Lesley University College of Art and Design

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Lesley University College of Art and Design Lesley's College of Art and Design offers Animation, Art History, Design, Digital Filmmaking, Fine Arts, Illustration, Interdisciplinary Studies, Photo.

Lesley University College of Art and Design is a college of visual arts, located in the student-friendly Harvard Square area of Cambridge, MA. Since our founding in 1912, we have educated students for professions in the arts by balancing personal aesthetic development and intensive studies in the humanities with practical career preparation. Our challenging curriculum emphasizes solid foundations in traditional art and design principles, time-proven methods of creative process, and strong intellectual concepts. We offer the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the two-year Advanced Professional Certificate, the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Photography, the low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts degree, as well as continuing and professional education, intensive workshops, and college courses for high school students.

“Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” brings together work by Lesley University students, staff, and fa...
10/08/2026

“Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” brings together work by Lesley University students, staff, and faculty who identify as disabled. Encompassing a range of media, subjects, and creative approaches, the exhibition offers varied perspectives while encouraging a broader and more nuanced understanding of disability. The works on view may engage disability directly or reflect other dimensions of their makers’ personal, cultural, emotional, and creative lives.

Rather than presenting disability as a fixed or singular condition, “Deconstructing Disability” recognizes it as a broad spectrum of lived experiences, identities, and ways of moving through and understanding the world. The exhibition affirms the presence and contributions of disabled artists throughout the Lesley community while creating space for visibility, reflection, and dialogue. Participating artists were selected by guest jurors Camilla Jerome Camilla Jerome and Bill Porter Bill Porter , interdisciplinary artists and educators whose practices are informed by their own experiences of disability.

A reception for “Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” will be held on Thursday, October 15, from 12–2 pm and will include live performances by Lesley students. The program will feature poetry performed by Michelé Crowder (Adult Learner/Expressive Arts Therapy), along with dance performances choreographed by Jewels Roberts (undergraduate Psychology/Expressive Arts Therapy) and Alex Dolph (graduate Clinical Mental Health Counseling/Dance/Movement Therapy). Together, these performances extend the exhibition beyond the visual works on view, bringing additional perspectives to the themes of identity and lived experience.

“Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” brings together work by Lesley University students, staff, and fa...
10/08/2026

“Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” brings together work by Lesley University students, staff, and faculty who identify as disabled. Encompassing a range of media, subjects, and creative approaches, the exhibition offers varied perspectives while encouraging a broader and more nuanced understanding of disability. The works on view may engage disability directly or reflect other dimensions of their makers’ personal, cultural, emotional, and creative lives.

Rather than presenting disability as a fixed or singular condition, “Deconstructing Disability” recognizes it as a broad spectrum of lived experiences, identities, and ways of moving through and understanding the world. The exhibition affirms the presence and contributions of disabled artists throughout the Lesley community while creating space for visibility, reflection, and dialogue. Participating artists were selected by guest jurors Camilla Jerome Camilla Jerome and Bill Porter Bill Porter , interdisciplinary artists and educators whose practices are informed by their own experiences of disability.

A reception for “Deconstructing Disability: Perspectives + Identities” will be held on Thursday, October 15, from 12–2 pm and will include live performances by Lesley students. The program will feature poetry performed by Michelé Crowder (Adult Learner/Expressive Arts Therapy), along with dance performances choreographed by Jewels Roberts (undergraduate Psychology/Expressive Arts Therapy) and Alex Dolph (graduate Clinical Mental Health Counseling/Dance/Movement Therapy). Together, these performances extend the exhibition beyond the visual works on view, bringing additional perspectives to the themes of identity and lived experience.

What happens when teaching something familiar leads you somewhere entirely new?“Becoming Color: New Work by Eugene Dorga...
09/11/2026

What happens when teaching something familiar leads you somewhere entirely new?

“Becoming Color: New Work by Eugene Dorgan” brings together 37 paintings by Lesley Art + Design faculty member Eugene Dorgan, an artist known for decades for his carefully observed charcoal portraits.

The new work began during the pandemic, when Dorgan developed color-grid exercises for his students as a way to slow down the painting process and encourage closer attention to the relationships between colors. Over time, he found himself drawn to the exercises themselves—and began exploring their possibilities in his own studio practice.

Working in gouache on panel and resin, Dorgan builds grids, stripes, and repeated fields in which colors shift, intensify, recede, and transform one another. The figure may be absent, but the careful attention that has long defined his portraiture remains.

37 paintings. A new body of work. And a new chapter in a decades-long practice.

Becoming Color is now on view in the Raizes Gallery at Lesley Art + Design through October 4th. Please join us for an evening reception on September 24 from 5-7pm

A show like this is always a collaborative effort. Many thanks to LA+D’s Vice Provost Heather Shaw for the wonderful design of the exhibition signage and promotional materials, and to LA+D alum Alan Dursee Alan Dursee for lending his eye and expertise to the layout and installation. It’s especially meaningful to have our alumni return and help shape what happens in our galleries.

