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Stanford’s spring quarter guest artists

Guest artists are all over campus this spring. Indie rock band Glass Animals play Stanford Stadium; the open-air literary celebration Stories of Exile, Reckoning and Hope takes place on the main stage in White Plaza; Mina Morita directs Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan in Roble Studio Theater; and Stanford Live’s popular Cabaret series continues in Bing’s cozy…

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2018 Deans’ Award Winners include students excelling in the creative arts

The Deans’ Award for Academic Achievement, inaugurated in Spring 1988, is given each year to between five and ten extraordinary undergraduate students. These students deserve campus recognition for academic endeavors that might not otherwise be celebrated. The Deans’ Award honors students for exceptional, tangible accomplishments in the following areas: Independent research National academic competitions A presentation…

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Fall quarter guest artists

See who is on campus this fall.

One of the ways that Stanford is creating opportunities for meaningful engagement with the arts for students and the university community is by inviting over 100 artists each year to campus to create, perform and discuss their work. This fall quarter the roster of guest artists includes comedian and political commentator Samantha Bee in conversation…

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Stanford Honors in the Arts capstone program evolves with a new Mellon grant

A new grant will support Stanford Arts Institute’s development of an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the arts.

Stanford University has been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to support the development of a new undergraduate, interdisciplinary program in the arts to be administered by Stanford Arts Institute. Honors in the Arts students present Bacchae, an immersive theatrical experience utilizing locations across the Stanford campus. (Image credit: Kristen Stipanov) The $400,000 grant provides support for…

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Students launch Manicule, a new journal on art history, film studies

A new student-run journal focused on art history and film studies, called Manicule, released its first issue last month. The journal showcases scholarly and creative pieces written by Stanford undergraduate students in the fields of art history and film and media studies. The aim of the annual publication is to provoke new ways of thinking about…

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Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2016-17

This year’s Student Arts Grants supported a wide range of projects across the Stanford campus. The projects covered many genres including devised performance, contemporary dance, printmaking, classical and contemporary plays, documentary and fiction film shorts, musical theater, painting, photography, and more. Many of this year’s grantees utilized the new Roble Arts Gym as a rehearsal/work space as…

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Dance faculty member seeks common ground in the rural West

Alex Ketley's film documents his research about the role dance plays in rural life and challenges the "urban/rural prejudice" commonly found in urban environments.

In 2012, Alex Ketley identified a pattern in his work as a dancer and choreographer: he had worked almost exclusively in urban centers and performed for city-based audiences – most of whom were already accustomed to modern dance. “It was almost like preaching to the choir,” Ketley mused. Creating work for like-minded patrons in art-saturated…

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Stanford alum earns Oscar nomination for “Hidden Figures”

And the Oscar goes to … well, maybe to ALLISON SCHROEDER, ’01, for co-writing with Theodore Melfi the adapted screenplay for Hidden Figures. This is the first Academy Award nomination for Schroeder and she is the lone woman on Oscar’s 2017 screenwriter lists, according to the Los Angeles Times. The story behind Hidden Figures, a…

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Harry Elam appointed vice president for the arts and senior vice provost for education

Harry Elam, vice provost for undergraduate education at Stanford since 2010, has been appointed to two additional key leadership roles in the Office of the President and Provost. He will now oversee the non-departmental arts programs as well as direct and coordinate critical efforts in education, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost-designate Persis Drell announced Monday.…

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Student Arts Grants: A Year in Photos 2015-16

From calypso to classical opera, from adaptations of classic texts to original, student-written theater, this year’s Student Arts Grants supported creative diversity across Stanford campus. This year’s grantees included the recipients of the inaugural Creative Spaces grants which provide support specifically for the costs associated with performing in some of Stanford’s most popular venues (such as the Bing Studio…

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Comics like Hellboy produce a heightened adventure of reading, Stanford scholar says

Using the Hellboy series as a touchstone, film and media studies Professor Scott Bukatman has discovered new ways to talk about comics while offering a heightened "adventure of reading."

The Hellboy comics – about a demon who tries to resist his predestined role to destroy our world – provide a powerful vantage point from which to view the extraordinary and unique powers of the comic book medium, a Stanford scholar suggests. That is the viewpoint of Scott Bukatman, a Stanford professor of film and…

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Stanford alumna wins international award for her thesis documentary about Syrian refugees

Melissa Langer, 2015 MFA graduate of Stanford’s Documentary Film and Video Program, recently won the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary for her thesis film, My Aleppo. The film, which chronicles the experience of a Syrian refugee family that relocated to Pretoria, South Africa, was one of 15 films in eight categories to win awards in…

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Film director Werner Herzog visits Stanford to talk about literary classic on peregrine falcons

The legendary film director will discuss J.A. Baker's book "The Peregrine" with Robert Harrison, a Stanford professor of Italian literature, at the Feb. 2 Another Look book club event.

J.A. Baker wrote The Peregrine at a precarious moment in environmental history: By the 1960s, the falcons had almost vanished entirely from the English countryside, thanks to aggressive use of pesticides. Baker’s response, an ecstatic panegyric to peregrines, stunned critics with its originality, power and beauty. The little-known 1967 masterpiece will be the subject of…

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Filmmaker Mira Nair shares the art of portraying the complexities of South Asia

“Nothing prepared me for the extraordinary hospitality, but also the ancient and deeply modern culture that I was in front of,” Mira Nair recalled thinking during her first trip to Lahore, Pakistan. “And that is what led me to make a film about Pakistan.”

“Nothing prepared me for the extraordinary hospitality, but also the ancient and deeply modern culture that I was in front of,” MIRA NAIR recalled thinking during her first trip to Lahore, Pakistan. “And that is what led me to make a film about Pakistan.” Nair, a renowned Indian filmmaker, was speaking at a film screening…

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Stanford scholars spy history of capitalist culture in Bond film songs

A musicologist and a literary scholar find a unique window into the evolution of capitalism and changing attitudes toward work in 50 years of James Bond movie theme songs.

In the lead-up to Spectre, the latest film in the decades-long James Bond spy thriller franchise opening this week, much of the recent buzz has centered on another long-running 007 tradition – the title song. Amidst all the speculation about who would sing the new Bond song, Stanford scholars Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold wrote…

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Spark! Grants: A Year in Photos 2014-15

From a rock band record release to Steve Reich, from Much Ado About Nothing to original, student-written musical theater, this year’s Spark! grant supported creative diversity across Stanford campus. These student groups, individuals, undergraduates, and graduates enliven the campus with their artistic endeavors. 2014-2015 Projects: SImps Workshops The Long Way Around The Benevolent Institution Proof…

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