Cantor Arts Center

Get notified of upcoming events

Enter your email address to join our newsletter.
Email address
Join

Events

Jul23
FULL - Lunchtime Curator Talk | JANE!
Thursday, Jul 23: noon-1 pm PDT
Event Details
Jul16
FULL - Evening Curator Talk | Jeremy Frey: Woven
Thursday, Jul 16 at 6 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director, Cantor Arts Center for this special highlights tour of Jeremy Frey: Woven.
Jun25
SOLD OUT - Lunchtime Curator Talk | Jeremy Frey: Woven
Thursday, Jun 25: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director, Cantor Arts Center for this special highlights tour of Jeremy Frey: Woven.
Jun14
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Jun 14: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Jun11
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Animal, Vegetable, nor Mineral: Works by Miljohn Ruperto
Thursday, Jun 11: noon-1 pm PDT
Event Details
Jun04
Forms & Frequencies | Kelady
Thursday, Jun 4: 6-8 pm PDT
Cantor Arts Center presents Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
May28
SOLD OUT - Evening Curator Talk | Jeremy Frey: Woven
Thursday, May 28: 6-7 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director, Cantor Arts Center for this special highlights tour of Jeremy Frey: Woven.
May10
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, May 10: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
May07
Miljohn Ruperto & Candice Lin: Putrefaction
Thursday, May 7: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Join us for a conversation between artists and collaborators Miljohn Ruperto and Candice Lin, moderated by Jessica Riskin, Frances and Charles Field Professor of History at Stanford University. This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Animal, Vegetable, nor Mineral: Works by Miljohn Ruperto, on view at the Cantor from March 12 through September 14, 2026.
Apr30
Evening Curator Talk | Animal, Vegetable, nor Mineral: Works by Miljohn Ruperto
Thursday, Apr 30: 6-7 pm PDT
Event Details
Apr23
Nancy Marie Mithlo | Red Skin Dreams: Twenty Years of Curating Indigenous Art at the Venice Biennale. In Conversation with Jennifer DeVere Brody
Thursday, Apr 23: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Professor Nancy Marie Mithlo (UCLA) discusses the emergence of Indigenous arts in global contexts from 1997-2017 drawing from her work curating nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. Mithlo’s archival papers are housed at Stanford University Libraries’ Special Collections. Red Skin Dreams documents and theorizes the presentation of contemporary American Indian art through memoir and storytelling. The improbable and messy business of staging international exhibits that were non-institutional, non-commercial and anti-hierarchical involved hundreds of collaborators from across the globe—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, England, Norway, Germany, as well as Italy. These connections were made through Indigenous networks, institutions, and relationships, not the prestigious galleries, museums and art collectors that typically decide who is represented and where. Questioning the very notions of margin and center and asserting alternate frames of reference besides simple inclusion, this is a story that asserts that the world belongs to Native people. As Canadian First Nations arts professional Jim Logan stated, “We are a part of this world; we are a part of the human story. We are worth it.”
Apr12
[Cancelled] Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Apr 12: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Apr09
Maia Nuku | Ruth K. Franklin Lecture
Thursday, Apr 9: 6-7:30 pm PDT
The Cantor is honored to present Maia Nuku as the 2026 Ruth K. Franklin Lecture on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Dr. Nuku, who is of English and Māori (Ngai Tai) descent, is the Curator for the Arts of Oceania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her curatorial approach centers Indigenous Pacific perspectives to ground the presentation of Oceanic art in the unique conceptual and cosmological connections that make art from the region so compelling.
Apr09
SOLD OUT—Lunchtime Curator Talk | Jeremy Frey: Woven
Thursday, Apr 9: 1-2 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director, Cantor Arts Center for this special highlights tour of Jeremy Frey: Woven.
Apr02
SOLD OUT—Jeremy Frey: Woven
Thursday, Apr 2: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Jeremy Frey (b. 1978, Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation, Maine) is one of the most celebrated Indigenous weavers today. A seventh-generation Passamaquoddy basket maker, Frey learned traditional Wabanaki weaving techniques from his mother and through apprenticeships at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. Building on these cultural foundations, Frey produces conceptually ambitious and meticulously crafted baskets from foraged raw materials, such as sweetgrass, cedar, spruce root, and porcupine quills, while engaging with new materials across video, prints, and installation.
