Looking Ahead to Next Semester

A .gif alternating between an image of a black cloaked figure marked a red X standing in a green field overlooking sky and a body of water surrounded by long, overlapping tendrils of black fabric and, in the second image, a gold compact with the words "I look fabulous but I'm in a lot of pain" etched on its surface sitting on a black backdrop

Dear Colleagues,

We hope you’re all staying well and taking care.

While we just opened both our Spring 2025 exhibitions––and thank you all for joining us for those opening celebrations!––we wanted to reach out with previews of the Fall 2025 Season as you’re thinking ahead to your next semester plans.

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A figure in a pink organza ruffled coat with a black shroud walks through a green garden surrounded by flowers

Our Medford galleries will feature Beverly Semmes: Boulders/Flag/Flip/Kick, an ambitious one-person exhibition from Tufts/SMFA alumna Beverly Semmes (BFA ’82), who has built an extensive feminist art practice in sculpture, painting, film, performance, and fashion that probes the paradoxes and complexities of the body and its representation. TUAG is pleased to present the most comprehensive survey of Semmes’s work to date, spanning four decades––beginning in her student days, when she tested ideas of ephemerality and scale in the itinerate installation Boulders on the library rooftop, to her most recent textiles, ceramics, and paintings that continue to explore the boundaries of power and visibility. Boulder/Flag/Flip/Kick is curated by Dina Deitsch with the artist and Camilo Alvarez.

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Ceramic vessels sit on top of white mirrored shoe benches in a white room with concrete floor

At our SMFA/Boston galleries, How do you throw a brick through the window…, a multi-year research initiative comprised of a symposium, artist-led workshops, and exhibitions, co-organized by Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) with John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC), will invite artists Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma to engage with the radical questioning of writer, artist, astrologer, and disabled non-binary Korean-American activist, Johanna Hedva: “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?” Written in the aftermath of the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests, Hedva’s 2016 text “Sick Woman Theory” continues to reverberate in the wake of 2020 protests for racial equity and COVID-19 pandemic. This long-term research project responds to calls for reconsideration of public streets as de-facto sites for civic action and able-bodied action as the measure of protest. Instead, participating artists offer new commissions and recent works reimagining embodied dissent informed by disabled, cripped, sick, mad, and healing frameworks. HDYTB is curated by Laurel V. McLaughlin, TUAG, and Tanya Gayer JMKAC and will feature programming throughout the fall semester, including a special lecture with Johanna Hedva. Details and registration will be available late spring.

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These two exhibitions, which complicate, explore, and expand upon representations of marginalized bodies, reflect the core values and commitments of our work at TUAG and Tufts—and we are thrilled to be able to bring them to campus. Please reach out at any point for more detailed previews or ways in which you and your classes can connect with the artists and upcoming programs.

Later this spring, we’ll share out a more robust Education Guides in the Faculty Connection email from Liz Canter, Manager of Academic Programs.

For now, we invite you to learn more about our upcoming season below and browse our current exhibitions and programming at artgalleries.tufts.edu.

Our best,

Dina Deitsch and Laurel V. McLaughlin