The Arts Initiative supports collaborations among Stanford students and faculty across the campus and creates unique partnerships between the university and major arts institutions worldwide.

Providing Faculty Grants

The Arts Initiative seeks to connect arts faculty with colleagues outside the arts by providing seed funding for two types of faculty project: 1) team-based research in which one or more of the arts is central, but technology, social science, or other fields are also directly involved; and 2) innovative teaching, in which non-arts faculty integrate arts components into their courses or arts faculty experiment with new teaching methods.

Exploring Graduate Degree Programs

As with faculty, graduate students have much to gain and to offer by moving freely among different fields of study. Typically, each graduate student is based in a single department, such as music or drama. The Arts Initiative will explore new joint graduate degrees that would allow both MFA and PhD students to pursue scholarship and creative work in more than one art form. Students in these degree programs could also serve as undergraduate mentors.

Connecting the Cantor Arts Center

Stanford's Cantor Arts Center serves the university and the public through a wide range of collections, exhibitions, and programs. One goal of the Arts Initiative is to enhance the center's presence in academic and community life. The initiative will add to the museum's collections and expand the number of courses that draw upon them, using artworks to bring culture to life. Stanford faculty will join Cantor Center curators in carrying out the museum's public role in the rich artistic environment of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Transforming the Stanford Lively Arts Series

Working with campus partners, Lively Arts brings artists into classrooms and student residences for workshops, master classes, and informal discussions. Through the Arts Initiative, Lively Arts plans to launch campus-wide events, such as a "State of the Art Festival" that would bring artists at the cutting edge of their fields to campus for a week of performances and interactions with students and faculty. Lively Arts will also create summer programs such as cross-disciplinary seminars co-sponsored with Stanford's major initiatives in human health, environmental sustainability, and international affairs.

Designing New Partnerships

By forging new affiliations with world-renowned arts organizations, the Arts Initiative will bring their artistry and expertise to campus, where playwrights, musicians, dancers, artists, and writers from across the country can collaborate with their Stanford counterparts. For example, a unique partnership with The Public Theater of New York brings the company to Stanford for extended residencies while also providing students with internships at the theater's New York venues.