The Stanford Arts Initiative

Stanford University is placing the arts at the heart of a 21st-century education.  

The Stanford Arts Initiative was begun in 2006 as part of The Stanford Challenge, the university-wide campaign to define and support the future of education and research on campus. The overarching goals of the Initiative are:

• Enhancing strengths in existing arts programs
• Creating new arts facilities and opportunities for students and faculty
• Catalyzing cross-disciplinary arts programs, collaborations, and activity throughout the university
• Putting the arts at the core of the research and teaching mission of the university and the life of the campus

Highlights of the Arts Initiative to date include:

• Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (opened 2010)
• Bing Concert Hall (opening 2013)
• McMurtry Building for Art and Art History (scheduled to open 2015)
• New endowed professorships and MFA fellowships
• Undergraduate internships in the arts
• Intensive student arts programs during spring break and summer
• Over 100 visiting artists
• Over 1,800 subsidized student tickets to arts events per year

The arts at Stanford are vibrant and multifaceted. They are distinguished by a few key qualities:

A multidisciplinary approach. Students and faculty bring together different media and areas of practice and research. This includes both multidisciplinarity within the arts and a strong push toward connecting the arts to other areas of research and teaching, including science, technology, and medicine.

A strong connection among practice, theory, and history. Stanford’s arts departments house practitioners and theorists under one roof, generating a constant interaction that can foster both collaboration and productive debate.

An entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. Students and faculty are encouraged to create and showcase work and to find new ways to make art and bring art into contact with other fields.

The Stanford Arts Initiative exists to further strengthen and integrate the arts on campus. It is creating new ways for students to engage with the arts as a central part of a 21st-century education. We invite you to explore the site to find out more about the Initiative and about how to support the arts at Stanford.

Sincerely,

Stephen Hinton
Denning Family Director of the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SiCa)
Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities

Matthew Tiews
Executive Director of Arts Programs