Call for Proposals
The deadline for submissions is rolling through October 31, 2026.
Apply by October 9, 2026 for preferential consideration.
How can art illuminate what it means to be human in the age of AI? In a world where efficiency is often prioritized at the expense of creative expression, there are precious few spaces for pursuing artistic inquiry on its own terms. But it might be that such spaces are needed now more than ever—spaces that center craft, curiosity, creativity, community and our shared values as human beings.Â
Stanford Arts Institute (SAI), in collaboration with the VPA arts+AI working group, invites proposals from current Stanford graduate students and postdocs for funding to support Pockets of Joy (PoJs)—micro-communities created by students, for students, and for no other purpose than to be together and find joy in the process of collaborative, creative inquiry.Â
PoJs could take many forms, including but not limited to:
- Creative writing groups — getting together with snacks/food/drinks to workshop poems, stories, or any other literary forms
- Knitting/sewing/making circles — getting together with snacks/food/drinks to make objects together
- Craft exchanges — getting together to exchange craft skills/know-how
- Curiosity collectives — organizing meals during which people can ask an expert (on genetics, photography, medieval history, whatever!) lots of questions and see where the conversation goes
- Improvisation groups — getting together to playfully explore new ways of moving through space, making sound, or telling stories
Anti-Deliverables:
Recipients of a Pockets of Joy Grant are not required to be “productive” or complete a project. Instead, we invite recipients to participate in building campus culture and community by:
- Sending one or more representatives to a quarterly “Seams of Joy” meal with SAI faculty
- Sharing their story at an Arts Summit held on the Stanford campus in late January 2027
- Collaborating with SAI to document their PoJ activities in some shareable form (e.g., photos, videos, op-eds)
- Reflecting on how their experiences in the PoJ might connect to broader campus conversations about the educational experience at Stanford (e.g., through opportunities available through the VPUE’s AI Meets Education at Stanford initiative
Eligibility:
- Proposed PoJs should be led/co-led by one or more currently enrolled graduate students or postdocs. However, projects could involve collaboration with undergraduates, faculty, staff, or other Stanford community members.
- PoJs should include at least three participants.
- Applicants may be affiliated with any school, department, or program at Stanford.
To Apply:
The deadline for submissions is rolling through October 31, 2026.
Apply by October 9, 2026 for preferential consideration.
Submit your proposal using this form. You’ll need to sign into Google using your Stanford account. To submit the form you will need to upload a single pdf document containing:
- A project title
- Name(s), email(s), and home department(s) of grad student/post-doc leads. There is no formal limit on the number of student leads, but the number of leads should be reasonable given the scope of the PoJ.Â
- A human-written description of proposed activities that center craft, curiosity, and/or creative expression (max 1 page)
- Names of any additional participants beyond the student leads (if applicable) or an explanation of how additional participants will be invited (if applicable).
- Timeline of proposed activities within the AY26-27 academic year. Priority will be given to PoJs whose community-building activities will begin in Autumn Quarter 2026.Â
- A budget outlining the proposed use of funds, up to $2000. This may include materials, equipment/space rentals, refreshments, local transportation, or other project-specific expenses.
Questions? Email artsinstitute@stanford.edu
First Round POJ recipients
Stay in/out of the pocket: improvised music*
*This is an open group. To join, please contact Sean Anderson (seanpaul@), Walker Smith (walksmit@)
Co-leads: Sean Anderson (Psychology), Walker Smith (Music), Matt Caren (Computer Science)
Join us to experience the raw joy of music-making. We meet for free improvisation, where people create music spontaneously without preset rules, scores, or forms. No experience required. Any experience welcomed. Spectating embraced. Our collective music-making is free from norms of aesthetic value, institutional pressures, and economic/technological incentives.
The Bureau of Unquantifiable Things
Co-leads: Utsav Gupta (Liberal Arts), Jocasta Manasseh-Lewis (Bioengineering), Dipashreya Sur (Civil Engineering), Ayush Pandit (Computer Science)
The Bureau of Unquantifiable Things is a fictional public agency devoted to protecting the parts of being human that do not fit neatly into metrics or optimization: daydreaming, ambiguity, imperfect memory, changing your mind, and doing things simply because you enjoy them.
Fiber, Form, and Mind
Co-leads: Karla E. Perez (Psychology), Maria A. Martinez Ortiz (Psychology), Junyi Chu (Psychology)
As our digital workflows increasingly involve AI tools to automate repetitive work and efficiently implement new features, we find ourselves wondering: what are we losing in this exchange? Fiber, Form, and Mind is a Pocket of Joy that regrounds students in the embodied, tactile world through thread- and fiber-based arts.
Motherhood Crafting Group
Co-leads: Lindsey Meservey (Biology); Alma Rodriguez (Education), Alyssa Virker (Slavic Languages + Literatures), Marie Wako (Law)
Our interdisciplinary group of scientists, social scientists, and humanists is brought together by motherhood. With the Pockets of Joy grant, we hope to creatively explore the nature of time and how time is to be spent in a life that is precious and finite.
Contact:
Stanford Arts Institute
artsinstitute@stanford.edu
