College of Fine Arts

The Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) unites the School of Music, the School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts into an intense, dynamic arts community where students combine professional, individualized training in their field with collaborative work that increasingly crosses departments and schools.

The Mission of the College of Fine Arts

The mission of the College of Fine Arts is to prepare students for professional work in music, theatre, or visual arts. Emphasis is placed on studio instruction: the focus of the student’s acquisition of professional skills and techniques through personalized instruction and mentoring. The CFA faculty comprises proven teachers who draw from their distinguished experiences as artists and performers of national and international reputation.

Courses in literature, language, and the liberal arts, available through the College of Arts & Sciences and other schools and colleges at Boston University, are an integral part of each undergraduate program. Students may also minor or add a second major in a field outside their school or college, taking advantage of the vast resources of a major research university.

Dean’s Message

Welcome to the College of Fine Arts! We are a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through the art that we make.

We are a single, dynamic community of arts innovators who believe that the stories we tell, whether expressed in words, music, or images, have power. The work that we create builds bridges, connecting people across our campus, city, nation, and world. It heals, improving our emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. It records, capturing our many experiences and histories and preserving them for the future. It inspires.

Within the College of Fine Arts, excellence is everywhere.

Our faculty is comprised of world-class working artists who are among the very best teachers in higher education. In their studios and classrooms, they recommit themselves daily to helping students to realize their unique potential and voice. Our professors provide instruction, intermixing both tradition and innovation that will last a lifetime.

Our students are smart and endlessly creative. Each and every day, CFA students fill pages and canvases, stages and galleries, and recital and concert halls with their extraordinary creations and innovations. They are dreamers who see potential and possibility everywhere. They are builders who collaborate with CFA faculty, staff, and student peers to realize their dreams.

Our alumni are omnipresent. They compose, conduct, and perform in major symphony orchestras. They teach students of all ages. They produce plays for Broadway and showrun for television. They partner with cities to create large murals. They design for Fortune 500 companies. They appear on stages and screens all over the world. They regularly are profiled by internationally circulating newspapers and honored at major awards ceremonies for their leadership and contributions to the arts.

I invite you to visit the College of Fine Arts and experience the arts at Boston University.

Best wishes,

Harvey Young
Dean
College of Fine Arts