The Museum School was shaped by artists for artists.

Many visions, diverse voices, and a fully elective studio arts curriculum
comprise this unique and progressive school.  It functions similar to
an artists' colony, with free movement and open access to all of its
resources.  A large faculty of working artists and an intimate student-
faculty ratio of 10 to 1 provides each student extensive opportunities
for individual consultation and dialogue.

Rooted in the fine arts, our focus is on creative investigation, risk-taking,
and the exploration of individual vision.  For artists working in the '90's,
individual vision may take many forms; private acts of object-making,
performance, collaboration, electronic imaging or computer networking.

In order to educate individuals who will become working artists of
significance in local and global culture, we embrace a wide-range of media
and perspectives in the production of artwork.  Similarly, we make available
a number of different programs to accomodate the varied backgrounds and 
experiences of the individuals who come here.

Our extensive interdisciplinary studio curriculum is developed continually 
in order to incorporate new media, new approaches, concepts, and theories. 
A rapidly changing and culturally diverse artworld is further introduced 
through our dynamic exhibition and visiting artists programs.

Since the studio curriculum is entirely elective, we require only that
students determine which faculty, classroom, peer and community resources
are important for their development, and then persue their work.

Students are free to work in a single medium or move across media,
combining them according to their interests and inclinations.  In this
way, each student shapes a focus.  Students may work in painting and
video, or electronic imaging and stained glass, or printmaking, film
and drawing -- the combinations are endless, as are the results.

It is not always easy to choose from the many opportunities that are
available here.  We advise, support and challenge students in their
development and encourage them as they become self-motivated, mature
and skilled artists.

The Museum School's Review Board system further supports the development
of the individual vision and voice.  Each student brings an entire body of
ongoing and new work to a Review Board comprised of faculty and other 
students.  This is unlike most traditional grading and credit systems in
which each student's work is credited and evaluated on a per course basis.
At The Museum School, students are invited to bring both new and evolving 
work to their Boards.  This permits a more comprehensive view of each 
student's progress and supports the gradual and integrated development of 
work.  Fresh perspectives and new insights on each student's progress 
are introduced by including faculty who are not currently teaching the
student under review.  The Review Board provides dialogue, recommendations
for the future, and a written set of evaluations.  The Board awards a block
of credit for the semester.  Exceptional progress is recognised by a 
Re-Review Board which has the authority to award extra credit for 
extraordinary advancement.  As part of the program, every student must also
serve as a reviewer on the Boards of other students.  We consider this
process of reviewing artwork to be an important element in educating the 
artist to think critically and centextually about image and art-making.

Whether a student enters with extensive prior experience in the arts,
with advanced degrees, or comes directly from high school, The School's
large, fully elective studio program leading to a studio Diploma offers
one of the most in-depth and varied programs in the visual arts.  The
Diploma program's exclusive focus on studio art, with options to 
incorporate art history and critical studies, is ideally suited to those
individuals who have prior undergraduate or graduate degrees.  It is 
the largest all studio programs in the United States.

For those who seek to combine studio and the liberal arts, there are
other options, giving students choice arising from their needs and goals.
Three undergraduate and two graduate degree programs are offered in
affiliation with Tufts University.  This allows our students the rare
opportunity to draw upon the full resources of a major university and,
as in their studio studies, to select the academic work that best meets 
their intellectual interests and abilitites.  Many students have
commented that in The Museum School/Tufts programs they truly had the
best of both worlds -- a quality education in the visual and liberal arts.

The Museum School is a part of The Museum of Fine Arts and our students
have access to the galleries, exhibitions, and collections of The Museum.
The collection of The Museum contains extensive representation of work 
by graduates of The Museum School from the earliest alumni/ae of the
late 19th century to the most recent graduates of the '90's.

Distinguished alumni/ae of The Museum School include: painters
Edmund C. Tarbell and Frank W. Benson, leaders of The Boston School
of Impressionism at the turn of the century; Lois Mallou Jones, Professor
Emeritus at Howard University, recently honored with a major retrospective
at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Ellsworth Kelly,
a major figure of Minimalist painting who is still keeping those issues
alive and vital in the '90's; Richard Scarry, award winning illustrator
and author of over 250 children's books; Jim Dine, influential painter
and printmaker whose work is represented in major collections around
the world; Pat Hearn, renowned gallery owner in New York City known for
her commitment to adventurous and difficult art; Mike and Doug Starn,
internationally recognised mixed media/photography team, represented by
Leo Castelli Gallery; Nan Goldin, photographer named by ARTnews as
one of the most important artists to emerge in the '90's, also had work
included in the 1993 Whitney Biannual.
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