Contemporary Artist Makoto Fujimura to Deliver Gordon College’s 2025 Commencement Address

Fujimura will Receive a Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa

 WENHAM, MA – April 16, 2025 - Internationally renowned artist Makoto Fujimura will deliver the keynote address at Gordon College’s 133rd undergraduate and 28th graduate Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 17, at 10 a.m. on the Gordon College Quad. The contemporary artist will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree during the ceremony. 

Makoto Fujimara’s piece, Golden Pines: Gordon hangs in Gordon’s Ken Olsen Science Center.

“Makoto Fujimura is a world class artist, Christian thought leader, advocate for the arts and a longstanding friend of the College,” said Gordon College President Mike Hammond. “Recognized as a major cultural influencer and a committed artist at the intersection of faith and art, I look forward to the inspiration and wisdom he’ll bestow on this year’s graduating class. We are thrilled to invite him back to campus.”  

A leading figure in the slow art movement, Fujimura’s work has been featured in galleries and museums around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library, the Tikotin Museum, Belvedere Museum, C3M North Bund Art Museum and Pola Museum. His piece Golden Pines: Gordon hangs in Gordon’s Ken Olsen Science Center and was inspired by the trees along the campus’s Coy Pond. 

“The arts provide a path toward integrated knowledge, connecting the spiritual, intellectual and somatic in a fragmented and challenging time,” said Fujimura. “I am honored to be Gordon’s commencement speaker for this year’s graduates, and I look forward to casting a generational vision toward a generative future.”  

Born in Boston and educated in Japan and the United States, Fujimura was the first non-Japanese citizen to be accepted into the post-MFA doctoral level program at Tokyo University of the Arts in the longstanding lineage of Nihonga tradition. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Tokyo University of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University. 

In 2013 Gordon’s Barrington Center for the Arts hosted the “QU4RTETS” exhibition. The show featured paintings by Fujimura and was developed in collaboration with Bruce Herman, painter and former Gordon College Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts; composer Christopher Theofanidis; and theologian Jeremy Begbie. The exhibition included works in paint, poetry and music, all developed in response to T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. 

A celebrated speaker, Fujimura has been recognized by NPR as having given one of "The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever" and by CNN as having given one of 16 “most memorable” commencement addresses. He is also the author of five books, a recipient of numerous awards and previously served as a presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts.  

Gordon College’s Commencement will be held outside, rain or shine, and unlimited seating is available for families of graduates and guests of the College. Online streaming of the event will be available for those unable to attend in person. For more information on Gordon College’s 2025 Commencement and the keynote speaker, please visit www.gordon.edu/commencement.  

 About Gordon College 
Gordon College is located on the North Shore of Boston in Wenham, MA, and is the only nationally ranked, multidenominational Christian college in New England. Gordon believes students and professionals should be equipped to flourish in an uncertain and changing world, which is why career-focused academics blend with a life-giving faith community to prepare Christians to make a difference with hope and confidence. With over 125 academic programs, Gordon currently serves 1,250 undergraduate and 500 graduate students. For more information visit www.gordon.edu.