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Experience public art on Stanford campus
From self-guided tours to serendipitous sightings, Stanford’s grounds offer many opportunities for engaging with public artworks. The university’s public art program includes more than 80 works spanning the 19th-21st centuries and reflecting the history, spirit, and dynamism of life on campus. Here are four great places to start.
Stanford Arboretum
Among the California oaks across Lomita Drive from the Anderson Collection, you’ll find Beverly Pepper’s The Stanford Columns (2022). The tapered, irregular steel columns, each weighing between 3 and 5 tons, suggest the trunks of massive trees, while the metal’s velvety-looking oxidized patina is reminiscent of brightly colored lichen.
Rodin Sculpture Garden
Within a single acre of cypress trees and gravel paths next to the Cantor Arts Center is the Rodin Sculpture Garden, modeled after the Bagatelle Gardens in Paris. Stanford’s garden comprises 20 monumental bronzes that include many of Rodin’s most famous sculptures. These works, combined with those inside the museum next door, comprise the largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of Paris. Visually anchoring the garden at its eastern end is The Gates of Hell, a massive work cast by the Coubertin Foundry in 1981 using the lost-wax process favored by Rodin.
Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden
A 15-minute walk due south of the Rodins, through the center of campus, puts you in the shady Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden on Santa Teresa Street. Thirty years ago, 10 artists-in-residence from the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea were invited to Stanford to reinterpret their artistic and design perspectives within the new context of a Western public art environment. The artists produced 40 carved posts, freestanding individual figures, garamut slit drums, and other large-scale site-specific artworks. Lighting and flat walking paths accessed off the sidewalk make this oasis easy to navigate year-round.
Science and Engineering Quad
The Science and Engineering Quad features artwork in dialogue with scientific research and discovery, such as Alicja Kwade’s Pars pro Toto (2021) and Kenneth Snelson’s Mozart I (1982) on the lawn outside the Packard Electrical Engineering Building. Kwade determined the positioning of the 12 stones that make up the installation Pars pro Toto by throwing tiny spheres onto a model of the quad to see where they would land.
Visit
The Cantor Arts Center is free to all and open on Mondays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and weekends, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Learn more about the Cantor Arts Center. The Anderson Collection is free and open Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Learn more about the Anderson Collection. Explore on your own with Stanford’s public art map. Learn more about public art on campus.
Coming to campus
As a platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Campus, Stanford offers more than 13,000 bike parking spaces. The Marguerite shuttle is free and open to the public. It travels to and around the Stanford campus on weekdays. Hourly paid visitor parking is available in designated areas.
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Stanford is committed to supporting our community by advancing interdisciplinary teaching and research, providing world-class medical care, and extending knowledge and discovery to our neighbors. Stanford invites its neighbors to enjoy its open lands and participate in learning, athletic, and arts events on campus.
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