150th Exhibitions

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SMFA at 150: Looking Back

Tufts University Art Galleries / Boston
Grossman + Anderson Galleries
230 Fenway, Boston
On View: July 28 – November 8, 2026

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (now SMFA at Tufts), the Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) are thrilled to present a look back at the art school’s history—as told by alumni artists and curators. ​

Beginning with its origins in the basement of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1876, the exhibition traces key movements and alumni of the school: from the Boston Expressionist painters to the radical break in curriculum in 1968 to the printshop anti-war poster takeover following the Kent State shooting to the lighter fare of the 1990s-era SMFA Cheerleaders and Kaiju Big Battel that started as live performances in the atrium.

Collaboratively curated by SMFA alumni Avram Finkelstein (BFA’73), Dell Marie Hamilton (MFA’12), Shellburne Thurber (BFA’77), former faculty Bill Burke and Jim Dow, and SMFA Librarian Darin Murphy with TUAG director Dina Deitsch, 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 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 and private lenders.

Oral History Project

To reflect the polyvocal nature of this project, the exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive oral history project—short form interviews with alumni, faculty, and staff that reflect on specific memories, rumors and spaces of SMFA available via QR codes located throughout the 230 Fenway building.

SMFA at 150: Looking Forward

Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) / Boston
Grossman + Anderson Galleries
230 Fenway, Boston
On View: Jan 28 – April 18, 2027

Opening Reception: January 28th 2027, 6–8 PM

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (now SMFA at Tufts), TUAG is thrilled to build upon the 2026 exhibition Looking Back to present a look forward at select alumni making work since their graduation in the twenty-first century. 

Tracing an arc through experimental and interdisciplinary methods at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, this exhibition features alumni working across the institution’s areas—painting, drawing, photography, new media, sound, sculpture, installation, video, performance, print, and graphic design, including a new billboard commission offered by Creighton Baxter (BFA ’13).

SMFA at 150: Looking Back is organized by TUAG curator Laurel V. McLaughlin with TUAG exhibitions coordinator Meera Chauhan, and TUAG graduate intern Jordan Hoban (MFA’27). Exhibition support and materials are generously provided by School of the Museum of Fine Arts and private lenders. 

Photo Credit: School of the Museum of Fine Arts Records. SMFA Cheerleaders Photo Album, 1997. UA133.007.045. Tufts Archival Research Center. Medford, MA.