Music & Arts Centers

After a 70-year partnership, The SMFA was integrated with Tufts in 2016; it’s one of the oldest art schools in the country, offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art without the constraints of majors. Instead, our art students can explore different mediums freely with complete access to our studios. Each semester, student progress is assessed through Review Boards, where faculty and students hold a thorough critique of a student’s cumulative work. While some students exclusively pursue a BFA, Tufts also offers a 5-year Combined Degree program through which a student can earn both a BFA and a BA or BS from the School of Arts and Sciences. SMFA encourages one-on-one student-faculty mentorship and individual studio practice. You can sign up for an independent study with a chosen faculty member any semester, and private studio space is often available upon request, or is assigned within a class.

Aidekman houses the Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies and several of our performance spaces, such as the Dance Lab, a black box experimental theatre space, and The Balch Arena Theatre, which offers flexible seating and stage opportunities. Aidekman also contains the Photography Studios and the Medford Branch of the Tufts University Art Galleries.

The Photography studios are one of several arts resources on our Medford campus; others include the Craft Center, the Digital Design Lab, The NOLOP Maker Space, and the recently renovated art studios in Barnum Hall. The Tufts University Art Galleries are split between the Medford campus and the SMFA campus in Boston. Each spring our galleries in Medford and Boston showcase the thesis work of our graduates of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.

The integrations between our Liberal Arts, Engineering, and Fine Arts students are not limited to students in our Combined Degree program. All Liberal Arts and Engineering undergraduates have access to SMFA resources and classes, and vice versa, which allows the student body enormous freedom in their interdisciplinary pursuits and interests. Access to research opportunities and funding especially have come to shape the practices of students at the SMFA, often leading to artwork that draws upon various academic and creative endeavors at Tufts.

Granoff is the home of the Tufts Music Department. Opened in 2007, the building features an acoustically sealed 300-seat performance hall, a music library with over 56,000 volumes, and practice rooms open for all musicians on campus. Tufts hosts 9 Tufts acapella groups, and many other student organizations and bands utilize Granoff’s resources to write, practice, perform, and record music. On the lower level, the Granoff Center connects with the Aidekman Arts Center, which hosts the Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. In addition to the arts majors housed on the Medford/Somerville campus, Tufts also offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art through the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. You can catch the free shuttle to the SMFA from right here in front of Granoff every half-hour during the week.

Next door in the Aidekman Arts Center and Jackson Lab, the Theater, Dance, and Performance studies department designs courses for both students with a strong performance background, and students with none at all. For example, in a directing course, seasoned directors looking to advance their craft may be paired up with actors who are stepping onto stage for the first time. In the dance department, undergraduates are often presented with the opportunity to dance in senior choreography thesis projects.

It is important to note that the arts buildings, resources, and programs are available to all Tufts students regardless of their major. Student organizations ranging from dance groups, to theater troupes, to student-run bands, to a capella, and everything in between use these spaces to gather, rehearse, and express themselves. At Tufts, all students have the opportunity and ample resources to explore their creative side