Welcome Back!

The new school year has started – and started with a bang!

On Sept. 21 the Anderson Collection at Stanford University officially opened its doors, following a week of celebratory events. Over 3,000 visitors enjoyed this amazing new campus resource during the opening weekend. And then the next day classes started – and Professor Pamela Lee’s Abstract Expressionism seminar held its first session in the Anderson Collection building. Her students are working directly from the art that now finds its home on campus. For the students, the faculty, and the community, it’s an incredible moment in Stanford’s Arts Initiative.

If you haven’t visited already, I encourage you to do so. And just to make it easier for you, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University and the Cantor Arts Center are now both open six days a week. That’s every day except Tuesday. Cantor’s current exhibitions include shows connected to the opening of the Anderson Collection at Stanford: Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA and Sympathy for the Devil: Satan, Sin, and the Underworld. And Cantor is also featuring a groundbreaking exhibition of photographs by Robert Frank guest-curated by Peter Galassi, former chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. So head over to Stanford’s museums – six days a week! – for great art.

The opening of the Anderson Collection at Stanford University wasn’t the only arts celebration welcoming students to the new school year. During New Student Orientation, Art in Your Dorm events in dining halls across campus featured a variety of activities including painting, block printmaking, and paper marbling. Stanford Live staged an open house for new students at Bing Concert Hall. And the students who participated in the September Arts Intensive courses showcased their work: dance, theater, and staged readings – as well as jewelry-making and life-size figure drawings. The drawings were created thanks to a new addition to the program: a special Arts Intensive course in New York connected to the Drawing Marathon program at the New York Studio School.

And this is just a start. The year will be full of performances, exhibitions, artists’ talks, and opportunities to engage. As we get underway, I invite you to attend the Stanford Arts welcome reception on Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 4-6 p.m. in the Littlefield Center courtyard.

If you’re coming back for Reunion Homecoming (October 23-26), keep your eyes peeled for pop-up galleries across campus featuring student and alumni work, and stop by the Stanford Arts table in Ford Center!

It will be a full year. But if you can’t keep track of it all, don’t worry: you can keep up to date with the Stanford arts calendar at https://arts.stanford.edu/events/.

So welcome back! And please join us! We look forward to another exciting year in the arts at Stanford.