On Sept. 29, Jordan Casteel’s 'Returning the Gaze,' an exhibition that portrayed “often overlooked members of society,” opened at the Cantor Arts Center. Casteel’s portraits featured people of color with the aim of increasing the visibility of these groups. I had the privilege of attending the press preview on the Friday before the exhibition opened.

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The midnight purple walls were a stark contrast to the white marble hall leading up to "The Melancholy Museum: Love, Death, and Mourning at Stanford," creating an immediate and immersive change in mood. I was struck by the sheer scale of the black Victorian mourning cabinet before me, packed with hundreds of weathered artifacts from the Stanford Family Collections. This exhibition of over 700 objects was curated by Mark Dion to tell the story of the Stanford family and their museum.

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As someone who loves making and giving handmade gifts, I was incredibly excited to learn about Calico Cards, a product brought to life by seniors Vivian Xiao (‘19), Chloe Thai (‘19) and Nicolette Grabiec (‘19) for ME216C: Implementation, a two-quarter capstone class for product design majors. Xiao described Calico Cards as “a watercolor-stencil card-making kit…

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On Saturday, April 6th in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, the Stanford Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA) put on Culture Night, an annual event that celebrates and showcases Vietnamese culture. When I arrived, I was greeted by enthusiastic SVSA members who handed me a program and invited me into the auditorium. The stage was cast in colorful mood lighting,…

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Recently, the Cantor Arts Center introduced a number of new exhibitions, including “STRAY,” “The Medium Is the Message” and “Island Universe.” Late last quarter, I had the privilege of touring these new exhibitions. I stepped into a nearly empty room with white walls and beige hardwood floors. The wall to my left housed a grand…

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On the chilly evening of Wednesday, Feb. 6, people bundled up in scarves and thick jackets filed into Levinthal Hall, eager to escape from the biting night air and listen to Stegner Fellows Neha Chaudhary-Kamdar and Jay Deshpande read. It was the first Stegner Fellow reading of the new year and another installment of an…

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