Boston + Community

what we do relies on this instinct, these skills. It’s been essential for me as I build my own company.Artists are the ultimate ‘self-starters’ and

Thom Solo, BFA ’12 You may have seen Thom Solo’s shoes adorning style icons and influencers like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. His collections draw inspiration from science fiction, fairytale archetypes, and modern-day feminism. At SMFA, he found his way to wearable sculpture and his passion for shoe design. “One of the many strengths of SMFA is the flexibility in the programs and agility of faculty to nurture and respond to students’ interests.

Liz Cohen, BFA + BA ’96

Liz is a photographer, performance artist, and educator whose work draws on a broad range of specialized bodies of knowledge, such as women’s studies, literature, car mechanics, and bodybuilding. Her work addresses themes of immigration, economics, identity, and cultures of resistance. In one of her most recognized series, Bodywork, she transformed an East German Trabant into an El Camino lowrider while simultaneously transforming her own body and documenting both processes. Liz was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.

Lydia Marks, BFA ’92

Lydia is an Emmy Award-winning set decorator whose work has been featured in films including Broken Flowers, Sex and the City , and Th e Devil Wears Prada and television series like Maniac and Fosse/Verdon. She also runs her own interior design company, Lydia Marks Design. “It only took a couple weeks at SMFA for me to understand that you need to be developing the work that you want to make. And you can use any medium you want to tell your story.”

Helina Metaferia, MFA ’12

Helina is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working in performance, video, assemblage, and collage. She has exhibited and performed internationally and is currently a postdoctoral fellow teaching at Brown University. “It’s good that SMFA has such a rigorous art program, but it’s also good that it’s part of a university, and it has those resources too. I never really wanted to go to an art school that was just an art school. You can get some really good conversation when you’re in a classroom full of people with diff erent backgrounds. Students in majors like medicine or architecture have such interesting things to say about art and community. I welcome those different perspectives.”

Cultural Distr icts like Little Saigon and the Latin Quarter. The North End’s Little Italy and Chinatown’s

BOSTON + COMMUNITY Skyscrapers and serene green spaces. Historic revolution and cultural evolution. Youthful energy and boundless possibilities. Art, tech, media, science, and everything else. This vibrant, cosmopolitan city, the hub of the Northeast, teems with culture, ingenuity, and dynamism. Surround yourself with more than 50 colleges and universities, more than 50 museums, and even more galleries, performing arts venues, public art experiences, established firms, and exciting startups. At every level, Boston offers you opportunities. To experience art in all its forms, including music, theatre, dance, filmmaking, and cuisine. To connect with working artists, art scholars, and art-world insiders. To identify what intrigues you most. SMFA is ideally located on the Avenue of the Arts in the heart of Boston. Our neighbors are the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, but we’re also surrounded by fellow visual and performing arts

paifang gate. Public art, galleries, and museums. Revolutionary War history and the Black Heritage Trail. A meeting schools in the ProArts Consortium and cultural hubs like the SoWa Art and Design District, Fort Point Arts Neighborhood, Roxbury Cultural District, and more. SMFA students benefit from the professional and social opportunities in this location central to the Boston arts scene, a thriving community of students and creative professionals. Getting all over Boston and beyond is easy, thanks to a robust public transportation system. SMFA is just steps away from the Green Line train, and Tufts shuttle buses run frequently between the SMFA campus and the Medford/Somerville campus. place of cultures, history, and innovation.