Cantor Arts Center
328 Lomita Drive at Museum Way
Stanford, CA 94305-5060
Phone: 650-723-4177
Our newly reimagined Art for All program embraces the vision of Family Programs by providing accessible, inclusive, fun, and educational in-person and virtual resources for families and visitors of all ages to meaningfully engage with art at the Stanford art museums.
Join us in-person or virtually to discover and learn about artwork in the Cantor Arts Center and the Anderson Collection through hands-on art-making activities!
Twice-yearly in-person Family Days bring families, and children of all ages together for a free event with art-making and performances inspired by artwork at the Stanford art museums.
Family Day is made possible through the generous support of the Hohbach Family Fund
Family-friendly bite-sized videos open up additional online opportunities for families to experience art together and help children, their caregivers, and all museum visitors to make connections between art and things familiar to them in their everyday lives.
Support for Art for All videos is provided by the Koret Foundation
Pick up or print-out at home, one of our engaging Family Guides and explore the galleries with fascinating friends.
Support for Family Guides is provided by the Koret Foundation
In addition to these new initiatives, we continue to make available our 2020 and 2021 virtual programming, Second Sunday from Home.
Art making activities and art stories from our 2020 and 2021 experiments in virtual family programming.
Second Sunday was made possible through the generous support of the Hohbach Family Fund
Family friendly bite-sized videos open up additional opportunities for families to experience art together and help children, their caregivers, and all museum visitors to make connections between art and things familiar to them in their everyday lives.
Support for Art for All videos is provided by the Koret Foundation
Lucy Lewis was born around 1900 and spent all her life atop the high mesa of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, making traditional pottery since the age of 7. Feel what it is like to use your bare hand to create a vessel form and make an owl of your own. This lesson can be adapted to make lots of different animal and vessel forms. Follow your imagination!
Sam Francis was born just up the road from Stanford University in San Mateo, California in 1923. He is known as an abstract impressionist painter. He conveyed emotions using line shape and color. Learn how you can use unusual art materials to share your feelings and have fun experimenting!
Family Day is made possible through the generous support of the Hohbach Family Fund
Do you know what Deborah Butterfield's sculpture, Viktoria is made of? Learn new and fun facts about the art displayed at the Cantor with this handy family guide. Download it by clicking this link. To explore the guide online, click the button below.
Second Sunday is a virtual (interactive) family focused hands-on art making event for all ages. Art making activities are designed as a (30 minute or bite-size) at-home making experience and are available for viewing afterwards through the museums’ websites. Each Second Sunday explores a new exhibition or theme from the Cantor and the Anderson Collection.
In 2022, this program transitioned to Art for All, a series of re imagined family programs brought to you by Stanford art museums.
Create your own "everyday surprise" art prints
A fun family art making activity inspired by the art of Jasper Johns. Join us and create your own everyday surprise prints.
Download activity guide.
Create your own skyscape: exploring, shape, color, and perspective
Our activity explores Eamon Ore Giron's process by arranging shapes and colors in an abstract composition assisted by the rules of perspective.
Download activity guide and coloring pages.
See me: identity in art-making
Explore the nature of Identity and create a unique personal portrait inspired by the Ebony G. Patterson’s artwork.
Download activity guide.
Luminous landscape sculpture
Create your own landscape sculpture inspired by Bay Area Artist Sam Richardson’s love of nature and the outdoors.
Download activity guide.
An animal family portrait
Create your own personal family portrait inspired by Joan Brown’s painting, A Family Portrait. Much of Brown's artwork was inspired by memories from her childhood visits to the art museum.
Download the activity guide.
Fabulous food faces
In this edition of Second Sunday we explore the work of artist Martine Gutierrez, as she creates socially conscious photographic self-portraits using food.
Download the activity guide.
Inspired by nature (Updated airing of 2020 program)
A hands-on activity that is all about the natural world. Our inspiration is Andy Goldsworthy’s Stone River, which is across the street from the museums and is open to visitors.
