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Monday 11am - 5pm Thursday 11am - 5pm Friday 11am - 5pm Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

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Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Admission is always free! Open Thursday - Monday 🖼️ Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. We strive to make art accessible and engaging for all.
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09/03/2026

Our Thursday night music series, Forms & Frequencies, is back!

Join us on Thursday, October 8, for an immersive, participatory dance performance by New York-based dancer, choreographer, and writer Jerron Herman, who will present his multidisciplinary piece, "Temporary Body". This work explores the body, writing, sketching, and collaboration. "Temporary Body" invites the audience to become a part of the performance. Attendees will be encouraged to move around and interact directly with the piece by writing on and adorning the artist's garments. This opportunity for participation will be followed by a procession and a 20-minute solo dance performance by Herman.

This program is presented in conjunction with "Carolyn Lazard: Long Take", on view from August 6–December 13.

All public programs at the Cantor Arts Center are always free! Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended.

Performer:

Images: Jerron Herman by Liz Ligon from Cooper Hewitt's "Temporary Body: A Jerron Herman Performance"

08/29/2026

Now in our lobby: Rose B. Simpson’s "Reception"

Reminiscent of the earth's deep, rich soil to light silt at the surface, Reception is earthly and unearthly at the same time. A sentinel presence with a serene and potent demeanor, blending the familiar with the unknown, it evokes ancient ancestors and otherworldly beings. Resembling satellite dishes, baskets surround the head, possibly receiving signals from the past and future.

Rose B. Simpson descends from a matrilineal line of ceramicists that goes back hundreds of years. An enrolled member of Santa Clara Pueblo, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, Simpson gathers clay near her home to create the striking large-scale sculptures for which she is best known. She describes considering clay like a family member: "I think in clay. Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of, and prayed with. My relationship to clay is ancestral, and I think it has a deep genetic memory."

🎨 Rose B. Simpson, “Reception”, 2023
Ceramic, steel, leather, grout, twine, and hardware.

08/25/2026

It’s officially Virgo Season ♍ and we'd like to celebrate Jane Stanford, a Virgo matriarch and star 🌟 of our current exhibition, JANE! ❤

Jane Stanford, the 8th First Lady of California and co-founder of Stanford University, had all the hallmarks of a quintessential Virgo. She was a builder, dedicated to her purpose, super meticulous, among many other traits.

Virgo Traits in Jane Stanford's Life:

- Builder: Channeled her grief over the death of her son, Leland Stanford Jr., into building a university, developing its campus, and establishing the Leland Stanford Jr. Museum.

- Service and Sacrifice: Sold many of her remaining assets, including her jewelry collection, to sustain Stanford during the financial crisis that followed her husband’s death; she later bequeathed her jewelry to establish the university’s first Book Fund, the Jewel Fund.

Meticulous: Took control of the university’s affairs after her husband’s death, personally overseeing its operations and managing an extensive campus building program before turning control over to the Board of Trustees in 1903.

Happy Birthday, Jane Stanford!

Image: Stanford University Slide Collection
Image 2-5: Stanford Special Collections
Older Photo: Courtesy Stanford Archives

!

08/24/2026

OPENING September 17! Solid Pictures: Photosculpture and the Making of Modern Likeness

Before 3D printing, there was photosculpture.

“Solid Pictures” is the first major exhibition to explore these largely overlooked objects first conceived in 1859 by the twenty-nine-year-old French artist and inventor François Willème.

Employing projection technologies and mechanical instruments, Willème and his team of operators translated photographic negatives into solid figures across a variety of media, aiming to create affordable portrait sculpture for the burgeoning middle class of Second Empire France. Though commercially unsuccessful, these experiments laid the groundwork for the scanning, machining, and printing technologies ubiquitous today. Bringing together these rare artifacts, the exhibition opens up a fascinating little-known chapter of history, revealing the roots and richness of our contemporary world.

Link in bio for more information.

08/21/2026

And… It’s back! 🚂💨

After a brief hiatus, the “Golden Spike” (referred to as the “Last Spike” formally) is back on view in a new location. Enter the museum through the main entrance and turn left in the lobby alcove near the entrance to the African Wing to see it.

The Golden Spike marks one of the boldest achievements in U.S. history, the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, but often left out of the conversation are the Chinese workers who made this great feat possible.

