artsCatalyst Grant

Guidance for Applicants / Funding priorities

The revised focus of the artsCatalyst Grant program since AY2025-26 has been to integrate the arts into academic life by fostering interdisciplinary arts experiences for Stanford undergraduate students across the arts, humanities, and sciences. Priority is given to pedagogically well-integrated arts experiences in interdisciplinary contexts, particularly in courses taught in non-arts departments.

Most of the proposals we receive each quarter address interdisciplinary arts integration to some degree, and are thus eligible. However, with limited funding and increasing demand, only a subset of eligible applications can be selected to receive a grant—in recent quarters, the ratio of available to requested funds has been as low as 25%. Selection is conducted through the comparative assessment of applications in a given pool on the following criteria:

“Pedagogically well-integrated”

Grant applications are first assessed on the pedagogical soundness of the proposed activities. Does the application make a clear case for learning outcomes of proposed activity and how, specifically, they deepen or expand the syllabus? Does the proposed activity move beyond simply illustrating a theme in a new medium or adding a creative expression component for its own sake without further reflection? 

“Arts experiences”

While many activities may be considered creative, priority for this grant goes to activities squarely focused on the arts and/or traditional craft over those that highlight the creative dimensions of a practice or activity that wouldn’t primarily be considered an art form. For example: a walking tour visiting murals would be ranked more highly than a historical walking tour, even if the latter admittedly engages history in a creative way. Both are eligible, but the former would be ranked more highly.

Additionally, proposals that engage students in a particularly experiential way will be ranked more highly than activities centered on more traditional lecture or Q&A formats.

“Interdisciplinary contexts”

Because the artsCatalyst grants program now focuses on interdisciplinary arts integration, the topical and pedagogical context of a proposed arts activity is as significant as the nature of the activity itself. For example, an Anthropology course proposing a guest artist workshop to harvest, process and shape local clay would be ranked more highly than a dance course proposing a guest artist to lead a workshop on a particular movement technique. While the latter type of “core arts” activity is certainly worthy of support in an absolute sense, the current deficit in core arts funding at Stanford far exceeds the capacity of a small program like artsCatalyst. In large part, the revised focus on interdisciplinary arts integration is motivated by a need to broaden appreciation across campus for the catalytic/synergistic role that arts can play in the evolving research university, which seems prerequisite to convincing University leadership to address the arts funding deficit substantially. Along these lines, a proposal aimed at deeply integrating scholarly or scientific inquiry within an art practice course can also be highly competitive for an artsCatalyst grant.