Editor’s note: The Daily’s editorial department acknowledges that this article is premised on a conflict of interest. This article is a special feature for Commencement 2025 that does not represent the Daily’s standard journalistic practices.
For graduating senior Ava Dettling, art is far more than just a mere pastime.
“The arts [are what keep] people alive,” she said.
Dettling arrived at Tufts as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, pursuing a bachelor’s of fine arts. However, by her sophomore year, she transferred into the School of Arts and Sciences, where she now studies international literary and visual studies with a focus on film and French.
“I’ve always loved film,” she shared. While Dettling completed Advanced Placement Art and was part of her high school’s film club, her academic focus remained rooted in the visual arts. “I didn’t have a portfolio or film or anything, and it was just more something that I love to do and study.” It was through her visual arts portfolio that she gained admission to Tufts, but once in college, she gradually shifted toward film studies.
Coming from a high school that wasn’t exactly known for its arts programs, Dettling’s passion for the field was all the more striking.
“The arts were just not taken seriously,” she said. “So I was just very happy to give my whole life to it.”
It wasn’t until sophomore year that she began writing for the Daily — a delay that stemmed largely from the divide between Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus and the SMFA campus in Boston. Living in Boston her first year, she felt disconnected from the Medford/Somerville community and its student culture. Once she joined the Daily’s Arts and Pop Culture section, though, it felt like a natural fit.
“[Art] is all I do. It’s all I study. It’s all I [do] outside of study. It’s what I wanted to do for work,” she said.
Initially, Dettling wrote about the things she personally loved — her favorite movies and books. But as she gained confidence, her approach to journalism began to shift.
“I was so scared to interview people my first semester,” she recalled. “[But] that makes for really interesting articles.”
Dettling began by interviewing more widely recognized artists. One of her most memorable early pieces was an interview with British musician Declan McKenna about his upcoming tour — an opportunity that felt surreal.
“That was just something I’ll never forget,” Dettling said.
However, after spending her junior year abroad, Dettling returned to campus with a new perspective — especially when it came to spotlighting artists within the Tufts and greater Boston community.
“There [are] so many people here,” she said. Despite Tufts having an entire school dedicated to the arts, she noticed that SMFA students were underrepresented in the Daily’s coverage — and that few SMFA students wrote for the paper at all. “I based my writing more around actual things that are happening locally and local artists and stuff like that.”
That community focus shines in her current column, “Coffee with Creatives,” an interview-based multimedia project where she sits down with Boston-based and Tufts-affiliated artists. Over the course of the semester, she’s spoken to filmmakers, musicians and visual artists — always with the intention of going beyond surface-level questions.
“I wanted it to be artists talking about what they really wanted to talk about,” she said. “It could be their process. It could be just artists they love. It can be what they just made [or] something like that. But since it’s 500 words, I just really want it to be what they want to talk about.”
What she’s found, more than anything, is how much artists across vastly different disciplines have in common.
“Art is very interconnected,” Dettling noted. “To see them talk about it in the exact same way is so cool.”
Though she never envisioned herself as a journalist, Dettling has found something meaningful in writing and publishing her work, and in building a portfolio that reflects the full range of her artistic interests. It’s also opened unexpected doors as she looks toward her future.
“This has been the most rewarding part of my time at Tufts,” she said. “I’ve dabbled in painting and drawing and done film and made movies … [but] nothing’s ever been so rewarding as having a portfolio of writing and pieces to say that I’ve written.”
The experience helped her see writing as another medium of creative expression — one that, like film or painting, allows her to explore and elevate the art that surrounds her.
“I just kind of fell into journalism,” she added. “Now that’s [the jobs] I’m applying to.”
As she approaches graduation, Dettling remains steadfast in her belief in the value of the arts — whether through storytelling, creation or curation.
“[The arts are] solely based on passion, and to have that much passion around it is beautiful,” she said.
Through her studies, journalism, future career and creative work, Dettling hopes to keep showing the world what she already knows to be true. “Art saves lives,” she said.