Traveling Fellowships
Since 1899, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts has awarded Traveling Fellowships (formerly called Traveling Scholarships) to select alumni. As one of the largest endowed art school grant programs in the country, the Traveling Fellowship program provides funds for artists to further develop and inform their practice.
Each year, Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts University facilitates a review process with a panel of three independent jurors to award up to ten Traveling Fellowships to selected alumni. Fellows receive up to $10,000 to pursue travel and research related to their art practice.
The program has provided critical early-career support for many notable SMFA graduates, including Nan Goldin, Mike and Doug Starn, Ellen Gallagher, Omer Fast, and recent graduates such as Evelyn Rydz, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Daniela Rivera, Helina Metaferia, Dinorá Justice, Che Yeh, and Arnold Kemp.
History of the Travel Fund
In 1894, James William Paige left a bequest of $30,000 to the Museum School to establish a travel fund, among others who left bequests in the years to come. Compiled income was to be used to send SMFA students to Europe, where they would study art for a period of two years. By 1899, the first Traveling Scholar, Mary Brewster Hazelton, sailed to Europe. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recipients typically traveled to Paris, Rome, or Florence and received $800 per year for two years. Today, SMFA Traveling Fellows journey across the globe, to places as diverse as the American West, Antarctica, and Japan, receiving grants of up to $10,000 each. Broadening the scope of travel beyond Europe is part of SMFA at Tufts commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within artmaking practices and is an important reckoning with our institutional history.
Eligibility
- Only SMFA graduates of the BFA, Combined Degree, Diploma, Post-Baccalaureate, MA in Creative Practice, MFA, MAT programs, or fifth-year degree program alumni may apply.
- Alumni may be working in any contemporary visual art medium.
- Anyone who previously applied, but has not yet won a Traveling Fellowship, is encouraged to reapply.
- Those who participated in the Traveling Certificate Program are eligible to apply for a Traveling Fellowship (this is not a conflict of interest as they are different programs with similar names)
Important Dates
May 15, 2026: Application Opens
August 10, 2026: Application Closes
August 12 through September 13, 2026: Juror Review Period
September 2026: Applicant Status Notification
2026 Jurors
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Serena ChangSerena Chang (b. 1989 Queens, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Queens, NY. Serena received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in 2011. Chang has had a solo exhibition at Island Gallery, New York, NY and been exhibited at FR MoCA, MA; Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, VT; Art in General, NY; Bonnington Center, UK; and Pioneer Works, NY. She has given talks at Parsons School of Design, Bennington College, and was a recipient of the SMFA Traveling Fellowship. She co-founded Shisanwu LLC, a sculpture materials research and production studio in 2018 as well as the artist/curator collective Lunch Hour in 2023. |
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Angela T. TateAngela T. Tate is a cultural historian and curator whose scholarship centers Black diasporic histories, with particular grounding in public history, African diaspora studies, and women’s history. Her research examines the intersections of race, gender, and geographies, with an emphasis on how archives, collections, and material culture shape historical knowledge and contemporary identity. She is especially interested in the social lives of objects and the interpretive possibilities they hold within and beyond the museum. Her interdisciplinary approach extends to sound and performance as critical sites of cultural expression, exploring how embodied practices and auditory histories expand traditional historical frameworks. Trained across art, archaeology, architecture, and material culture, she brings a material and sensory lens to her work. Based in Boston, she is Chief Curator & Director of Collections at the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, where her scholarship informs collections stewardship, interpretation, and institutional strategy. |
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Madeline WeisburgMadeline Weisburg is a curator, editor, and researcher based in Brooklyn, New York. She is Senior Assistant Curator at the New Museum. Madeline served as Curatorial Researcher for 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, “The Milk of Dreams,” and has previously held curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum and in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She was the 2017–18 Curatorial Fellow at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University. She holds an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History: Critical and Curatorial Studies (MODA) from Columbia University and a dual BA in Art History and BFA in Studio Art from Tufts University in partnership with the School of the Museum Fine Arts, Boston. |
Exhibition Opportunities
Traveling Fellows recipients may have the opportunity to show in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The artists selected for an exhibition will be chosen from the previous two years of Traveling Fellows' cohorts.
