Office of the Vice President for the Arts

We move the arts forward at Stanford to have an impact in the world.

Our Mission:

DEVELOP creative leaders and scholars in the arts.

SUPPORT the Stanford community with funding, space and other resources.

CONNECT collaborators on campus and beyond.

ENGAGE students, faculty, alumni, and visitors through interdisciplinary programs and events.

The Vice Presidency for the Arts at Stanford University was established in February 2017 to elevate the arts in the university’s priorities and lead strategic planning for the university’s arts goals.

Stanford’s non-departmental arts programs fall under the auspices of the Vice President for the Arts, including Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall, the Stanford Arts Institute, the Cantor Arts Center, and the Anderson Collection, as well as the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Harry Elam, vice president for the arts (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Vice President for the Arts:
Harry Elam

Elam brings a powerfully distinctive experience with both the study of and practice in the arts to his new position as vice president. Concurrent with his two new leadership roles, Elam is the vice provost for undergraduate education and a professor of theater and performance studies. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his doctorate in dramatic arts from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his scholarly work, he has published seven books on African American and ethnic theater and performance as well as edited the field’s top journal.

Elam has also directed professionally for more than 20 years, garnering acclaim for his award-winning productions at TheatreWorks and elsewhere. Mentoring student development in the arts remains a priority for Elam as well, reflected, most recently, in his work as artistic director for the Department of Theater and Performance Studies production of Spring Awakening, The Musical in the newly renovated Roble Studio Theater.

Article:
Stanford arts leadership capitalizes on Arts Initiative momentum (2017)

Matthew Tiews

Associate Vice President for the Arts:
Matthew Tiews

Matthew Tiews has worked to implement the university-wide Arts Initiative since 2010, first as executive director of arts programs, then as associate dean for the advancement of the arts and now as associate vice president for the arts.

Begun in 2006, the Arts Initiative has been a strategic effort to make the arts fundamental to a 21st-century Stanford education, to connect the arts across disciplines, and to build the resources to make the arts a vibrant part of the university’s offerings to its campus and community.

As part of the Initiative, Tiews has been responsible for bringing online the new facilities in Stanford’s Arts District, particularly Bing Concert Hall and the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, and he developed Roble Arts Gym and other student-facing facilities across campus. He has created numerous interdisciplinary programs drawing on Stanford’s research strengths, and he leads a strategic capacity effort deliver a new curricular requirement in Creative Expression. As associate vice president for the arts, Tiews oversees Stanford’s non-departmental arts organizations and serves as primary point person in the strategic planning process for the next phase of the arts at Stanford.

Tiews was formerly at the Stanford Humanities Center, where he oversaw fellowships, programming and operations, and was particularly active in developing collaborations between the arts and the humanities. Prior to that, he served at the Townsend Center for the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley; at the Stanford Humanities Laboratory; and as managing editor of the journal Modernism/modernity. Trained in acting and piano performance, Tiews holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a doctorate from Stanford in comparative literature. He is co-editor of the multidisciplinary publication Crowds (Stanford University Press, 2007), which won the Modernist Studies Association book prize.

 

Inter-Departmental Mail Code

#2250

Office

(650) 736-4087

Fax

(650) 723-8231

ADDRESS

Stanford Arts
Littlefield Center
2nd Floor
365 Lasuen Street
Stanford, CA 94305