What does it mean to keep someone present?In The Keeping Place, artists Letitia and Sedrick Huckaby explore memory, fami...
09/09/2026

What does it mean to keep someone present?

In The Keeping Place, artists Letitia and Sedrick Huckaby explore memory, family, history, and the ways we carry those who came before us.

Letitia Huckaby’s Memorable Proof brings together twelve textile works portraying Black women and girls from Edenton, North Carolina, connecting their contemporary presence to the history of Harriet Jacobs and the place where she was born into slavery.

Sedrick Huckaby turns to family and community through monumental paintings and sculptural works. His portraits include people wearing memorial T-shirts bearing photographs of loved ones who have died—images carried quite literally on the bodies of the living.

Together, their works remind us that remembrance is not simply about looking backward. It is about deciding what—and whom—we carry forward.

Come spend some time with them.

The Keeping Place: Works by Letitia and Sedrick Huckaby
📍 Roberts Gallery, Lunder Arts Center
Lesley Art + Design

Special thanks to LA+D alumni Jordyn Payne Jordyn Payne for her wonderful design of the exhibition signage and promotional materials, and Alan Dursee Alan Dursee for his invaluable assistance with the layout and installation. We’re always proud to have our alumni back in the galleries and contributing to the work happening here.

The galleries at Lesley Art + Design have been transformed with freshly painted walls and polished floors... and the art...
09/03/2026

The galleries at Lesley Art + Design have been transformed with freshly painted walls and polished floors... and the artwork has been moving in!

Director of Exhibitions Andrew Mroczek is putting the finishing touches on two new exhibitions in the Roberts and Raizes Galleries, just in time to welcome students to campus.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes sneak peek as the installations take shape.

Stay tuned next week for a closer look at the paintings, sculptures, and artists filling our galleries this fall.

Attention First Year Art + Design students! Get your Foundation Kits from Blick Cambridge Foundation Kits are now availa...
08/17/2026

Attention First Year Art + Design students! Get your Foundation Kits from Blick Cambridge
Foundation Kits are now available for purchase Blick Cambridge in Central Square! The kits provide with you several of the necessary supplies for your foundation courses.
We strongly recommend that first year students purchase the kits we prepared with our friends at Blick to ensure you have the correct supplies. Items in the kit have been selected by the art + design faculty. Less expensive alternatives are often lower in quality and may not meet assignment requirements. Because the kits are ordered in bulk, you get the kits at a discounted price!
See you in September!

Congrats to AIB alum Monique Aimee for her amazing illustration work for the Boston Red Sox Women’s Celebration. Monique...
08/03/2026

Congrats to AIB alum Monique Aimee for her amazing illustration work for the Boston Red Sox Women’s Celebration. Monique is a freelance illustrator based in Boston, and received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston, now known as the Lesley Art + Design Lesley University, where the Green Monster could be spotted just outside of the art school windows.
The Women’s Celebration jersey features iconic Fenway Park and its historical Lone Red Seat, the Boston skyline, and game changers - women who are at the heart of this sport.
The Women’s Celebration is this Wednesday, August 5, at Fenway Park, Red Sox playing the Chicago White Sox. It will be a powerful and inspiring night to celebrate the incredible contributions of women in sports, business, and the Boston community. Learn more about the event here: www.mlb.com/redsox/tickets/promotions/cultural-and-identity-celebrations/womens
And learn more about Monique’s work here: moniqueaimee.com

It’s thesis season at LA+D!Lesley Art + Design is thrilled to announce the 2026 Undergraduate Thesis Exhibitions and Fil...
03/04/2026

It’s thesis season at LA+D!
Lesley Art + Design is thrilled to announce the 2026 Undergraduate Thesis Exhibitions and Film Screenings, showcasing the culminating work of this year’s graduating class.

From studios and classrooms to digital spaces and print labs, these exhibitions bring into public view the diverse and compelling projects our students have developed throughout the year.

A cornerstone of the LA+D experience, the senior thesis exhibitions celebrate the creativity, dedication, and vision of our students—and invite the entire Lesley community and beyond to experience their work.

Lesley College of Art + Design
1801 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140

And

The Brattle Theater
40 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

One of the best parts of hosting exhibitions is watching young visitors encounter the work for the first time.Today, stu...
02/27/2026

One of the best parts of hosting exhibitions is watching young visitors encounter the work for the first time.

Today, students from Lesley Ellis School joined us to explore Citizen Printer by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. reading, reflecting, and filling their notebooks with responses to the prints. Thank you to the students and teachers of Lesley Ellis for bringing such curiosity and energy to the space.
Amos reminds us that print is meant to be lived with, questioned, and shared. Seeing students take ownership of the ideas in the exhibition is exactly why galleries matter.

We loved having you here, Lesley Ellis!

Address

1801 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA
02138

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