WELCOME TO THE FALL SEMESTER

Dear SMFA Students, 

Welcome back to campus. I hope that you all had a wonderful summer and that you are looking forward to the new academic year ahead. 

For those of you who are new to SMFA, this is the SMFA Update, an email you will receive every Monday during the semester. Check out the Update to find out what’s happening on campus including events, announcements, and opportunities. You can submit items to the Update through the SMFA Update content submission form.  

Please join us for our community-wide celebration of 150 years of SMFA on Thursday, September 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 230 the Fenway. There will be a reception for Tufts University Art Galleries' Looking Back exhibition, food trucks, music and more.

Best wishes for a great semester. 

Sincerely, 
Scheri Fultineer
Dean, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts

SMFA Library's hours for this semester:

SMFA Art Store's hours for this semester:

SMFA Mailroom's hours for this semester:

Apply for a student locker, available on a first come first serve basis to SMFA Students. 

CMHS Fall 2026 Counseling Groups are open to undergraduate and graduate students on the Medford/Somerville and SMFA campuses. There is no limit to the number of groups you can attend while enrolled at Tufts, and all groups are free and confidential.

Subscribe to the SMFA Instagram Broadcast to get events and opportunities directly to your Instagram inbox every week during the semester.

The Brattle Film Foundation is having a poster design competition using the theme "Film Lives!" to celebrate their 25th Anniversary as a nonprofit. Read the rules and submit your poster design. Winner receives $150 stipend and $250 Brattle gift card. Deadline: September 15

SMFA x Artiste Winery Artist Cohort (21+): Develop a wine label concept, learn about art licensing and creative entrepreneurship, and gain real-world professional experience through this inaugural cohort opportunity. Deadline: October 8

Semester Kick-Off Celebration with Student Life
When: Tuesday, September 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: SMFA Courtyard, Atrium in the instance of rain, SMFA Boston campus
Student Life is excited to celebrate the first day of classes with you by hosting an ice cream truck and giving copious amounts of high-fives! Stop by, grab some ice cream and say "hi!"

New Social Environment: Arnold Kemp and Sampada Aranke
When: Tuesday, September 8 at 1 p.m.
Where: Virtual. RSVP for link.
Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) Fall 2026 exhibiting artist Arnold J. Kemp joins art historian Sampada Aranke for a conversation on Zoom as part of Brooklyn Rail’s New Social Environment Series.

Campus as Commons: Agroforestry and Shared Stewardship at Tufts
When: Thursday, September 10 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, Medford/Somerville campus or virtual

Visiting Artist Mary Mattingly will present her work on public food access, including Swale, a floating food forest in New York City's waterways that contributed to the city's first edible public foodway and introduce a proposed agroforestry installation at Tufts.

Lavender Leadership Retreat
When: Overnight from Friday, September 25 through Sunday, September 27 
The LGBT Center’s Lavender Leadership Retreat is a 3-day retreat for first-years looking to build community and explore queerness as an identity and framework. We are looking for folks who are excited to build lasting connections and engage in dialogue with peers at a beautiful, off-campus retreat site in nature. Deadline to apply: Thursday, September 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Look for Career Center news in future Updates. 

Professor of the Practice Riccardo Giacconi's new film, Memoria del lampo (Memories of Lightning), will have its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the "Giornate degli Autori" section.

TUAG Interim Co-Director and Chief Curator, Laurel McLaughlin, published the feature article, "Sophia Giovannitti's Contracted Edging" in Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory (Taylor & Francis).