Fellowships, Awards & Grants
There are a number of awards, grants, and fellowship opportunities available to SMFA at Tufts students (and alumni) designed to bring public recognition to their work, exhibition opportunities, and often provide significant funding to enlarge the scope of their practice.
We encourage our artist-scholars to learn more about these opportunities below.
For Current Students:
$3,000 each
This annual painting competition honors three students for exemplary work.
Submission Deadline: TBA 2024
Eligibility: Full-time students
Submission Requirements: Exactly 3 works in painting, very broadly defined (i.e. could be work in any medium).
$2,000
This prize is awarded annually for works in metals, glass, and/or ceramics.
Submission Deadline: TBA 2024
Eligibility: Full-time students
Submission Requirements: 1-2 works in metals, glass, and/or ceramics
$500
Awarded annually for outstanding work in sculpture and/or performance.
Submission Deadline: TBA 2024
Eligibility: Full-time Undergraduate Student – BFA or Combined Degree
Submission Requirements: 1-2 works in sculpture and/or performance
$500
Awarded annually for outstanding work in sculpture and/or performance.
Submission Deadline: TBA 2024
Eligibility: Full-time Graduate Student
Submission Requirements: 1-2 works in sculpture and/or performance
$1000
Awarded annually for excellence in sculpture to 1 graduating senior.
Submission Deadline: TBA 2024
Eligibility: Graduating Senior only
Submission Requirements: 1-2 works in sculpture
The Dean's Research Awards (DRAs) support SMFA students working on extraordinary artistic projects whose costs exceed the norm. Students may apply to cover any costs related to producing new work, including research, materials, travel, and any other aspect of the related work. Awards may be used to fund any projects that are currently under way or have been completed during the present academic year. All current students can apply for any amount of funding up to $500.
Eligibility: Full-time students
Submission Requirements: To apply for an award, you must submit an application via Slideroom form including:
- A project description, not exceeding 500 words in length. You may wish to discuss the specific goals you have for the project and how it fits with your ongoing artistic practice.
- The amount of funding requested, with information about how the money would be or was spent. (This information can be part of your project description.)
- Three to five sample images of your work.
Successful applications will:
- Provide a coherent, compelling, well-written description of the project for which funding is being requested;
- Include images of work that display obvious signs of promise/progress;
- Offer a clear justification for the amount of funding being requested, including evidence of pricing out supplies, travel, and other necessities;
- Make clear that the applicant has read these instructions carefully.
- All other things being equal, preference will be given to students closest to the end of their academic programs who have never received a DRA.
MFA students may apply for a Montague Grant to travel to international locations prior to the completion of their degree. Applications are reviewed twice a year by a committee of two graduate advisors, the Associate Director of Graduate Programs, and the MFA Graduate Program Director.
For Alumni:
SMFA at Tufts values highly the role education can play in the discursive formation of contemporary art, and believes in affording emerging artists the opportunity to expand their pedagogical skills and inquiries into knowledge production while providing valuable hands-on experience. Each year, SMFA at Tufts offers recent Master of Fine Arts graduates the opportunity to continue their pursuits as arts educators in the form of Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowships (PGTFs). These highly competitive positions are one-year appointments, during which a small group of selected grads will each teach a course in any given department, usually both in the fall and spring semesters, while continuing to focus on their own studio production.
In addition to a generous stipend, PGTFs are supplied with a studio at the school in which they may continue their art practices.
Submission Deadline: Applications are due in the spring, with successful applicants beginning their teaching the following fall.
Eligibility: Recent Master of Fine Arts graduates
Submission Requirements: A call for PGTF applications and a list of courses offered are distributed each spring to MFA students.
One of the largest endowed art school grant programs in the country – currently totaling $80,000 to $100,000 annually – the Traveling Fellowship program awards alumni grants of $10,000 to graduates of any SMFA program.