Course General Description

Visual and Material Studies (VMS, formerly Visual and Critical Studies) is a cross-disciplinary department bringing together faculty from the related fields of Art and Architectural History, Film, and the Language Arts. Since its creation in the 1980s, VMS faculty have developed curricular offerings to complement artists’ practices by focusing on the social contextualization of material culture. Course offerings expose students to varied histories, aesthetic theories, and methodological approaches, thereby encouraging in-depth analysis of a broad range of visual works. In these classes students explore the relationships between makers of art, spatial constructs, audience, and the contexts in which visual culture circulates.

School General Description

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University is where talented and curious students become artists with purpose. For generations, our graduates have worked across mediums, disciplines, and techniques to produce art that provokes thought and inspires change. It's a community fueled by big ideas, and the energy of those who seek to make them a reality. At SMFA, process matters every bit as much as the final product, and the questions are just as important as the answers. At SMFA you won't find rigid curricula or one-size-fits-all general education requirements. Instead, our students design individualized programs of study that include intensive studio coursework and relevant liberal arts and sciences courses on both the SMFA and Medford/Somerville campuses. They explore and research ideas, grapple with complex challenges, and build technical skills under close mentorship from faculty, staff, and other community members.