“SMFA 150: Looking Back” Community Reception

Join the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA), in collaboration with Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG), for the SMFA at 150 Community Celebration, featuring SMFA at 150: Looking Back. This milestone anniversary honors 150 years of groundbreaking arts education in Boston and brings together alumni, students, artists, cultural leaders, neighbors, and friends for an evening of connection, reflection, and celebration.The celebration will activate the 230 The Fenway campus with exhibitions, installations, student and faculty work, music, pop-up tours, and moments of surprise throughout the galleries, atrium, and public spaces. Bringing together students, alumni, artists, cultural leaders, neighbors, and friends, the event will highlight the vibrant creative spirit that continues to shape SMFA today.

At 6:30 p.m., Dean Scheri Fultineer will offer a special toast honoring 150 years of SMFA’s legacy and looking ahead to its next chapter. As we celebrate the School’s enduring impact on Boston’s cultural landscape, we also reaffirm its commitment to experimentation, collaboration, and fearless creativity.

Curated by a cohort of collaborators and advisors, SMFA at 150: Looking Back takes an episodic approach to the art school’s past—focusing on rumor and lore as the powerful tools in crafting a community. In doing so, we offer a polyvocal and admittedly incomplete snapshot of a century and half of artmaking and education in Boston—told through the archives, first-person narratives, and a collage of fragmented memories to create an authentic portrait of a properly messy and wonderfully creative institution.

SMFA at 150: Looking Back is organized by TUAG Director Dina Deitsch with Avram Finkelstein (BFA’73), Dell Marie Hamilton (MFA’12), Shellburne Thurber (BFA’75), former faculty Bill Burke and Jim Dow, SMFA Librarian Darin Murphy, and TUAG Exhibitions Coordinator Meera Chauhan, TUAG Graduate Fellow Kendall Murphy (MA’26), and TUAG intern Sophia Chen (BA’28). Exhibition support and materials are generously provided by the Tufts University Art Galleries Permanent Collection, Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC), and private lenders.

Image: SMFA Catalog, 1977-1978.