanwhile, the entire program comes together for these lectures, followed by a breakout Q&A and small-group lunch with each artist. Sometimes it’s these interactions that truly inspire your next steps in the studio or in life.
BY UNBOUND INFLUENCE OR METHOD
ENGAGING WITH AND LEARNING FROM VISITING ARTISTS 34
EXPECTATIONS BY UN BOUND
“THE REASON I USE BLACK JOY TO DESCRIBE MY PORTRAITS IS BECAUSE GALLERIES AND COLLECTORS OFTEN ONLY WANT TO SHOW THE TRAUMA OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE. MY WORK IS ABOUT SUMMONING JOY FROM A DARK PLACE.”
SMFA IS IN THE CENTER OF BOSTON’S ART MAP
SMFA at Tufts is located between the MFA Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the Avenue of the Arts neighborhood—a thriving community of students 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.
Whether you’re attending a First Friday celebration in one of our many arts districts, or interning at one of the startups in the Seaport, you’ll feel the same groundbreaking energy that draws tech and design firms, gallerists researchers, writers, and filmmakers to our city.
The SMFA Fenway Campus is equipped with the W. Van Alan Clark Jr. Fine Arts Library, an art supply store, the media stockroom, the SMFA Cafe, multiple galleries, and a wide range of specialized studio facilities, all yours to utilize and fully accessible regardless of your course selections.
Need inspiration? Your next door neighbor is the MFA Boston, a world-renowned museum with a permanent collection encompassing more than 500,000 works of art. You’re within a walk or short T-ride to Boston’s rich arts ecosystem of museums, galleries, artist collectives, and more than 40 other academic institutions.
Open 24/7, our Mission Hill building is the hub of graduate student life. You’ll be assigned your own private studio space and also have access to the fabrication lab and gallery space. Here, you’ll be in a community where students pop into one another’s studios to troubleshoot, share ideas over a coffee, collaborate with and encourage each other.
Tuft’s 150-acre Medford campus offers access to Graduate School of Arts & Sciences courses spread across more than 60 graduate and certificate programs that can strengthen your research interests, plus student organizations connecting community members from around the world, state-of-the-art gallery spaces, athletic facilities, dining, and libraries. Getting between campuses is a straight shot on public transit (just hop on the Green Line at the MFA stop and hop off on the Medford/Tufts stop) or Tufts’ free inter-campus shuttle.
36 SMFA BOUND SM
CAMBRIDGE
MEDFORD / SOMERVILLE CAMPUS
BRATTLE THEATER
BEACON STREET
INTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS
SOWA ART + DESIGN DISTRICT
RESIDENCE HALLS
FENWAY CAMPUS
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
MBTA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS STOP
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM
FORT HILL
MISSION
YOUR SMFA ALUMNI COMMUNITY
Together you’ll establish your practices, celebrate life milestones, lean on one another through challenging times, and share or create incredible opportunities for collaboration. When you graduate, you’ll have access to our online Career Communities, where the Career Center compiles resources and opportunities in Arts, Communications, & Media, Education, Nonprofit, & Social Impact, and other sectors. In any city around the world, you’ll be able to connect with other Jumbos through The Herd, the Tufts alumni network.
As a graduate student at SMFA you’ll join a select group of creative professionals that includes your classmates and a vast network of alumni and practicing-artist faculty. These relationships blossom as ambitious collaborative art projects, gallery connections,
One of the most amazing things about getting your graduate degree at SMFA is making friends that become your network for life.
professional opportunities, art commissions, and more. Our graduate education is really about establishing the relationships that will carry you in your professional life beyond school.
Kate Gilbert, MFA ’13, founded Now+There, a Boston-based public art organization and artist incubator supporting public projects, including many by SMFA alumni including Krystle Brown, Eli Brown, Yu-Wen Yu, Dell Hamilton, Daniela Rivera, Gabriel Sosa, and Mima McMillan (now director of the Post-Bacc program). Now+There recently rebranded as Boston Public Art Triennial, Boston’s first organization dedicated to supporting artists and communities in bold, contemporary, public art through annual commissions and a city-wide triennial of public art.
“SMFA has a really wonderful, non-disciplinary way of helping artists identify what’s most important to them. It doesn’t say you have to be a painter, or you have to be a sculptor. It says ‘You’re an artist with an important voice. Now, let’s hone that voice.’ It helped me find what I was most interested in—connecting people through art. And I’ve been able to apply that to everything I do. Developing the first-ever Boston Public Art Triennial, opening May 2025, builds on nine years of creating public projects (as the organization formerly known as Now+There) that honor artistic vision while engaging community and honoring place. Our dream is a more vibrant, equitable, and open Boston that results from projects and experiences that command attention, question status quo, and spark conversation. We hope that audiences, whether they’re policymakers, future planners, or a mom on the street, are inspired by the works to make some sort of meaningful change in their community.”
Kate Gilbert MFA ’13
