Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a thriving community of artist-scholars who are immersed in their passions of the fine and performing arts, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts CFA prepares students for a rich diversity of meaningful creative lives build on a strong foundation of skill and discernment. Beyond a wide variety of programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels, CFA hosts and partners with premier learning and artistic experiences for pre-college level student-artists.
Is one of our pre-college programs right for you? Explore to learn more!
Visual Arts Summer Institute
VASI offers high school students an intensive visual arts program designed to help students build exceptional portfolios. Whether preparing portfolios for college admission or simply working to improve technical abilities, students are introduced to materials and methods used in professional artistic practice.
BU Summer Theatre Institute
BUSTI is a five-week pre-conservatory experience for highly motivated high school theatre artists. Designed to mirror the first year BFA experience within the College of Fine Arts School of Theatre at Boston University, the Institute allows all participants the opportunity to test their interests and abilities in a professional training environment.
Boston University Tanglewood Institute
BUTI is a premier summer training program for talented young musicians ages 14 to 20. BUTI is located in the beautiful Berkshire mountains of Lenox, Massachusetts just down the road from the Tanglewood Music Center: the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Because of BUTI’s special relationship with the BSO, students have the opportunity to learn and grow through intensive programming in the presence of some of the world’s greatest music professionals and teachers.
Youth Program Partnerships
Wheelock Family Theatre
Wheelock Family Theatre is one of the largest professional theaters in Boston with performances having been seen by more than one million people. Its impressive outreach to Boston and Greater Boston schools enables Wheelock Family Theatre to entertain and educate approximately 15,000 visiting schoolchildren every year, living out their mission to “create inter-generational and multicultural productions that provide a shared experience for the whole family. Our productions celebrate the diverse range of families found in the world today and seek to unite them in the shared experience of live theatre.”