Campus Stories - Cantor Arts Center
Solidarity, anguish and action
With yet another Black person, George Floyd, killed at the hands of the police, all across this country protestors have swarmed into streets, risking disease and death. When the words of a people are consistently unheard, their bodies will speak. They will march on the streets, they will declare their pain, and they will make…
Stanford’s art museums present new digital teaching resources
Each year hundreds of classes and thousands of students and scholars from across campus rely on the Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection at Stanford University for access to the art, artists and ideas comprising more than 40,000 objects in the museums’ collections. Though there is no substitute for experiencing art in person, the Cantor and Anderson Collection are…
COVID-19’s impact on Stanford arts events
Stanford University has been closely monitoring the rapidly evolving events surrounding COVID-19, also known as novel coronavirus. The university is working to take steps that inhibit, rather than accelerate, the ability of infection to spread. Events that bring participants to campus have been canceled or postponed. This includes a range of arts performances, public lectures,…
PhD candidate explores Persia’s Safavid Empire in her exhibition at the Cantor
The Safavid era (1501–1722) is a fascinating epoch in Iranian history, yet unfamiliar to many. When the Safavids came to power, they brought a huge expanse of territory—stretching from modern day Iraq to Afghanistan—under their control. With different cultures and ethnicities under their reign, the arts played a key role in developing a cohesive Safavid…
Winter quarter 2020 guest artists
The roster of winter quarter guest artists includes talent from around the globe. Melbourne Australia’s Choir of Trinity College performs with the Stanford Chamber Chorale; Chinese dance legend and renowned choreographer Yang Liping presents her reimagined production of Rite of Spring to Memorial Auditorium; Maqueque, a collective of female artists from Cuba led by Canadian Jane Bunnett,…
Saying hello to OY/YO at Cantor Arts Center
Cantor Arts Center hopes its newest sculpture, OY/YO by artist Deborah Kass, acts as an extension of the museum’s new vision to present art and ideas in contemporary and inclusive ways. The piece was installed Dec. 20 and is now on view to the public. Deborah Kass (U.S.A., b. 1952), OY/YO, 2019. Aluminum, polymer and clear coat, 96 x 194.5…
Looking at Richard Diebenkorn at the Cantor
American painter Richard Diebenkorn’s connection to Stanford is deep as well as broad. Not only was Diebenkorn an alum, but even after his death in 1993, his impact has continued on campus thanks to the number of significant artworks given and lent to Stanford, the digitization of his sketchbooks and the documented examination via infrared…
The compelling origin story of the Stanford museum, university and Silicon Valley
When Jane and Leland Stanford experienced the immense pain of losing their only son, Leland Jr., just before his 16th birthday, they were compelled to enshrine his memory in a meaningful way. The resulting museum and university they founded not only secured young Leland’s place in history – artist Mark Dion argues that this particular…
New Stanford mural connects campus to local nature, diversity and history
In the waning days of spring quarter, Mother Earth appeared on campus. She arrived without fanfare, although there was music and spontaneous dancing as artist Jess X. Snow painted a Mother Earth figure – made of branches and native California poppies – on an exterior wall of Harmony House, a community center for undergraduate artists. In the…
Q&A with curator Elizabeth Mitchell on gifts to the Cantor
Elizabeth Mitchell, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator and director of the Curatorial Fellowship Program at the Cantor Arts Center, discusses the Capital Group Foundation’s gift of 1,000 photographs and the 12 prints, drawings, and photographs given by Stanford alumna Marilyn F. Symmes (BA, ’71). Q: Can you talk about the importance of gifts like…
Stanford alumna Marilyn F. Symmes (BA, ’71) gives prints, drawings, and photographs to the Cantor
The Cantor Arts Center recently acquired 12 prints, drawings, and photographs given by Stanford alumna Marilyn F. Symmes (BA, ’71). The New York–based curator and art historian is honoring her Stanford roots while recognizing the importance of student interactions with objects. The gift features an eclectic selection of works ranging from an Italian Renaissance portrait…
Reflection on Stephanie Syjuco’s I Am An . . .
Stephanie Syjuco’s I Am An . . . is a 20-foot-long black banner that is suspended from the ceiling of the Cantor’s marbled gray entry hall, announcing in block letters: I AM AN AMERICAN. The banner is displayed partially closed to intentionally distort the white letters that read “AMERICAN,” suggesting a garbled reading of the…
The Medium Is the Message: Art since 1950
“It is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action,” wrote Marshall McLuhan. Using works created since 1950, this reinstallation of the Cantor’s permanent collection of contemporary art explores the relationship between subject, content, and the materials that informed each object’s production. In 1964, Canadian media theorist Marshall…
Sally Fairchild painting comes home to the Cantor
This month, the striking painting Sally Fairchild (1884–87) by John Singer Sargent is back on display at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, after a three-month stay in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of a major retrospective of the artist’s work. But returning the painting to the Farm was no easy task for Elizabeth K….
Spring quarter 2019 guest artists
Over 30 departments, centers and campus organizations host guest artists each quarter. The Architectural Design Program and the University Architect/Campus Planning and Design Office co-present the annual Architecture & Landscape–Spring Lecture Series, and the theme this year is “Architecture of Humanity.” The series features five designers who believe architecture has a much greater responsibility beyond aesthetics….
