Photo: Claire Haughey

Jeannie Simms: Nuovi Arrivi

View the 2025 Holt Visiting Artist Exhibition on display at Coulter Art Gallery through December 5.

McMurtry Building at night

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Camille Utterback, Fathom, 2025. Installation view. Photo: Henrik Kam.

Year in Review

Highlights from 2024-2025, including faculty, student, and staff achievements, and a look back at our programs.

McMurtry Building atrium at day

Greater diversity and inclusion in the Department of Art and Art History

We are committed to building an equitable, antiracist, and non-discriminatory environment that empowers all students, staff, faculty, and community members.

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The Department of Art & Art History is an interdisciplinary department offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history, art practice, film and media studies, and documentary film. 

Art History

Art History is a discipline that strives to understand works of art, architecture, and design from a variety of perspectives, including the original context of their making and reception as well as their subsequent circulation, collection, conservation, and display. As culturally embedded expressions, works of art may yield multiple meanings depending on the kinds of research and interpretive strategies that art historians bring into play. 

Learn more about the Art History program

Art History undergraduate program

Art History graduate program

Art Practice

The Art Practice program on both undergraduate and graduate levels offers production-based curriculum to prepare students for creative careers in the visual arts and to hone their creative capabilities. Access to diverse courses and faculty, cross-disciplinary interaction, and well-equipped labs are among the strengths of this flexible program.

Learn more about the Art Practice program

Art Practice undergraduate program

Art Practice graduate program

Documentary Film and Video

Students in the Documentary Film and Video Program become conversant with the documentary tradition as well as with alternative media and new directions in documentary.  In addition to the training in documentary production, graduates gain substantive research skills in film criticism and film analysis. The MFA degree is designed to prepare students for professional careers in film, video, and digital media, with the qualifications to teach at the university level.

 Learn more about the MFA Program in Documentary Film

Film and Media Studies

The Bachelor of Arts in Film & Media Studies provides students with knowledge of film aesthetics, national cinematic traditions, modes of production in narrative, documentary, and experimental films, the incorporation of moving image media by contemporary artists, and the proliferation of new forms of digital media.

Learn more about the Film and Media Studies program

Opportunities

Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service

Now accepting applications

The Department of Art & Art History invites applications for part-time Lecturers who may be appointed to teach studio art courses at the lower and/or upper division level in media including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, digital and experimental media during the 2026-27 academic year.

Upcoming Events

November
13
Date
Thursday, November 13, 2025. 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Location
McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Oshman Hall
November
18
Date
Tuesday, November 18, 2025. 5:30pm
Location
McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Oshman Hall
November
20
Date
Thursday, November 20, 2025. 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Location
McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Oshman Hall

Current Exhibitions

Date
Tuesday, November 11, 2025. 9:00am - Friday, December 12, 2025. 5:00pm
Location
McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Bowes Art & Architecture Library, 2nd fl. For non-Stanford ID holders, please…

This exhibition showcases Lavinia's Wondrous Portraits, a children’s book by Stanford art historian Emanuele Lugli that explores why portraits matter through the life and work of…

Date
Tuesday, November 11, 2025. 12:00pm - Friday, December 5, 2025. 5:00pm
Location
McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Coulter Art Gallery

The Nuovi Arrivi [New Arrivals] exhibition synthesizes research and artistic production conducted by Jeannie Simms over seven years in Calabria Italy, exploring the intersections of…

Date
Tuesday, November 11, 2025. 12:00pm - Friday, December 5, 2025. 5:00pm
Location
Stanford Art Gallery
419 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305

Presented by the Department of Art & Art History, the 11th Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition showcases a campus-wide selection of artwork by twenty-two Stanford undergraduate students.…

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