How to Apply
Applications will open on May 15, 2026. All Traveling Fellows applications will be processed online through SlideRoom . Requirements are noted below and in the online application
Questions regarding the application criteria and process should be directed to Meera Chauhan, Tufts University Art Galleries Exhibitions Coordinator.
For technical assistance with SlideRoom, please contact support@slideroom.com.
Forms and Attachments
All forms are available online as part of the application.
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Traveling Fellows Pre-Screening Form: You will need to indicate your SMFA degree program, year of graduation, and current email address. (Note: "@smfa.edu" email addresses are no longer active after graduation and will not be accepted.)
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Artist Statement: Please provide a statement including your artistic perspective and what makes it unique; your medium or area of artistic practice; your current research and/or current project(s); your past work and how it relates to your current practice. (limit 1500 characters)
- Travel Proposal: Please tell us about your proposed destination(s) and give a detailed explanation describing why the Fellowship would contribute to your artistic development. Be specific in telling the jury why this opportunity suits your practice at this juncture and why the particular location(s) will enrich your work, either through expanding skills, research, or experiences. (limit 2500 characters)
- Provide a timeline of travel and estimated budget. Please download provided template and upload to SlideRoom. Adjust dates and budget lines as needed, those provided are meant as examples.
- Media Files: Provide digital documentation of four (4) works completed within the last three (3) years. Please note that this documentation does not need to be professional quality. Select the format most appropriate to the artistic medium or discipline representative of your work (i.e. images, video, audio, writing, modeling, etc.) that will provide context for your practice and research interests. If you are providing video or audio, work samples can be up to ten minutes in duration and writing samples should be less than 5 pages. Work samples should demonstrate the artistic merit of your work as well as relevancy to the travel proposal. Applicants are encouraged to provide descriptions for the specific work submitted but it is not required.
File Restrictions: Slideroom can accept any media file type. However, the following formats are optimized for browser-based viewing. There are also limits placed on each file's size, noted below.
Images: 10 MB; .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .bmp, .tga Audio: 60 MB; .mp3, .wma, .ogg, .flac Video: 500 MB; .m4v, .mov, .mp4, .wmv, .flv, .asf, .mpeg, .mpg, .mkv Documents: 20 MB; .pdf 3D Models: blend, .3ds, .dae, .obj, .fbx, .dwf, .osg, .osgt, .osgb, .ive, .lwo, .lws, .ply, .wrl, .iv, .shp, .stl, .bvh, .flt, .ac, .x, .dw, .3dc, .geo, .gta, .kmz, .vpk - Image Release Form: We will only ask for image release permissions from applicants who are awarded Traveling Fellowships. All materials submitted by other applicants will be used for the sole purpose of jurying and will not be used in public promotion.
FAQs
SMFA at Tufts defines a contribution as a significant step in an artist’s practice that expands ways of making and articulating artistic practice. This grant is meant for artists to delve into material investigations, research threads, and social and cultural contexts that can challenge current ways of working and then sustain their practices.
Yes, applicants who are not selected for a Traveling Fellowship may apply again the following year. We would recommend returning applicants to review their applications a second time and make adjustments based on progress in their work.
No, but the artist must have a social security number in order to receive payment of the award, and these funds are taxable.
For technical assistance with SlideRroom, please contact support@slideroom.com.
Please contact Exhibitions Assistant Meera Chauhan, meera.chauhan@tufts.edu, who will answer your email within two weeks of receipt. Facilitators receive a high volume of emails concerning Traveling Fellows and require a two week period to respond.
No, due to capacity issues, the administration team focuses on facilitating the process and cannot review applications in advance due to the number of applications the Fellowship receives.
No, unfortunately, the jurors do not provide written feedback, nor does the administration due to staff capacity. We do provide the jurying rubric here for reference.
Header image: Installation view, Helina Metaferia's 2021–2022 solo exhibition, Generations, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, featuring artwork from the By Way of Revolution series.