Opportunity and Challenge Profile Search for the Vice President for the Arts Stanford University Stanford, California

Opportunity and Challenge Profile Search for the Vice President for the Arts Stanford University Stanford, California Stanford University seeks a Vice President for the Arts to oversee a dynamic portfolio of key arts organizations on its campus and to create a shared sense of purpose among them. In recent years, Stanford has significantly invested in the arts by creating an Arts District and establishing the Office of the Vice President for the Arts. This role presents an opportunity for an arts leader to elevate and integrate the arts at one of the world’s premier academic and research institutions, and to build bridges and foster community across the campus, in the Bay Area, and nationally. Reporting to the President, the VP will collaborate across Stanford’s professional, academic, and public communities to bring forward a comprehensive, future-facing vision and plan for the arts at the university. At a time of accelerating change in and around the arts, and increasing expectations placed upon arts institutions, the VP will be entrusted with advocating for and manifesting the arts as an essential part of Stanford’s identity and mission. Stanford is actively implementing a recently-adopted long-range vision: Fueled by optimism, ingenuity and a sense of responsibility, we seek to accelerate our purposeful impact in the world. The VP will develop a strategy for how the arts can best contribute to that long-range vision, drawing inspiration from overarching themes developed through university analyses: ● First, in a society that has experienced health crises, isolation, technological mediation, economic fractures, civil unrest, and political discord, the arts can provide a way of connecting, processing, and recognizing our purpose. There are corresponding opportunities to redeploy Stanford’s human and organizational assets with a renewed focus on people, community, emotional and physical wellbeing, and engagement. ● Second, the arts have a specific and powerful role to play in advancing social justice and catalyzing culture change. Art can strengthen our individual and collective capacities for empathy and action, and help usher in the kinds of transformation the world needs. Artists and those who bring their works into the public arena can be leaders in helping to imagine better futures. ● Third, with its unique talents and resources, Stanford has a role to play in fueling the evolution of the arts and providing broad access to them, both on the campus and beyond it. Notably, Stanford can nurture new creative voices, connect the arts to various creative and scientific disciplines, and consistent with its larger mission, serve as a hub for innovation, research, and reflection around the arts. These themes have both programmatic and operational implications. In addition, the Vice President for the Arts will be expected to foster equitable, inclusive, healthy organizational cultures and structures that can bring meaningful artistic experiences to life. Isaacson, Miller Vice President for the Arts Stanford University There is strong constituency alignment and excitement around the aforementioned themes. Stanford will be able to magnify its impact in the arts through establishing a clear intention that is right for the current moment. Continuing investment in the vibrancy and accessibility of the arts at Stanford, overseen by the VP, will enhance the university experience to the benefit of students, faculty, staff, alumni, artists, neighbors, and visitors. About Stanford Arts and the Vice Presidency for the Arts Over the last fifteen years Stanford has made the arts a priority. Through the transformative Stanford Arts Initiative (2006-2011), the university raised funds for new programs and curricula, added faculty positions, created graduate arts fellowships, and made significant capital improvements to provide exceptional teaching, exhibition, and performance venues. The most visible aspect of the Arts Initiative is the Arts District, which includes the Bing Concert Hall (2013), the Anderson Collection at Stanford University (2014), the McMurtry Building for the Department of Art and Art History (2015), Roble Gym (renovated with performance spaces and a drop-in creative space in 2016) and Frost Amphitheater (renovated in 2019). These arts facilities joined Stanford’s existing art museum, the Cantor Arts Center (established 1894; renovated 1999). The proximity and density of these arts facilities in the Arts District provides for dynamic interactions among them. The Arts District’s location at the front of the campus highlights the importance the university has placed on the arts. The Office of the Vice President for the Arts (VPA) was created in 2017 to raise the visibility and impact of the arts on campus. It consists of five units, along with a central office. Three of these units (the Cantor Arts Center, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, and Stanford Live, which operates Bing Concert Hall and Frost Amphitheater) offer exhibitions, performances, and programs to a broad audience drawn from the Stanford community as well as the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Two of the units are smaller interdisciplinary academic institutes that primarily serve specific campus communities, although each one engages externally as well: the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (advancing interdisciplinary curricula and student engagement with a focus on social justice and communities of color) and the Stanford Arts Institute (emphasizing interdisciplinary arts research and curricula). The central VPA office offers support for student extracurricular arts activities and provides infrastructural support (finance, HR, digital services) to the VPA units. Although the role of Vice President for the Arts has been in existence for several years, the incoming VP will be the first one to serve in a full-time appointment. This is a senior staff role, reporting directly to the President as a member of the President’s cabinet. Currently, the VP has the following direct reports: the directors of Cantor, Anderson, and Stanford Live; the faculty directors of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts and the Stanford Arts Institute; the Assistant Vice President for the Arts; and the Senior Director for Finance and Operations. The VP also works closely with the Senior Director of Arts Communications (University Communications) and the Executive Director, Development for the Arts (Office of Development). The VP will collaborate closely with the Dean of the School of Humanities & Sciences and the Senior Associate Dean for Humanities & Arts, who oversee the academic arts departments of Art & Art History, Music, and Theater & Performance Studies, as well as the Creative Writing program. To ensure strategic integration of the arts, the VP will also collaborate closely with the Vice President and Chief External Relations Officer and his team, as well as with the Vice Provost for Student Affairs. In addition, the VP will work with leaders of campus arts programs outside the VPA structure to ensure open and effective Isaacson, Miller Page 2 of 6 Vice President for the Arts Stanford University communication and to support the broader campus arts community. This set of relationships includes the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (which houses some undergraduate and residential arts programs) and the Office of Campus Engagement in the President’s Office. Finally, the VP will work closely with the Stanford Arts Advisory Council, the role of which is to help shape and advance the university’s efforts in the arts by providing informed external perspectives on goals, priorities and programs; by helping provide and obtain financial support; and by advocating on the VPA’s behalf both within and beyond the Stanford community. Opportunities and Challenges The VP will be charged with shaping the future of the arts at Stanford in a way that takes full advantage of the specificity of the university: its intellectual resources, its location in the San Francisco Bay Area, its natural setting, and the breadth of the audiences it engages. The VP will work closely with faculty, students, alumni, and community members to evaluate opportunities for growth and innovation, and will guide and support leaders of the VPA units in developing a collective strategy for increased impact. Stanford’s VPA units are operating at a high level of achievement. Excellent programs are being delivered across the units, sustained by the contributions of talented and dedicated staff, engaged students and faculty, and supportive donors (see the 2020 digital annual report for an overview). Understandably, all VPA units have had to pivot during COVID-19. Even so, they have continued to find ways to nurture creativity and engage audiences. With this strong foundation in place, the VP will be responsible for envisioning and spearheading the next phase for the arts at Stanford, embedding it in the university-wide planning effort underway to execute on the long-range vision. The incoming VP will tackle the following specific opportunities and challenges: Negotiating Autonomy + Connection The leader of the VPA will support and amplify the activities of units that necessarily have a high degree of independence and multiple existing stakeholders. The VP will need to cultivate a productive balance of autonomy and coordination, so that each unit’s distinct strengths may contribute meaningfully to a holistic arts portfolio. In addition, one of the VPA’s most prominent units, the Cantor

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