Mar26
SOLD OUT_Lunchtime Curator Talk | Animal, Vegetable, nor Mineral: Works by Miljohn Ruperto
Thursday, Mar 26: noon-1 pm PDT
Event Details
Mar08
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Mar 8: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Feb26
Mel Chin: A trace that will not fade
Thursday, Feb 26: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please join us for an artist talk by Mel Chin (born 1951, Houston, TX), who employs a wide range of approaches, from unique, idiosyncratic objects to complex operations that require multidisciplinary collaboration. Pairing the poetic with the pragmatic, Chin creates work that is notably without a signature style to promote unpredictable aesthetics, taking mutable strategies that intersect art, science, and activism.
Feb12
SOLD OUT - Evening Curator Talk | Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge
Thursday, Feb 12: 6-7 pm PST
Join Sara Lent Frier, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Academic Engagement, on this special highlights tour of Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge.
Feb08
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Feb 8: 2-3 pm PST
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Jan15
SOLD OUT - Transformed by Intention: Rose B. Simpson in Conversation
Thursday, Jan 15: 6-7:30 pm PST
Join us for a presentation by multidisciplinary artist Rose B. Simpson, followed by an evening of conversation with Mary Deleary (Chippewas of the Thames First Nation), Director of the Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and Joanna García Cherán (Purépecha), Phyllis Wattis Assistant Curator of Native American Art at the Cantor Arts Center.
Jan08
SOLD OUT - Evening Curator Talk | Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge
Thursday, Jan 8: 6-7 pm PST
Join Sara Lent Frier, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Academic Engagement, on this special highlights tour of Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge.
Jan08
SOLD OUT - Lunchtime Curator Talk | Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Thursday, Jan 8: noon-1 pm PST
Join Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Co-Director of the Asian American Art Initiative, on this special highlights tour of Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior.
Dec07
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Dec 7: 1-2 pm PST
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Dec04
SOLD OUT—Forms & Frequencies | Sheherazaad
Thursday, Dec 4: 6-8 pm PST
Cantor Arts Center presents Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
Dec03
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior with Kathryn Rose Cua
Wednesday, Dec 3: noon-1 pm PST
Join Kathryn Cua, Curatorial Assistant for the Asian American Art Initiative, on this special highlights tour of Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior.
Nov20
SOLD OUT—Evening Curator Talk | Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge
Thursday, Nov 20: 6-7 pm PST
Join Sara Lent Frier, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings, and Academic Engagement, on this special highlights tour of Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge.
Nov20
SOLD OUT—Lunchtime Curator Talk | Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Thursday, Nov 20: noon-1 pm PST
Join Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Co-Director of the Asian American Art Initiative, on this special highlights tour of Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior.
Nov13
SOLD OUT—Shahzia Sikander | Distinguished Lecture in Asian Art in Honor of the Lijin Collection
Thursday, Nov 13: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please join us to hear internationally-renowned, New York-based artist Shahzia Sikander as she delivers the 2025 Distinguished Lecture in Asian Art in Honor of the Lijin Collection. Sikander (born 1969, Lahore, Pakistan) will discuss her practice and the ways she has reframed South Asian visual histories through a contemporary feminist perspective for over three decades.
Nov13
SOLD OUT—Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior Convening
Thursday, Nov 13: 1-3:30 pm PST
Tying in personal and cultural histories, Shahzia Sikander's vibrant practice will be given new context in an afternoon convening featuring scholarly, artistic, and curatorial perspectives on the work and its reception. New York-based curator and early supporter of Sikander’s practice, Eugenie Tsai, joins composer and Harvard professor Vijay Iyer, and Cleveland Museum of Art curator Sonya Rhie Mace for a series of interdisciplinary presentations. The presentations will be followed by a discussion with Shahzia Sikander moderated by Asian Art Museum curator Padma Maitland.
Nov06
Forms & Frequencies | The Move
Thursday, Nov 6: 6-7:30 pm PST
Cantor Arts Center presents Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
Oct30
SOLD OUT—Forms & Frequencies | Cunning Folk Live
Thursday, Oct 30: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Come join us for an evening of poetry, song, and incantation to celebrate the exhibition Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge.
Oct29
SOLD OUT—Lunchtime Curator Talk | Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge
Wednesday, Oct 29: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Sara Lent Frier, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings, and Academic Engagement, on this special highlights tour of Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge.
Oct16
SOLD OUT—Evening Curator Talk | Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior with Kathryn Rose Cua
Thursday, Oct 16: 6-7 pm PDT
Join Kathryn Cua, Curatorial Assistant for the Asian American Art Initiative, on this special highlights tour of Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior.
