STANFORD, CA.- This fall, Stanford University will open the McMurtry Building, an innovative new facility to house Stanford’s Department of Art & Art History as well as the Art & Architecture Library. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the 100,000-square-foot space will unite the making and studying of art at Stanford under one roof for the first time. Open to students in time for the fall quarter and with a dedication ceremony on October 6, 2015, the $85-million building is the newest addition to Stanford’s burgeoning arts district at the entrance of campus. The building is named in recognition of the generosity of Deedee and Burt McMurtry, MS '59, PhD '62, whose transformative $30-million gift made the construction possible.
“The new McMurtry building will further the interdisciplinary investigation of the arts to which Stanford is committed,” said Matthew Tiews, Associate Dean for the Advancement of the Arts. “We believe the arts are a necessary part of a well-rounded education. They stimulate analysis and problem-solving, as well as providing a means for self-expression and connection with the university community. We’re very grateful to Burt and Deedee McMurtry, whose extraordinary gift has given life to this pioneering space. I’m confident the McMurtry Building will foster deeply enriching experiences for students and faculty in the Department of Art & Art History and from across the campus.”
The new facility and its state-of-the-art equipment will support the Department of Art & Art History’s diverse programs and teaching missions for both undergraduate and graduate students. The vision for the building was developed with the leadership of the faculty, together with the office of the dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources. Students of art practice, which includes design, digital media, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture, and Stanford’s Film & Media Studies Program, which includes documentary filmmaking and film studies, will work alongside their peers studying art history. The new facility will create unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, exchange, and cross-fertilization. Located adjacent to the Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection at Stanford University, the McMurtry Building is porous and inviting, with a number of entryways to encourage informal engagement with the arts. Its location in Stanford’s arts district creates opportunities for students to work with, and be inspired by, the unparalleled art collections found next door.
"The McMurtry Building allows us to imagine new and different ways of teaching," said Nancy J. Troy, current chair of the Department of Art & Art History. "Now, we and our students have an opportunity to rethink customary practices. The design features of the space encourage all of us to engage with one another in new and intensive ways, enhancing our methods, scholarship, and creative processes."
The McMurtry Building’s expanded studio space allows the Department of Art & Art History to increase art practice course offerings by over 35% in the next two years, answering growing student demand for fine arts classes. Additional spaces include a second digital media studio and a digital darkroom, a print lab, a tinker lab, a sound recording studio, and larger studios overall. Studios and classrooms will be outfitted with new equipment, including 3D scanners and printers, laser cutting technology, a computerized CNC router for cutting wood, aluminum, steel and plastics, and digital printmaking technology. Art history and film studies classes will benefit from the latest high-end digital projectors in all classrooms and a 45-seat screening room.
"The department's new home in the McMurtry Building will give us a chance to expand our teaching in many ways, but we will remain focused on giving our students something harder to define, more difficult to quantify, namely, a lifelong dream and realization of what it is to study art, to make art, to think about art," said Alexander Nemerov, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities and the incoming chair of Stanford's Department of Art & Art History.
The Department of Art & Art History will present a number of special programs and art installations to commemorate its inaugural year in the McMurtry Building, including lectures, performances, art exhibitions, and film series. The McMurtry Building will host faculty projects including an interdisciplinary performance installation by Department of Theater and Performance Studies faculty member Aleta Hayes and undergraduates that emphasizes the building’s unique architectural form. Lectures and symposia will be offered throughout the year in a range of subjects, including an Architectural History Conference in November, and a visit from writer and New Yorker critic Hilton Als in January as part of the ongoing Christensen Lecture series. The building’s many spaces to display art will be highlighted through temporary installations such as Anthony McCall’s Leaving (with Two-Minute Silence), a video-light work consisting of two parallel projected digital videos, produced with music by composer David Grubbs, and a light and sound installation by Nighthouse Studio, an artist collaborative founded by Elaine Buckholtz (MFA '07) and Flor van de Velde. The 1,000-square-foot Penny & Jim Coulter Art Gallery located in the heart of the building will open with the second annual undergraduate juried exhibition, featuring the work of students from various majors across campus. To celebrate the opening of the McMurtry Building, the neighboring Anderson Collection will present a focused exhibition of work by Tauba Auerbach and Mark Fox, both Stanford graduates who explore ideas of process, material manipulation, and chance. Auerbach received her BA in Visual Studies in 2003, and Fox received his MFA in 1988.
