Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for the community-wide receptions in celebration of SMFA at 150: Looking Back in Boston and Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing in Medford. It was amazing to open our doors to such a wide audience of alumni, friends, community members, and more who came from Boston and beyond to gather and experience these exhibitions celebrating 150 years of student-centered pedagogy together. 

Now that autumn has arrived in earnest, mark your calendars for a season of tours, panels, and performances that offer more chances to gather while deepening our understanding of the path-making artists and work at the center of our Fall 2026 season.

Keep scrolling to learn more about the exciting season of programming ahead at TUAG and RSVP to all events here.

On this tour of SMFA at 150: Looking Back, renowned photographer and long-time faculty member emeritus Jim Dow will explore work from the community of photographers at the SMFA from the 1970s onward, while artist and curator Dell Hamilton (MFA’12) will discuss the legacies of artistic pedagogies that emerged at the school, from the seminal Black artists and educators trained at the SMFA in the early 20th century to performance art and its development in the latter half of the century.

Fall 2026 exhibiting artist Arnold J. Kemp and Triple Canopy Senior Editor and artist Mira Dayal will discuss how they work with language in their writing and visual practices, paying particular attention to the materiality, legibility, and production of text. Ahead of Kemp’s series of performances at the galleries, the pair will also consider how Kemp approaches contingencies—the theme of Triple Canopy’s next issue—across his visual art, writing and performances.

Join us for an evening of performance with Arnold J. Kemp, featuring three works, February 14, In Arms, and The Otherists. Drawing upon the experimental writing traditions of New Narrative and the spontaneity of Poet’s Theater, Kemp’s plays evoke immediacy and an artistic encounter with life.

In dialogue with SMFA at 150: Looking Back, alumni Cameron Barker (MFA ‘20), Marla McLeod (MFA ‘20), Ryan Leitner (MFA '16), and Anthony Peyton Young (MFA '17) will share insights into their multi-faceted practices as queer artists, writers, curators, and educators, touching on queer references and histories which have influenced their work, modes of research, chosen media and techniques, and hopes for the future.

As an academic art center, TUAG serves as an open learning space where undergraduate and graduate students from across the university can engage with world-class contemporary art and learn from artists, curators, and other art professionals. Join us in welcoming our Fall 2026 interns Julian Chandler, Carys Yang, and Mai Pham as they begin a semester of research, professional development, and hands-on experience. Learn more about our new interns below and explore information about student opportunities at artgalleries.tufts.edu.

Julian Chandler is a senior at Tufts University with a major in History of Art and a minor in Visual & Material Studies. His research engages studies of food, domesticity, and gender in the contexts of art history and queer theory. As an aspiring museum interpretation or accessibility professional, he is excited for the opportunity to further learn from and support the remarkable TUAG community as the Galleries’ inaugural Bloomberg Connects Intern, supporting the development of accessible educational content for TUAG’s digital guide. 

Carys Yang is in her third year of the combined-degree program at Tufts, pursuing studies in interdisciplinary studio art, art history, and a minor in museums, memory, and heritage. Carys joins Tufts University Art Galleries this semester as a Curatorial/Archival Intern, delving deeper into practices of curation in a gallery setting through institutional archiving. 

Mai Pham is a visual artist and curator from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, with a focus on arts administration and community development. She is in her final semester of the Combined Degree program studying International, Literary, and Visual Studies, and joins TUAG as a Curatorial Intern. Her practice spans sculpture, painting, and installation. Mai likes to think about translation and how media cultures can complicate our verbal communication and perception of self.