Oct05
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Oct 5: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Sep25
Carving Life: A Conversation about Sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907)
Thursday, Sep 25: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Edmonia Lewis’s powerful works speak to pressing concerns about aesthetic value, materiality, and the representation of race, gender, and class. Come join a conversation about the extraordinary life and art that Lewis carved during the nineteenth century, featuring a group of art historians, curators, and artists: Caitlin Meehye Beach, Gloria Bell, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and yétúndé ọlágbajú, moderated by Jacqueline Francis. Panelists will focus on Lewis’s Anishinaabe and African American ancestry, her neoclassical marble statues, and her travels throughout America, Europe, and in our local California Bay Area. This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Edmonia Lewis: Indelible Impressions, on view at the Cantor until Jan. 4, 2026.
Sep10
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Wednesday, Sep 10: noon-1 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways.
Sep07
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Sep 7 at 2 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Jul31
Evening Curator Talk | Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene with Maggie Dethloff
Thursday, Jul 31: 6-7 pm PDT
Join Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
Jul24
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Dwelling with Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja
Thursday, Jul 24: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistants at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Jul23
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene with Joanna García Cherán
Wednesday, Jul 23 at noon PDT
Join Joanna García Cherán, Capital Group Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Photography at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
Jul17
Evening Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Thursday, Jul 17: 6-7 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways. RSVP here.
Jul10
Evening Curator Talk | Dwelling with Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja
Thursday, Jul 10 at 6 pm PDT
Join Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistants at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Jul06
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Jul 6: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
Jun26
Evening Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Thursday, Jun 26: 6-7 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways. RSVP here.
Jun26
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene with Maggie Dethloff
Thursday, Jun 26: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
Jun18
SOLD OUT: Lunchtime Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Wednesday, Jun 18: noon-1 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways. RSVP here.
Jun12
Forms & Frequencies | Audiopharmacy
Thursday, Jun 12 at 6:30 pm PDT
Cantor Arts Center presents our Spring season of Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
Jun05
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Dwelling with Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja
Thursday, Jun 5: 1-2 pm PDT
Join Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistants at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Jun01
Public Tour | Cantor Highlights (Chinese Language)
Sunday, Jun 1: 2-3 pm PDT
Explore the Cantor's collections with a museum engagement guide who will lead you through a selection of works from different cultures and time periods.
May28
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene with Joanna García Cherán
Wednesday, May 28 at noon PDT
Join Joanna García Cherán, Capital Group Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Photography at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
May21
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Wednesday, May 21: noon-1 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways. RSVP here.
May08
Tell Them We Were Here
Thursday, May 8: 6-8 pm PDT
Join us for a screening of Tell Them We Were Here, a film by artist and Gallery 16 founder Griff Williams and filmmaker Keelan Williams. Tell Them We Were Here chronicles artists living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area and how they extend the historical legacy of Bay Area activism. The film follows the work of artists Sadie Barnette, Amy Franceschini (Futurefarmers), Jim Goldberg, Tucker Nichols, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alicia McCarthy, Nigel Poor (Ear Hustle), and Michael Swaine.
May01
Forms & Frequencies | Santino Gonzales
Thursday, May 1: 6:30-8 pm PDT
Cantor Arts Center presents our Spring season of Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
Apr24
Todd Gray | Ruth K. Franklin Lecture
Thursday, Apr 24: 6-7:30 pm PDT
The Cantor is thrilled to host the acclaimed artist Todd Gray for a talk in conjunction with the presentation of his work in the group exhibition Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. This program is presented as the 2025 Ruth K. Franklin Lecture on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Working between Los Angeles and Ghana, Gray delves into the diasporic dislocations and cultural connections linking Western hegemony with West Africa. His interdisciplinary practice spans photography, performance, and sculpture, and his work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Apr24
Family Story Time at the Cantor
Thursday, Apr 24: noon-1 pm PDT
  • Join us for Family Story Time at the Cantor on April 24, 2025 at 11:00 am.
Apr10
Tiffany Sia: No Place | Distinguished Lecture in Asian Art in Honor of the Lijin Collection
Thursday, Apr 10: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Please join us for the spring 2025 Distinguished Lecture in Asian Art in Honor of the Lijin Collection, featuring Tiffany Sia in a discussion with Stanford faculty members Pavle Levi and Gordon Chang. They will discuss her practice at large and the works in the single-gallery exhibition No Place, the artist’s first solo presentation in a museum, on view at the Cantor from April 9–August 29, 2025.
Apr03
Evening Curator Talk | Dwelling with Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja
Thursday, Apr 3 at 6 pm PDT
Join Kathryn Cua and Jorge Eduardo Sibaja, Curatorial Assistants at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Mar27
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Handle with Care with Patrick R. Crowley
Thursday, Mar 27: noon-1 pm PDT
Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at Cantor Arts Center leads us on this special tour of Handle with Care. This exhibition is a collections-based presentation focusing on a typically overlooked part of many objects such as vessels, cutlery, weapons, hand mirrors, and so on: the handle. The exhibition shuttles between the universal and the particular, cutting across traditional divisions of geography, chronology, and object classifications, engaging a broad swath of Cantor's historical collection in new, imaginative ways. RSVP here.
