2024 School of Museum of Fine Arts Impact Report

Over the past couple of seasons, 13-year-old Braxton, the youngest “member” of the Harvard Men’s Lacrosse Team, could often be found on the field, sporting a Harvard beanie and cheering enthusiastically during home games...

Every year, Lorie takes joy in getting to know the Hamermesh Scholars–and she stays in touch even after they graduate. Twenty-Five SMFA students from the United States, South Africa, Turkey, and other countries have completed their degrees thanks to the scholarship–and gone on to launch remarkable practices and careers in the arts.

Thanks to the remarkable anonymous six-figure gift of a new kiln, the potential for what can be sculpted, thrown, glazed, or fired at SMFA is about to become boundless. The state-of-the-art computer-operated, large-scale kiln is being custom-built for SMFA in California and will be installed and ready for students in Fall 2024.

In high school, Emma Ciasullo, ’26 found tremendous meaning in working with children with autism. She imagined a future for herself in the classroom even before coming to Endicott. She chose the College because of its Educational Studies Program and the ability to minor in autism and applied behavior analysis. “School has always been a little harder for me,” Ciasullo said. “So, I talked to my advisor during the first semester. Together, we tried to plan the best course for me to stay on track...

Mendoza’s Powerful Means Program co-designs and opens an Early Childhood Development Center at St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center in Uganda

The Tadler Center for the Humanities recently received an anonymous $250,000 gift, which is helping Charlotte Gordon, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and Tadler Center Director, to bring luminaries like Stephanie Land to campus while fortifying a place for the arts at Endicott.

From his home outside Chicago, the retired chairman and CEO of Lincoln Capital Management Co. said, “I believe that it’s better to give people help in a way that allows and encourages them to help themselves. At Frontlines, the support goes to spectacular organizations around the world. I watch the students give a tremendous amount of their time and energy. You couldn’t ask for a better combination and that’s why I’ve funded the program so aggressively.”

One of Wentworth’s most beloved and dedicated alumni, Keith Blackey EE ‘73, passed away at age 78 in North Las Vegas on July 8, 2023. Although he lived on the West Coast for four decades, Mr. Blackey made a regular pilgrimage to the university to attend the Annual Veterans Luncheon. For weeks before each year’s event, Mr. Blackey, a veteran himself, would painstakingly cut out all 50 individual stars from retired American flags. These would then be handed out to each guest with a handshake...

Empowering the Teachers (ETT), a program launched at MIT in 2011, is helping to change the face of engineering education in Nigerian universities. The program brings talented Nigerian academics at the postdoctoral level to MIT for a semester-long immersive experience, then sends them back out into the field to teach, research, and grow into influential leadership roles in their higher education system. So far, 96 fellows have participated in the program. Amir Bature, a fall 2019 MIT-ETT fellow, is one of them...

Shauna Gillies-Smith, FASLA, is a member of The Boston Architectural College Board of Trustees, and was also recently appointed as a Commissioner of the Boston Civic Design Commission (BCDC) by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Shauna spoke to the BAC about her appointment and career from an active construction site in Watertown, Massachusetts. Gesturing behind her to smooth new foundations and a rocky slope of dirt, she explained that the project will “bring significant benefit to the public realm.”

It’s all in the family for David and Will Firestone, the father and son duo behind Firestone and Parson, the fabled jewelry and silver firm located in the heart of Boston. This is true for their business, as well as their deep connections to NBSS: David has been an energetic volunteer at the School since 1980, when he was first invited to join the Board. He remembers, “I was working for my father back then, and North Bennet already had a reputation for supplying strong bench workers to the jewelry business.” As someone who believed in the trades and cared about building the future of the North End, David eagerly contributed more of his time, connections, guidance, and philanthropy over the decades...

You can find David Wilkins, B.Arch'11, MDS-SD'13, elbow deep in dirt. He’s hunched over a raised gardening bed and pulling carrots up by their leafy tops outside the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts. As the founder and executive director at the November 11th Foundation, David works alongside other volunteers to grow more than 480 pounds of fresh produce annually. These crops are donated to support hundreds of local veterans and their families...

The sounds of construction buzz in the background as Faries (above left) and Taj (above right) McCree sit shoulder-to-shoulder at an outdoor table in Arlington, Virginia. They are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with giant lobster claws, an insignia for the Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls franchise they are opening there. “I’ve always wanted to start a business of some kind,” says Taj, JD ’01. “I spent years researching different opportunities.” He and Faries, MEd ’97, settled on the Annapolis, Maryland–based lobster company as one that would be a hit with local diners (and require minimal cooking, since the lobster arrives freshly prepared)... Image: Kelvin Bullock

“I just went where I was needed,” Bernie Goba* says dismissively, thumbing through an archival stack of Boston Architectural College publications from the 1980’s and 90’s on a recent visit to the College. Bernie is a force— one of the most longstanding, impactful, and recognizable alumni the BAC community has known. But his genuine humility is what is most admirable. He goes on to point out black and white photos of a younger version of himself in his signature bow tie, grinning with his arms f

‘Suffolk is my safe harbor—everywhere you go … there is someone who cares about you and your story’