SAI's Mission
Stanford Arts Institute (SAI) cultivates open-ended curiosity and radical rethinking by promoting creative practice as a core element of research and education. Uniquely situated as an interdisciplinary arts research institute within the Office of the Vice President for the Arts (OVPA) at Stanford, we work with students, staff, and faculty from across the university to foster artistic modes of inquiry and forge organic connections across departments and schools.
Under the leadership of Denning Family Faculty Director Hideo Mabuchi (Professor of Applied Physics), Stanford Arts Institute works with a variety of campus partners to support innovative projects and bring world-renowned artists to campus for research, performance and student engagement.
In the 2026-27 academic year, SAI's efforts will focus on supporting project-based curricula and faculty-led pedagogical initiatives in interdisciplinary arts, the activities of a new multi-disciplinary faculty working group on arts+AI, and symposia that catalyze lasting collaborations between world-renowned artist-researchers and Stanford faculty to shape the conversation at a national level. In autumn, a new cohort of artsCatalyst fellows will join continuing members of last year's inaugural cohort for a series of workshops focussed on arts integration pedagogy.
Articulating and fostering shared values of art and science across the University has been focus of SAI activities since Mabuchi's appointment to Faculty Director in 2023. Highlights of last year's programming included the return of our Research and the Artistic (Im)pulse: a symposium series that explores art, scholarship, science, and engineering as miscible practices rather than divisions of discipline. SAI also hosted Jane Hirshfield--one of American poetry's foremost spokespersons for the biosphere--along with Stanford biologists Susan McConnell and Manu Prakash for a panel entitled Poetry & Science as Arts of Attention in April 2026.
Undergraduate Programs
SAI administers two interdepartmental degree programs (IDPs) in interdisciplinary arts: the Inter-Arts Minor and Honors in the Arts. Both support undergraduate projects that center research creation, combine two or more kinds of art practice, or blend art and research in some creative yet rigorous way. We welcome all forms of creative expression - from visual art to dance, theater to creative writing, game design to film, fashion, or multimedia installations. Both programs are open to students in any major. Their shared aim is to allow students across the University to deepen their understanding of the arts, to familiarize themselves with creative theory and techniques, and to make meaningful connections between their home disciplines and art practice.
Stanford Arts Institute also administers a series of Arts Immersion programs, in which undergraduate students participate in curated trips to creative hubs like New York City, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit and Venice. In addition to visiting a host of art and performance venues, the students meet institutional leaders, policy makers, and arts practitioners to gain an insider’s view on these cultural capitals.
Graduate Programs
With the launch of a graduate certificate program in Making and Creative Praxis, SAI and the Program in Modern Thought and Literature aim to foster a community of teachers and learners committed to integrating abstract and embodied forms of knowledge, expertise, and artistry. The certificate provides a framework for students to pursue making and creative practice courses that contextualize and guide scholarly research on cultural artifacts.
Stanford Arts Institute is a unit within the Vice President for the Arts.
Institute Staff
Hideo Mabuchi
Denning Family Director,
Stanford Arts Institute
Professor of Applied Physics
hmabuchi@stanford.edu
SAI Advisory Group
The SAI Advisory Group assists the SAI Faculty Director in thinking about long-term strategy for Stanford Arts Institute. They may also be called upon to assist with the implementation and evolution of new initiatives.
Marci Kwon is Assistant Professor of Art History and co-director of Stanford's Asian American Art Initiative
Manu Prakash
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
(by courtesy) Oceans and Biology
Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
Elizabeth Schumann
Assistant Professor
Music
Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Studies
Pfeiffer and Herold Families Professor, Professor of Biochemistry and (by courtesy) of Chemical and Systems Biology
IDP Advisory Group
The IDP Advisory Group assists the SAI Faculty Director and Associate Director in considering policy and implementation issues related to Honors in the Arts, the Interdisciplinary Arts Minor, and Arts Immersion courses.
Professor of Music and Director of CCRMA, Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of
his music alongside research in network music performance, data sonification and new models for sound synthesis and music perception.
Gavin Jones, Frederick P. Rehmus Family Professor of Humanities, loves literature in all its forms, with a particular focus on the American tradition; on language politics and problems of social inequality; on the short story form; and on ways of bridging our critical and creative sides in the classroom.
Richard Nevle
Deputy Director
Earth Systems
Michael Rau
Assistant Professor
Theater & Performance Studies
Aileen Robinson
Assistant Professor
Theater & Performance Studies
Rose Salseda
Assistant Professor
Art & Art History
Current & Recent Capstone Advisors
- Mark Algee-Hewitt (Associate Professor, English)
- Morehshin Allahyari (Assistant Professor, English)
- Terry Berlier (Professor, Art & Art History, and, by courtesy, Music)
- Rebecca Bodurtha (Senior Lecturer, Theater & Performance Studies)
- Kerri Conlon (Lecturer, Art & Art History)
- Paul DeMarinis (Professor, Art & Art History, and, by courtesy, Music)
- Michele Elam (William Robertson Coe Professor in the Humanities, English; Senior Fellow at HAI)
- Amir Eshel (Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies, Comparative Literature)
- Debra Fong (Lecturer, Music)
- Aracelis Girmay (Knight Family Professor of Creative Writing, Professor of English)
- Vida James (Stegner Fellow)
- Adam Johnson (Phil and Penny Knight Professor of Creative Writing, English)
- Gavin Jones (Department of English Chair, Frederick P. Rehmus Family Professor of Humanities)
- Jarosław Kapuściński (Associate Professor, Music)
- Alex Ketley (Lecturer, Dance)
- Emanuele Lugli (Professor, Art & Art History)
- Hideo Mabuchi (Professor, Applied Physics; Stanford Arts Institute Denning Family Director)
- Mark McGurl (Albert Guérard Professor of Literature)
- Thomas Mullaney (Professor of History, and, by courtesy, East Asian Languages and Cultures)
- Alexander Nemerov (Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities)
- Hieu Minh Nguyen (Lecturer, Creative Writing)
- Miguel Novelo (Lecturer, Art & Art History)
- Regina Pieck (Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature)
- Emily Polk (Advanced Lecturer, Writing & Rhetoric Studies)
- Michael Rau (Assistant Professor, Theater and Performance Studies)
- Cintia Santana (Senior Lecturer, Comparative Literature
- Elizabeth Schumann (Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Studies Assistant Professor, Music)
- Dustin Schroeder (Associate Professor of Geophysics, of Electrical Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment)
- amara tabor-smith (Artist in Residence, IDA)
- Adam Tobin (Senior Lecturer, Art & Art History)
- Lauren Toomer (Lecturer, Art & Art History)
- Ross Venook (Senior Lecturer, Bioengineering)
- Xiaoze Xie (Professor, Art & Art History)
Inter-Departmental Mail Code
#2250
Office
(650) 497-9905
Fax
(650) 723-8231
ADDRESS
Stanford Arts
Littlefield Center
2nd Floor
365 Lasuen Street
Stanford, CA 94305
