As we head into summer and campus quiets down, there’s still a flurry of activity behind our doors!

While our Medford home at the Aidekman Arts Center gets a much-needed refresh (pictured above!), we’re deep in installation mode here at both TUAG locations: painting, prepping, and readying for the season ahead. Though the galleries are currently closed through July 28, there’s still plenty of exciting updates to share—not all involving sheetrock.

From two new publications in conjunction with Spring 2026 exhibition Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs and Fall 2025 exhibition How do you throw a brick through the window…, now on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI to a new installation at the Museum of African American History (MAAH), Boston / Nantucket to a big announcement as we head into Fall 2026, there’s a lot to get excited about as the weather heats up.

Keep reading to learn more, and explore upcoming exhibitions and programming at artgalleries.tufts.edu.

As our Director & Chief Curator Dina Deitsch departs for an exciting new position at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Tufts University Art Galleries is thrilled to announce a Co-Interim leadership model. Laurel V. McLaughlin will serve as Interim co-Director and Chief Curator and Laura McDonald will serve as Interim co-Director and Head of Collections beginning July 1, 2026.

McLaughlin will be leading the organization of exhibitions, symposia, and programming at both TUAG sites. McLaughlin previously worked as Curator and Director of the Collective Futures Fund since 2023 at TUAG, organizing exhibitions like an archive and/or a repertoire; How do you throw a brick through the window…; co-organized with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center; Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs; and upcoming Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing.

Laura McDonald will lead administrative operations of the galleries on both the Medford and SMFA campuses. Currently serving as Manager of Collections, Laura has been at the galleries since 2007. McDonald implemented a new database system at TUAG, cares for the Public Art on campus, and maintains collections care.

Please join us in congratulating our esteemed colleagues as we mark this exciting transition, and join us in July when our upcoming Fall 2026 exhibitions open at both TUAG locations.

The companion publication to our Fall 2025 exhibition How do you throw a brick through the window… is now on sale through Asterism. Co-published by Tufts University Art Galleries and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and designed by Body&Forma (Chuck Gonzalez and Chen Luo), How do you throw a brick through the window… follows the radical questioning of writer, musician, and artist Johanna Hedva in their 2016/2022 text “Sick Woman Theory,” in which they question how the conditions of disability affect dissent.

Also available now, Magical Thinking: A Reader compiles contributions from artists, scholars, and curators who offer invitations to see signs, relationships, and links between the material and spiritual worlds in knowledge systems from across the Global South. The reader builds upon the Fall 2025 exhibition Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs and the experimental symposium realized in November 2023 at MASS MoCA, co-convened by Laurel V. McLaughlin and manuel arturo abreu and features essays, scripts, poems, and experimental writing from exhibiting artists as well as M. NourbeSe Philip, Emilio Rojas, Rebecca Schneider, and S*an D. Henry-Smith, designed by Common Space Studios, founded by Jon Santos.

Jonathan González’s 2026 commission suite for a minor meeting was a three-part work including a print series, sonic work, and performance. Bridging the two institutions of the Museum of African American History, Boston / Nantucket (MAAH) and Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG), González’s commission speaks to their respective exhibitions Black Voices of the Revolution: Liberty, Emancipation, and the Struggle for Independence, June 30, 2025–December 31, 2026, and Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs, January 29–April 19, 2026 which explore revolutionary voices and ways of thinking.

On February 28, 2026, González realized the performance at MAAH with performers Ifeanyi Epum, Ogechi Okoye, and Valentine Umeh. In the sound installation now sited in the historic African Meeting House’s central chapel, audiences will hear performers activate González’s score, tracing methods of historical Black movement, placemaking, and continued legacies of Black liberatory gathering. 

Plan your visit and learn more here.

Each year, the Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts University administer up to 10 awards of $10,000 for eligible SMFA at Tufts alumni to pursue travel and research related to their art practice. There is no submission fee for applicants. 

Jurors for the 2026 Traveling Fellowships include Queens-based interdisciplinary artist Serena Chang, cultural historian and curator Angela T. Tate, and curator, editor, and researcher Madeline Weisburg.

Explore more more information about the program and submit your application here.