Campus Stories - Office of the Vice President for the Arts (VPA)
Meet Stanford Arts’ 2025-26 Visiting Artists
Stanford Arts is excited to introduce three remarkable artists joining us for the 2025-26 academic year. Each brings a bold perspective on how the arts can illuminate, provoke, and transform our understanding of the world around us. Hanif Abdurraqib Poet | Cultural CriticDenning Visiting Artist, 2025-26 Hanif Abdurraqib arrives at Stanford this fall as our…
Ali Namayandeh: Wildfire Impacts on California Farmworkers
Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability is integrating theater and environmental justice with the premiere of “Hidden Strawberries,” a play by Ali Namayandeh. Debuting from October 16-19 at the Stanford Live Bing Studio, the production focuses on the experiences of California farmworkers affected by escalating wildfires. The inspiration for the play emerged from research in…
artsCatalyst Grants 2022-23
During the 2022-23 academic year, the Office of the Vice President for the Arts awarded 58 artsCatalyst Grants to faculty members from across the University. These grants foster arts experiences that enhance classroom experiences for undergraduate students. Activities included field trips to Bay Area arts venues, guest speakers (in-person and virtual), and workshops with guest artists. The grants…
artsCatalyst Grants 2021-22
This past academic year, the Office of the Vice President for the Arts awarded 63 artsCatalyst Grants to faculty members from across the University. These grants foster arts experiences that enhance classroom experiences for undergraduate students. Activities included a mix of in-person, hybrid, and virtual experiences. 2021-22 artsCatalyst Grant Recipients Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century…
artsCatalyst Grants 2020-21
This past academic year, the Office of the Vice President for the Arts awarded 58 artsCatalyst Grants to faculty members from across the University. These grants foster arts experiences that enhance classroom experiences for undergraduate students. All of the activities took place in the virtual environment. 2020-21 artsCatalyst Grant Recipients An Artist’s Life: Diverse Voices and Changing Contexts…
artsCatalyst Grants 2019-20
This past academic year, the Office of the Vice President for the Arts awarded 33 artsCatalyst Grants to faculty members from across the University. These grants foster arts experiences that enhance classroom experiences for undergraduate students. Activities included field trips to Bay Area cultural organizations, workshops with visiting artists, and attending performances. 2019-20 artsCatalyst Grant Recipients Why is Climate Change…
Staff and students collaborate to showcase student art
This year’s Spring Art Fair, like most campus events, is virtual by necessity. Initially conceived as an exhibition in Roble Arts Gym organized by the Office of the Vice President for the Arts (VPA) and the student group Professional Art Society of Stanford (PASS), the fair is now a virtual experience. Claudia Dorn, VPA manager…
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…
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,…
Stanford University announces collaboration with Sundance Institute New Frontier Lab Programs designed to heighten creative visibility in underrepresented sectors
Stanford’s new Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), an interdisciplinary, global hub for artificial intelligence thinkers, learners, researchers, developers, builders and users, co-hosts its first HAI artist resident. The residency is a collaboration with Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab Programs (NFLP) and co-hosts on campus are the Office of the Vice President for the Arts…
Anne Shulock named assistant vice president for the arts
Anne Shulock, chief of staff in the Office of the President of the San Francisco Art Institute, has been appointed the assistant vice president for the arts at Stanford University. As the assistant vice president for the arts, Shulock will help to further implement a cohesive 21st-century vision for the arts at Stanford. Reporting to…
artsCatalyst Grants 2018-19
This past academic year, the Office of the Vice President for the Arts awarded 27 artsCatalyst Grants to faculty members from across the University. These grants foster arts experiences that enhance classroom experiences for undergraduate students. Activities included field trips to Bay Area cultural organizations, workshops with visiting artists, and attending performances. 2018-19 artsCatalyst Grant Recipients Interpreting Art (ITALIC 92), Karla…
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….
Artists and cultural thought leaders address urgent questions of the day in new forum
Appropriation and representation are the first topics to be discussed in the new Stanford public speaker series Artists on the Future that kicks off March 4 at 6 p.m. with artist Dana Schutz, who will be in conversation with Hamza Walker, director of the independent nonprofit art space LAXART. “This new discussion series offers an innovative approach…
Stanford unveils new Presidential Residencies on the Future of the Arts and welcomes international guest artists
Artists from across the globe come to Stanford to perform, create and engage. The 80-plus guest artists visiting campus this fall are hosted by over 20 Stanford departments, centers and programs. Some of the artists will be at Stanford for a single public event and others will stay for an extended visit for deep engagement…
Taylor Mac brings students behind the scenes and thrusts them into performance
Research the cultural history of the United States. Select costume materials at a fabric shop in San Francisco. Inflate 2,000 pink balloons. So went a typical day in the life of an Arts Intensive student involved in Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, an elaborate work of performance art that was a finalist for…































