September has arrived, and with it, new opportunities to gather with our community and engage with our Fall 2026 season!

This month, we’re coming together to celebrate two sweeping exhibitions that spotlight the legacies of experimental artistic practices at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts in its 150th year: SMFA at 150: Looking Back and Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing, with community-wide receptions on September 17 (RSVP here) and September 24 (RSVP here). But first, join us this afternoon at 1pm for a lunch-hour online artist conversation with Kemp and art historian Sampada Aranke as part of the Brooklyn Rail’s New Social Environment series—register and join the livestream here. 

We’re also thrilled to announce the launch of our free digital guide in collaboration with Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. This new initiative will enrich the visitor experience at TUAG with accessible features and expanded educational content. Explore upcoming programming, current exhibitions, and more news from TUAG below and at artgalleries.tufts.edu.

Over 1,600 cultural institutions in 52 countries use the Bloomberg Connects platform, with over 10.1 million audience members engaging with its offerings. The free digital guides created by partner organizations across the globe connect diverse audiences to content including educational resources, audio interviews, multimedia presentations, artwork photography, and more.

TUAG’s new digital guide takes a deep dive into two current exhibitions, SMFA at 150: Looking Back, on view through November 8 at TUAG / Boston (230 Fenway), and Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing, on view through December 6 at TUAG / Medford (40 Talbot Ave), and will be continuously updated to reflect TUAG’s dynamic exhibitions program. In alignment with TUAG’s commitment to expanded accessibility, the guide offers features like alt text, audio transcripts, and screen reader-friendly navigation.

Read the full press release here.

On Friday, September 25, join Tufts University Art Galleries and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts MFA Program for an artist lecture with Fall 2026 exhibiting artist Arnold J. Kemp. Kemp will reprise a 2023 performance lecture he developed after his first encounter with N. H. Pritchard’s poems in the Johnson Publishing Library, Chicago. Kemp will bring together recent scholarship and dynamic performance in honor of Pritchard’s innovative approach to poetry, sound, and visual art.

Space is limited, and registration is encouraged—RSVP here.

Thank you to Gee Wesley and Frieze for a deeply thoughtful review of Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing at TUAG / Medford. In “Masks and Misdirection: The Trickster Tendencies of Arnold J. Kemp,” Wesley brilliantly dissects the multifarious masks of Kemp’s transdisciplinary practice, that work not to conceal, but as an “instrument of revelation.” 

In print, the Boston Globe gave us something to cheer about, with SMFA at 150: Looking Back headlining the Weekend Edition of the newspaper’s Arts and Culture section. In his rave review, Arts Writer Mark Feeney reported that this “rumbustious” exhibition is full of “satisfaction and fizz,” which definitely got us into the school spirit. For another perspective on the many upheavals that brought the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Julie Flaherty thoughtfully traced the scores of styles and perspectives present in the art and pedagogy of the SMFA in this piece for Tufts Now.