Support CFA

“With your help, we will position CFA as a recognized national leader in the fine and performing arts, center it on the BU campus as a hub of arts and research activity, and engage our alumni with lively regional networks. We can’t wait to create this future.”
– Harvey Young
Dean, College of Fine Arts

CFA is 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 art. CFA is a beacon for the arts lighting the way to a creative future – one where everyone in our community knows the value of art for life.

Your support of CFA drives important capital initiatives, scholarships, educational outreach, performances and exhibitions, all of which benefit the talented young artists and renowned faculty of Boston University.

Ways to Give

You can make a gift online to a school, program, or cause at CFA here.

Give Now

Find more information here about where to mail a check, how to give stock or mutual funds, how to create an IRA charitable rollover, and more.

Why Give to CFA?

Support a vibrant academic experience

We constantly seek to infuse our teaching and learning with new ideas, new resources, and new ways of experiencing the arts and the world. Help us continue to build the 21st century curriculum by updating the canon and developing new graduate and undergraduate degree programs, recruit and retain outstanding faculty, and reinvent the student experience.

Support research that matters

CFA is BU’s hub of arts research and innovation. Help us as we build and maintain meaningful partnerships with colleagues across the University, continue essential work within special research centers in CFA itself, invest in and commission new works, and expand the “learning labs” we already provide in youth arts education: Wheelock Family Theatre (WFT), BU Summer Theatre Institute (BUSTI), the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), and the Visual Arts Summer Institute (VASI).

Ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts

We are deeply committed to making CFA a welcoming artistic home for all who enter. To achieve this goal, we know we have work to do to. Support us in building inclusive curricula for the 21st century, bringing more diverse artists and programming to CFA, creating many more endowed scholarships and graduate stipends for our students, establishing a DEI Access Fund to cover some of the many expenses that traditional financial aid does not meet, and creating more scholarships for our youth programs and increasing outreach and recruitment in underrepresented communities.

Community: big yet small

Help us build bridges across BU, Boston, and beyond as we create new opportunities to explore the arts for all BU students, strengthen our partnerships with prominent arts institutions in the Boston area, and continue to serve the greater community with our youth programs, BUTI and Wheelock Family Theatre for which we will continue to build partnerships with local and regional schools.

Global engagement

Help CFA and CFA students connect with the wider world by supporting study abroad programs, the establishment of a tradition of consistent CFA participation in several recurring international programs, and initiatives, like the BU Global Music Festival, that bring the world to our students.

Support CFA Annual Funds

  • Give directly to the area you care about most. The College of Fine Arts Fund, Friends of Music Fund, Friends of Theatre Fund, or Friends of Visual Arts Fund support performances and exhibitions by CFA students and faculty, lectures and master classes by distinguished guest artists and scholars, cross-disciplinary programming that connects CFA with schools and colleges across the University, essential upgrades to our facilities and equipment, and community engagement programs. It also provides us the flexibility to meet the most immediate needs—from student emergencies to curricular innovations—as they arise
  • Support intensive programming for the next generation of artists in the presence of some of the world’s greatest music professionals and teachers through the Tanglewood Institute Annual Fund.
  • Contribute to the Wheelock Family Theatre Fund to continue a 40+ year legacy of bringing the transformative power of theatre to the Greater Boston area through an unwavering commitment to diversity, affordability, access, and inclusion.