STANFORD, CA.- On August 8, 2016, several of the second floor galleries of the Cantor Arts Center will close and a major reinstallation will begin. This is the most significant reimagining of the museum’s permanent collection galleries in many years. The exhibition Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories, opening September 15, 2016, marks an exciting evolution in the life of the museum.

The Cantor Arts Center is focused on what it means to experience and study art at a university art museum in the 21st century. The arts are integral to a Stanford University education––and to what Stanford offers the community and the world. The new galleries will be designed for teaching and arranged to inspire critical interpretation and imaginative thinking by faculty, students, and museum visitors.

Organized around the Stanford art history curriculum, the exhibition reflects the museum’s deepening commitment to academic engagement, teaching through works of art, and belief in the power of close looking.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is central to the Cantor’s mission, and Object Lessons powerfully demonstrates the benefits of combining multiple voices and approaches to thinking about objects. The exhibition’s layout and interpretive texts will reflect diverse perspectives and ideas from Cantor curators and Stanford faculty.

Beloved favorites and never-before-seen works will offer new insight on the ways art objects help us understand our histories, the current moment, and possible trajectories in the future. We look forward to opening the galleries on September 15, 2016, and stepping into the next phase of the Cantor Arts Center.