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Art Programs for High School Students

Explore Tufts Pre-College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts inspiring summer programs & courses for high school artists to harness their creativity.

Go further with your artistry with Tufts' Pre-College Summer Art programs for high school students! Our summer art courses are ideal for those looking to refine their capabilities while exploring new outlets, from traditional paper-and-pen art to graphic design. See where your art can take you and your career, with professional support from experts in the field.

Summer Intensives & Certificates

 Student standing over her artwork
InIntensive
Available

SMFA Studio Art

CProfessional Credential & Certification
Available

Illustration Certificate Program

CProfessional Credential & Certification
Available

Graphic Design Certificate Program

Other Pre-College Programs

Tufts College Experience

This is a 6-week, residential offering where high schoolers embark of a preview of college life for an entire semester, including enrolling and earning college credits in traditional Tufts courses, as well as gaining life experience.

Tufts College Experience

Tufts College Accelerator

This is a 2-week intensive, offered as either a residential or commuter offering with a chance for students to immerse themselves in the preview of the college experience, allowing these highly motivated students to engage in their own academic experience.

Tufts College Accelerator

Summer Hallmark Courses

Chart your path to success with Hallmark Courses brought to you by Tufts Pre-College Programs. Experience life at Tufts University with college-level courses taught by experienced faculty, and specially designed for high school students to gain valuable insights into college-level learning.

Hallmark

 

 

Undergraduate Art Courses Open to High Schoolers

Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Monsters in Literature & Film - A

ARB 0130 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Monsters in Literature & Film - B

ARB 0130 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Non-Fiction Writing - A

ENG 0010 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Writing: Fiction - A

ENG 0005 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Writing: Fiction - B

ENG 0005 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Writing: Journalism - B

ENG 0007 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Writing: Poetry - B

ENG 0006 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner - B

ENG 0042 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Surviving History: Yeats&Auden - A

ENG 0092 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

The Paranoid Imagination - B

ENG 0092 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

American Sign Language I - A

CSHD 0124 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Creative Dance for Children - A

DNC 0189 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Dance on Camera - A

DNC 0077 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Expository Writing - A

ENG 0001 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Expository Writing - B

ENG 0001 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Human Development & Learning - B

ED 0130 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Classical Mythology - B

CLS 0075 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Intermediate Chinese I - A

CHNS 0003 - A
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Intermediate Chinese II - B

CHNS 0004 - B
Tufts University
CCourse
Available

Paradoxes and Dilemmas - B

CLS 0040 - B

 


 

Meet our Program Team

Sammy Polinsky, Program Instructor - SMFA Studio Art

Sammy Polinsky is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Boston, MA. She received her Master in Fine Arts in 2023 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and her Bachelor of Arts at Dickinson College. She is a current Post Graduate Teaching Fellow at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts where she teaches 3D Foundations. She was featured in the Boston Globe’s “Six Art School Starts to Watch” and has shown in multiple exhibitions throughout New England. 

Matthew Steinke, Program Instructor - SMFA Studio Art

Matt Steinke is a synesthete artist living and working in Rhode Island. His work investigates real-time interactions between visible and invisible spaces. Fostering conversations between the seeable and the sonic, he produces animations, graphic scores, and text-based sound compositions performed by mechatronic sculptures and robotic musical instruments.

Steinke combines readymade objects with technology and traditional sculpture to perform physical movements and live sounds. They function as self-contained systems that immerse spectators in meditations on health, ecology, and consumerism. Prompted by found media and wasted technology, each work conveys an individuated articulation about a possible future.

Grace Giordano, Program Lead - SMFA Studio Art

Grace Giordano is an artist based in Boston, MA. She is currently an MFA candidate in Painting at Boston University and previously received her BFA in Art and Design from the University of Michigan. Her work explores the physicality of words and language. 

In addition to her painting practice, Grace has experience in teaching, student services, peer programming, and academic advising for college art students. She is passionate about accessibility, student wellbeing, and building supportive, inclusive communities.

Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang, Program Instructor - SMFA Studio Art

Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang is an educator and mixed-media artist whose work interrogates the complexities and intimacies between and within Asia and Americas. Her practice plays with materials as a means of connecting migration and people's relationships with home, food, and their everyday lives. 

Coc-Chang holds an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale School of Art and her BA in Studio Art & Education Studies from Brandeis University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including: Jamestown Arts Center (Jamestown, RI), 193 Gallery (Paris, France), XXIII Bienal de Arte Paiz (Antigua, Guatemala), The Arsenal at Central Park (New York, NY), Jeffrey Deitch (New York, NY), Providence Public Library (Providence, RI), Lycoming College Art Gallery (Williamsport, PA), and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA). Coc-Chang completed an apprenticeship at STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery Singapore (2022) and was an artist fellow at A.I.R Gallery in New York (2022-23). Currently she is a Lecturer in Visual Arts at Brown University. 

 


 

Hear From Our Students...

"I loved the guidance of each assignment, but the ability to have a lot of room for creativity."

SMFA Studio Art Student, 2021

I really enjoyed staying connected with my classmates and instructor through the virtual campus. It was a great opportunity to learn new technology, continue my design studies, and even provided a time of relaxation amidst the uncertainty.

Spring 2020 Graphic Design Student

Join Our Pre-College Art Programs for High School Students

Ready to see what you can do with your natural artistic talent? Tufts Pre-College puts your professional development in your own hands while offering the support you need to make your goals a reality. Transform your art into something impactful today with the SMFA Studio Art Intensive.

Studio Art Student

 

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