ATHLETICS

ATHLETICS IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME

“Go ’Bos!” is what you’ll hear at every sports game. Whether you’re a student, parent, alumnus, or friend, sports are an important part of the Tufts community. The action on the field and in the court is partly due to our impressive facilities. Check out the play-by-play on how these spaces have changed.

Students and visitors walk through atrium in September of 2012.

SQUASH COURTS

As of early 2020, the squash program has a “new on-campus home.” The new eight-court facility has two glass show courts for spectators and has given the university the opportunity to host NESCAC, regional intercollegiate, high school, and club tournaments. More broadly, through generous philanthropy, everyone in the Tufts community has top-class options to pursue fitness, health, and wellness.

TISCH GYM

When women’s soccer goalie Phoebe Hanley ’13 saw the new Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, her first words were, “We’ve got to start playing like this building looks!” Whether you are training for the next big game or swimming laps for fun, the 42,000-squarefoot gym is a sight to see. Walking through the building, you get the feeling that personal fitness and athletic undertaking are important here at Tufts.

SOFTBALL FIELD

Spicer Field is home to the three-time NCAA champion Tufts softball team. Before the 2015 season, Spicer received a major facelift. Due to the field’s previous condition, Tufts couldn’t hold NCAA events, which means the 2013 and 2014 championship titles were won without a home advantage. The makeover included a new pure dirt infield and grass outfield, two batting cages, bullpens, bleacher seating, and a press box. Hopefully, in years to come we’ll secure more championships on our home turf.

“I never saw myself reflected ever.”

TANYA CRANE

PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE AT THE SCHOOL OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Noticing change sometimes means that you have not been paying attention all along. This truth characterizes what many white people have been experiencing as they educate themselves on civil rights issues that they may have not truly known about before. This learning process, while essential to the dismantling of systemic racism in the United States, often leaves a toll on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) who may be tokenized or forced into speaking on behalf of their entire identity groups. Unfortunately, this occurrence is nothing new for Tanya Crane, Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts, who has been forced into constantly explaining her identity to others as a Black, biracial person in the US. Her work explores various expressions of Black and biracial identity, reveals the stereotypes that target Black Americans, and offers moments of reflection on the stain of white supremacy in modern-day racial and sociopolitical relations and imbalances. Crane also explains the most prominent changes that come to mind through reflecting on her family’s residence, her personal work, and the SMFA teaching modality this semester.

“I never saw myself reflected ever; I was either in a white world or a Black world,” Crane explains as she reflects on her upbringing with her mom in a white, middle-class suburb in Los Angeles and her dad in South Central. The duality of her racial identity was always a subject of conversation and, at times, debate. Crane has represented the impacts of racism in history and in modern-day times in her work, especially her series of sculptures, “African and American,” from graduate school. Her final thesis show was called “Seeing Through”: “I made a large, wooden, Black butt [-shaped] shelf that mounted to the wall, and besides that is a chalk cone. It’s an interactive piece where you’re supposed to chalk-up your hands and slap the butt. This leaves a big, white hand mark on the Black butt. It’s talking about how Black bodies are sexualized and how to be accepted as a Black person in America, you have to be an entertainer or sexualized being instead of just being a person.” This work creates a sense of discomfort in the viewer, who may feel strange for participating in such an act of violence on a piece of art. This is exactly the point: to feel ridiculous and almost primitive for senseless violence and objectification against Black bodies. Crane also talks about digestibility—how to be accepted in a society that only rejects—and being forced into stereotypes.

When asked if current events—the COVID-19 pandemic or ongoing discussions about anti-Black violence—are affecting her work, Crane explains, “My work is evolving and ongoing, and was already currently happening when this civil war broke out in America. I’m trying to meditate and continue my practice as it [has] been going all along and stay true to the themes and topics that I deal with anyway.” Pandemics and movements elicit hindrances to preexisting social patterns, but why? Why can’t an artist pre-pandemic still be an artist amid a pandemic? Crane is, however, looking at ways to offer more BIPOC representation in the SMFA curriculum: “It’s a struggle, even with teaching. Even though I’m a Black professor, I have to think about: Am I really diversifying my curriculum? Am I really trying to decolonize my curriculum?”

Change can occur over many decades, like the move of Crane’s paternal side of the family to South Central LA, but it can also happen overnight, like the impact of the pandemic on teaching modality and curriculum. “At SMFA, we’re teaching conceptuallybased artmaking this year. Students will be provided with resource kits, but they’re really going to be asked to mine from their environment and to experience it in a different way,” Crane explains. SMFA students will be asked to notice local change and to think about it critically and artistically. Crane also adds, “There are almost no single-faculty classes that are happening; we’re working together to create these hybrid classes. Students will have more exposure, this year, to everything we do at SMFA than they ever had before.” While change is ironically nothing new to many of us, it takes collective collaboration to absorb all of its impacts and to respond to it—whether through social activism, art, or reflection. At SMFA, professors like Crane are embracing change and making it central to education. —SIWAAR ABOUHALA ’23