Mar20
Forms & Frequencies | Cheryl E. Leonard
Thursday, Mar 20: 6:30-8 pm PDT
Cantor Arts Center presents our Spring season of Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond, with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions on view.
Mar13
Evening Curator Talk | Dwelling with Veronica Roberts
Thursday, Mar 13 at 7 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Mar13
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene with Maggie Dethloff
Thursday, Mar 13: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
Mar06
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Dwelling with Veronica Roberts
Thursday, Mar 6 at noon PST
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Feb27
Patty Chang: On Mothers, Melons, Lakes, and Whales
Thursday, Feb 27: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please join us for an evening of screenings and conversation with 2024–2025 Denning Visiting Artist Patty Chang. Recognized for her endurance-based performances of the 1990s, Chang’s works sharply foreground the femme body as a site in which to process the conditions of personhood. This program will feature screenings of Chang’s works, ranging from 1998–2022, showing the trajectory of the artist's current interests in the ocean and motherhood. Chang’s videos and installations pair rituals of care with collective anxieties and fears on the climate crisis, bringing environmental concerns to a hyper-personal level, in which global experiences can be viscerally and deeply felt.
Feb27
Story Time at the Cantor
Thursday, Feb 27: 11 am-noon PST
Story Time in the galleries is designed for children ages 2 - 6 and explores stories and activities that connect young museum visitors to art at the Cantor. February features stories inspired by African and African American storytelling traditions: Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti, by Gerald McDermott and Tar Beach, by contemporary artist Faith Ringgold. We will meet and look at art in the Cantor African Art Gallery.
Feb20
SOLD OUT: THE THINGS AROUND US by Ahamefule J. Oluo
Thursday, Feb 20: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please join us for THE THINGS AROUND US, a solo musical and narrative performance by Ahamefule J. Oluo, which collects seemingly unrelated stories and anecdotes that swirl and dance with a live musical score created through electronically looped trumpet, clarinet, drums, and everyday objects. Stories about other people, other places, and other times come to life through ambient, spontaneous soundscapes. Darkly humorous, uplifting and bleak, deep and silly, this work explores the challenge of trying and failing to find order in chaos, particularly in isolated states of being.
Jan21
Kinship Across Time: Heesoo Kwon & Livien Yin
Tuesday, Jan 21: 6-7:30 pm PST
Join artists Heesoo Kwon and Livien Yin for an intimate conversation about their friendship and the continuous cycle of “contagious inspiration” that each offers the other. Both Kwon and Yin employ inventive strategies that engage with the fictional and speculative in order to bridge and repair the past, present, and future. Each artist will share insight into their works on view at the Cantor Arts Center—Kwon in Spirit House, and Yin in Livien Yin: Thirsty—and discuss their varied approaches to community-building through personal and historical archives.
Jan16
CANCELLED: Lunchtime Curator Talk | Livien Yin: Thirsty with Kathryn Cua
Thursday, Jan 16 at noon PST
Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled, we apologize for the inconvenience but hope to see you all next week, Tuesday, January 21st for "Kinship Across Time: Heesoo Kwon & Livien Yin."
Jan15
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Spirit House with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Wednesday, Jan 15 at noon PST
Join us for a tour with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, curator of the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Jan09
POSTPONED Patty Chang: On Mothers, Melons, Lakes, and Whales
Thursday, Jan 9: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please note this event has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Dec18
Family Story Time at the Cantor
Wednesday, Dec 18: 11:15 am-noon PST
  • Join us for Family Story Time at the Cantor on December 18, 2024 starting at 11:15am.
Dec12
Forms & Frequencies | Evicshen
Thursday, Dec 12: 6:30-8 pm PST
This fall, Cantor Arts Center debuts Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions in the Cantor Arts Center.
Dec05
Evening Curator Talk | Spirit House with Kathryn Cua
Thursday, Dec 5 at 6 pm PST
Join us for a tour with Kathryn Cua, who provided curatorial support for the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Nov21
Evening Curator Talk | Spirit House with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Thursday, Nov 21 at 6 pm PST
Join us for a tour with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, curator of the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Nov19
Lijin Lecture | Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon
Tuesday, Nov 19: 6-7:30 pm PST
Please join us for the 2024 Lijin Lecture, featuring Tuan Andrew Nguyen and a screening of his film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon (2022). The program will begin with a short artist talk, followed by the screening and Q&A with the artist and curator Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander.
