The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts) has announced its 2020 class of SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellows, which includes 10 artists whose distinctive work was judged to be worthy of the prestigious program’s support.
The SMFA Traveling Fellowships provide critical early-career support for SMFA at Tufts alumni, allowing them to further develop and inform their practice. Selected by a jury, SMFA Traveling Fellowship recipients receive up to $10,000 to pursue travel and research related to their art. The application process is open to alumni working in any contemporary visual art discipline.
In existence since 1899 and one of the largest endowed art school grant programs in the United States, this year’s fellows will travel to at least 22 sites in 13 countries.
Dinora Justice (MFA ’14), of Newton, Mass. Justice will travel to Paris and Florence, Italy to research Orientalist paintings of women to explore the role of fantasy in the process of “othering,” and its connection to gender power dynamics and environmental issues.
The jury selecting the 2020 SMFA Traveling Fellowship recipients was composed of Lisa Crossman, curator of Mead Art Museum at Amherst College; Kate McNamara, independent curator and creative director at My HomeCourt; and Andrew Witkin, co-owner and director at Krakow Witkin Gallery.
Notable past winners of the fellowships include Nan Goldin (Dip ’77), Ellen Gallagher (Dip ’92), Omer Fast (BFA/BA ’95), and Mike and Doug Starn (Dip ’84), as well as more recent graduates such as Evelyn Rydz (MFA ’05), Gonzalo Fuenmayor (MFA ’04) and Daniela Rivera (MFA ’06).
The Traveling Fellowships is one of many programs at SMFA at Tufts that supports artists in every stage of their careers. For more information, visit https://smfa.tufts.edu/.
The SMFA Fellows’ travel will begin when travel restrictions and limitations caused by COVID-19 ease.