Download the activity guide.
Weave your own story
Create a personal artwork and learn the basics of weaving.
Download the activity guide.
Build your own viewfinder
Our activity is inspired by Jennifer Bartlett's artwork At the Lake, Morning, from the Anderson Collection.
Download the activity guide.
Build your own migration station
Inspired by Do Ho Suh's artwork, featured in the Cantor exhibition When Home Won't Let You Stay, we will learn to build a birdhouse from everyday objects and express feelings about home and our connections to a place.
Download the activity guide.
What forms you? Make clay and create your own sculpture
Be inspired by the work of Simone Leigh, whose work was included in Formed and Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics at the Anderson Collection. Learn how to make clay and create your own sculpture inspired by your roots!
Download activity guide.
Make art with words: I Have A Dream...
Titled "Dream Day," January Second Sunday at Home celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his famous words "I have a dream." During the session, we discovered several powerful artworks in the museum that artists have made using words, and they encouraged us to think about social justice and about how sometimes difficult feelings and emotions can be expressed visually.
Download the activity guide.
EPACENTER students received Art Care Kits prior to the workshop, created by the Cantor education staff. Click here to learn more about the EPACENTER.
Celebrating with color and pattern
In the December edition of Second Sunday we explored the art of Yinka Shonibare, featured artist in the 2020 Cantor exhibition When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art.
Download the activity guide.
What makes a sculpture? Exploring 3-D mixed media art-making
Gather your odds and ends and join the fun as we explore mixed media sculpture from the upcoming exhibitions When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art at the Cantor, as well as Hostile Terrain 94 at the Anderson Collection.
Download activity guide.
Inspired by Aliza Nisenbaum's paintings
This process focused activity will explore how artists use pattern, shape, and color to express ideas and emotions. The Second Sunday crew will also introduce some of the themes from the exhibition such as cultural diversity and what defines home.
Download the activity guide.
Inspired by artist Martin Puryear's work in the Anderson Collection
In September’s edition, we are inspired by the work of artist Martin Puryear. He emphasizes craft and abstraction in his larger-than-life sculptures, using organic forms and natural materials to rework symbols of freedom and shelter that encourage us to discover Black history’s hidden stories.
Download activity guide.
Exploring identity through art: inspired by Titus Kaphar’s Page 4 of Jefferson's "Farm Book,"...
In this virtual session, museum educators from our Second Sunday Crew guide you in creating a photomontage (similar to a collage) inspired by artist Titus Kaphar.
Download activity guide.
Additional activity guide: Notan Square
Exploring art through sound and motion: inspired by Nick Cave's soundsuits
Learn how to make and activate wearable sculptures inspired by artist Nick Cave.
Download the activity guide.
Art in nature: inspired by artist Andy Goldsworthy
Explore ideas by an artist who uses only art materials found in nature. Create a nature-based artwork that changes with its environment.
Download the activity guide.
Draw like an artist: inspired by the Diebenkorn sketchbooks
May 2020 Second Sunday fell on Mother's day! Celebrate and create a line drawing portrait. It can be of your own mom or any mom you would like to honor.
Download the activity guide.
Create a collection
All collages begin with collecting. Sometimes a collage becomes a finished artwork that hangs in a museum and sometimes it is a quick and easy way to record visual ideas.
Download activity guide.
The Cantor is open to the public at 100% indoor capacity. Free, all-day reservations are required for all visitors, including members. Get yours here.
You can also explore Stanford art museums from the comfort of your home in Museums From Home.
The Cantor Arts Center is located at the intersection of Museum Way and Lomita Drive in the heart of the arts district on the Stanford campus. The Cantor faces the Bing Concert Hall across Palm Drive, northwest of The Oval and the Main Quad.
Parking is limited. Stanford has a new contactless process to pay for parking, using the ParkMobile app, website, or phone. Prior to your visit, we recommend you visit the Stanford Transportation website to learn more about the updated visitor parking process.