Nov14
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Dwelling with Veronica Roberts
Thursday, Nov 14 at 1 pm PST
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Dwelling: New Acquisitions, which showcases recent acquisitions to the Cantor Arts Center's collection and explores how these works expand our understanding of home. This exhibition highlights that home can be more than just a physical space; it can also be a familial tradition, a challenging reality, or the inner world of one's own mind and body. By offering diverse perspectives and experiences, this grouping of works suggests that art itself can serve as a meaningful dwelling place.
Oct31
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Spirit House with Kathryn Cua
Thursday, Oct 31 at noon PDT
Join us for a tour with Kathryn Cua, who provided curatorial support for the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Oct24
Forms & Frequencies | Hwayoung Shon
Thursday, Oct 24: 6:30-8 pm PDT
This fall, Cantor Arts Center debuts Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions in the Cantor Arts Center.
Oct17
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Spirit House with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Thursday, Oct 17 at noon PDT
Join us for a tour with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, curator of the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Oct10
Forms & Frequencies | Tashi Wada
Thursday, Oct 10: 6:30-8 pm PDT
This fall, Cantor Arts Center debuts Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions in the Cantor Arts Center.
Oct03
Evening Curator Talk | Spirit House with Kathryn Cua
Thursday, Oct 3 at 6 pm PDT
Join us for a tour with Kathryn Cua, who provided curatorial support for the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Sep26
Haptic Processing with TT Takemoto and Eve Oishi
Thursday, Sep 26: 6-7:30 pm PDT
Join us for a hands-on dorodango-making workshop and conversation between artist TT Takemoto and cultural studies scholar Eve Oishi in conjunction with the exhibition TT Takemoto: Remembering in the Absence of Memory, on view at the Cantor Arts Center from June 19 through December 1, 2024.
Sep19
Lunchtime Curator Talk | Livien Yin: Thirsty with Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Thursday, Sep 19 at noon PDT
Join Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Co-director of the Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI) at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Livien Yin: Thirsty. This first museum exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Livien Yin, a 2019 Stanford MFA graduate, features new and recent paintings that connect contemporary subjects with historical Asian American and their environments. Yin often casts her friends and models, collapsing the distance between the past and present to create new connective threads between Asian Americans across generations.
Sep12
Evening Curator Talk | Spirit House with Kathryn Cua
Thursday, Sep 12: 6-7 pm PDT
Join us for a tour with Kathryn Cua, curatorial assistant of the exhibition Spirit House, in which ancestral spirits and ghostly narratives come to life through art. Discover how the included artists materialize prayers, evoke spirits, and intertwine histories into tangible forms, creating a dialogue between the living and the dead.
Sep05
Forms & Frequencies | Kkiri Kkiri Samulnori and transcriptions01
Thursday, Sep 5: 6:30-8 pm PDT
This fall, Cantor Arts Center debuts Forms & Frequencies, a Thursday night music series featuring musicians and sound artists from the Bay Area and beyond with special evening hours for audiences to visit exhibitions in the Cantor Arts Center.
Jul18
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Jorge Sibaja
Thursday, Jul 18: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Jorge Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Jul11
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Thursday, Jul 11: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Jul10
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Wednesday, Jul 10: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Jun27
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Jorge Sibaja
Thursday, Jun 27: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Jorge Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Jun26
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Wednesday, Jun 26: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
May30
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Thursday, May 30: 12:30-1:30 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
May29
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Jorge Sibaja
Wednesday, May 29: 12:30-1:30 pm PDT
Join Jorge Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
May23
Beyond Day Jobs: Alternative Economies for Artists
Thursday, May 23: 6-7:30 pm PDT
What do artists need? Is having a day job enough for artists to survive and make their work? What are other ways artists can be supported financially outside of the competitive market and grant cycle? This program will consider different models of supporting artists, covering examples such as redistribution through mutual aid, artist guaranteed income, and universal basic income.
May08
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Wednesday, May 8: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Apr25
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Jorge Sibaja
Thursday, Apr 25: noon-1 pm PDT
Join Jorge Sibaja, Curatorial Assistant at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Apr24
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Wednesday, Apr 24: 12:30-1:30 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Mar13
Curator Talk | Highlights from Day Jobs with Veronica Roberts
Wednesday, Mar 13: 12:30-1:30 pm PDT
Join Veronica Roberts, John and Jill Freidenrich Director at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Day Jobs, an exhibition that examines the overlooked impact of day jobs on the visual arts, featuring more than 90 works by 36 established and emerging artists based in the United States.
Built with The Third Place.Create your own event →