Commissioned as a ceremonial object by San Francisco businessman David Hewes, a friend of Central Pacific Railroad president and Stanford University founder Leland Stanford, the original Golden Spike was made of 17.6-carat gold alloyed with copper and engraved with inscriptions commemorating the railroad’s completion and its role in uniting the nation. On May 10, 1869, Stanford ceremonially tapped the spike with a silver-plated maul at the completion ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

But the final spikes, made of plain iron, and the last rails laid to complete the railroad were installed by Chinese workers. Stanford professors Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin have uncovered the true cost of the railroad and its beneficiaries. Chinese migrant workers made up 90 percent of the Central Pacific workforce and endured dangerous conditions, from harsh terrain and weather to disease and industrial accidents; estimates suggest that more than 1,200 died during construction. We honor these workers and acknowledge the complicated history that comes with stewarding this significant yet controversial object.

Images:
1-3.) Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
4.) Thomas Hill, "The Last Spike," 1869
5.) Ging Cui, Wong F**k, and Lee Shao, three of the eight Chinese workers who put the last rail in place, on a float at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in Ogden, Utah. Photo by courtesy of Amon Carter Museum of American Art Archives, Fort Worth, TX

archives

08/19/2026

OPENING SOON! August 27: “In Focus: Asian American Art from the Collection”

Bringing together a selection of works acquired in support of the Asian American Art Initiative—which advances research, education, community engagement, and public access to the work of Asian American/diasporic artists and makers—this exhibition offers a glimpse into the museum’s growing collection and suggests that no singular aesthetic, subject matter, or historical framework can define Asian American art. Instead, these works reflect the breadth and complexity of artistic practices by artists of Asian descent across time.

📅 Opening August 27 at the Cantor Arts Center.
🎟️ Admission is always free.

Greg Ito (American, born in 1987). "Preserve Your
Peace," 2025. Acrylic on canvas over wood panel.

Masami Teraoka (born in 1936).
East/West Trade Winds, 1988-1989.

Yowshien Kuo (born in 1985). A
Country Boy Meows, 2021.

Tseng Kwong Chi (1950–1990).
Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1985.

Rupy C. Tut (born in1985). Where Dreams Flow, 2024.

Pacita Abad (1946–2004). If My
Friends Could See Me Now, 1993.

08/16/2026

LAST CHANCE - CLOSING SOON September 14! ⏳ “Animal, Vegetable, nor Mineral: Works by Miljohn Ruperto” at Cantor Arts Center.

What better way to close out this beautiful exhibition than with a special highlights tour led by Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media, Maggie Dethloff, on Thursday, Aug 20, from 6 to 7 pm?

Working across photography, video, animation, generative artificial intelligence, and other mediums, Ruperto explores the ways humans have understood their place in the world. From digitally-created fantastical botanical specimens printed as gelatin silver photographs to immersive apocalyptic landscapes experienced in VR, Ruperto’s artworks highlight the elusiveness of knowledge and unsettle what we think we know about nature.

Artist:
Curtor:

08/13/2026

What can we say? Visiting the Cantor Arts Center is ✨kinda chic✨

Come in and make it an occasion.

Hours 🕐
Mon and Fri: 11 AM–6 PM
Tue-Wed: Closed
Thu: 11 AM–8 PM
Sat–Sun: 10 AM–5 PM

08/07/2026

NOW OPEN!: Archive Room: Irene P**n and Charles Wong

📸 Two photographers met by chance. Together, they helped bring overlooked stories of Asian American art and communities into focus.

For decades, Charles Wong's photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown remained largely unknown outside a small circle of people who recognized their importance. Irene P**n dedicated her career to preserving and expanding the story of Asian American art history—and together, their work reveals a deeper story of community, identity, and artistic collaboration.

Brought together in the 1990s through photographer Imogen Cunningham, Wong and P**n's relationship grew from peers to collaborators, to life partners. Their shared commitment to photography and history led to the landmark publication "Leading the Way: Asian American Artists of the Older Generation" (1991).

Now, their stories come together in Archive Room: Irene P**n and Charles Wong, an exhibition exploring two artists whose lives and work helped document and preserve Asian American experiences in the Bay Area.

📍 Visit the Archive Rooms at the Cantor Arts Center.

Click the link in bio for more information.

📷 Irene P**n, "Russian River Flip Flop," 1977, Cibachrome color print.
Image courtesy Department of Special Collections, Stanford

📷 Irene P**n, "Music," 1977, Cibachrome color print.
Image courtesy Department of Special Collections,
Stanford University Libraries

📷 Charles Wong, "Flying Screen," 1952, silver gelatin
print. Image courtesy Department of Special
Collections, Stanford University Libraries

📷 Charles Wong, "The Lovers," 1956, silver gelatin
print. Image courtesy Department of Special
Collections, Stanford University Libraries

Address

328 Lomita Drive
Stanford, CA
94305

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 5pm
Thursday	11am - 5pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+16507234177

Website

https://linktr.ee/cantorartscenter

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