Mcmurtry Family Director Of Stanford Live

Stanford Live, a premier arts presenter in the San Francisco Bay Area and a highly visible component of Stanford University’s commitment to the arts, seeks a dynamic, collaborative, and visionary leader to serve as its next Executive Director (or ED). This role presents an opportunity for an arts leader to advance innovation, equity, and transformation in the performing arts sector at a critical time. The ED will take the lead in strategically shaping the long-range vision and impact of the performing arts on both existing and new audiences and communities, on campus, regionally, and nationally.

Stanford Live presents a wide range of performances from around the world, fostering a vibrant and inclusive learning community, and providing distinctive experiences through the performing arts. It is simultaneously a public square, a sanctuary, and a lab, drawing on the breadth and depth of Stanford University to connect performance to the significant issues, ideas, and discoveries of our time. Stanford Live is part of the university’s Office of the Vice President for the Arts, which aims to increase the visibility and collective impact of the arts at Stanford.

This position, recently endowed as the McMurtry Family Director and reporting to the Vice President for the Arts, will continue to advance and develop the Stanford Live programming and brand, ensuring that its venues and programs reach their full potential as a vital destination for artists, the campus and the broader arts community. As an arts leader for the Peninsula and Bay Area, Stanford Live’s Executive Director will attract and inspire a diverse and ever-expanding audience and community through an innovative, financially resilient, inclusive, performing arts program. The ED will strive to make Stanford Live a bridge between Stanford and the community, offering rich, multifaceted programming that connects people to one another and to the challenges and opportunities of today, as well as opportunities for the public to connect with new artists and art forms and in both formal and informal settings. They will also work internally to meaningfully connect Stanford Live’s programming to students and academic units on campus to forge new partnerships and possibilities. Most importantly, they will lead with a keen understanding of the state of the performing arts in both campuses and communities across the country and steer the organization into the future.

Stanford has retained Isaacson, Miller, an international executive search firm, to assist in conducting this important search. All inquiries, applications, and nominations for this opportunity should be directed as indicated at the end of this document.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND THE ARTS

Stanford University is one of the world’s premier academic and research institutions, devoting tremendous intellectual and physical resources toward the betterment of humanity. As a major Silicon Valley employer, Stanford seeks people committed to excellence and improving our world. Stanford’s future success will be shaped by its diverse perspectives, unique experiences, and inclusive culture.

Over the last fifteen years, Stanford has made the arts a priority. Through the transformative Stanford Arts Initiative, 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 facilities joined Stanford’s existing art museum, the Cantor Arts Center (established 1894; renovated 1999). The Arts District’s location at the front of the campus highlights its importance to the university as a portal to its campus.

The Office of the Vice President for the Arts (VPA) was created in 2017 to raise the visibility and collective impact of the arts on campus and better coordinate arts activities. It consists of five units along with a central office. Three iconic arts organizations – Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Cantor Arts Center, and Stanford Live – offer exhibitions, performances, and programs to a broad audience drawn from the Stanford community as well as the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Two impactful interdisciplinary institutes – Institute for Diversity in the Arts and the Stanford Arts Institute – are centers of student-focused learning, research, and practice. The central VPA office offers resources for student extracurricular arts activities and provides infrastructural support (finance, HR, digital services) to the VPA units.

The VPA also works closely with a range of campus partners. The School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) is the center of a liberal arts education at Stanford and houses the academic arts departments: Art & Art History, Music, and Theater & Performance Studies. The university’s Public Art Committee ensures that Stanford's robust public art program continues to grow and thoughtfully integrate across the campus landscape, in the Arts District, and beyond. In addition, there are dozens of exhibition and performance spaces on campus used by more than 100 student art groups. The proximity and density of these arts programs and activities allow for dynamic interactions among them.

In 2022, Deborah Cullinan was appointed as the first full-time Vice President for the Arts at Stanford University. She is also serving as Acting Director of Stanford Live during this transition with a focus on preparing to support the next leader. Cullinan is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the pivotal role artists and arts organizations can play in shaping our social and political landscape and has spent years enriching communities through arts and culture. The next Executive Director of Stanford Live will benefit from having a strong advocate and a direct connection to university senior leadership and the broader campus community.

ABOUT STANFORD LIVE

Founded in the 1960s and originally known as Lively Arts, Stanford Live supports the university’s focus on placing the arts at the heart of a 21st-century education. It hosts more than 140 programs each year representing a wide range of genres, including chamber, symphonic, vocal/choral, jazz, and world music, as well as dance, theater, and newly commissioned works. Operating across 5 main venues, the Bing Concert Hall, The Studio, Frost Amphitheater, Memorial Auditorium, and Memorial Church, its reach extends throughout the campus. Stanford Live includes a wealth of collaborators and partners, including Stanford academic departments and individual faculty members, Stanford students, off-campus arts institutions, and community organizations.

In January 2013, Stanford Live inaugurated its new name and glorious new home at Bing Concert Hall, launching a new era in the performing arts at Stanford University. From its uniquely beautiful architectural elements to its acoustic flexibility, the Bing is a key landmark in the Stanford Arts District, located at the gates of the university campus. The Bing has welcomed some of the world’s greatest artists, such as Anna Deavere Smith, Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, the Chicago Symphony, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln

Center Orchestra, k.d. lang, Jon Batiste, Kyle Abraham, Dimitris Papaiaonnou, and the Akram Khan company. Stanford Live has commissioned 50 new works, with many of these works receiving their world premiere at Stanford and created 10 short films documenting performances of Bay Area artists.

In 2019, Stanford completed renovations of the Frost Amphitheater, a legendary 80-year-old venue, to include a state-of-the-art stage, better accessibility, and modern amenities for both audiences and performers. These improvements were meant to allow Frost to live up to its iconic past, fulfill the potential of its bright future, and become a nexus of artistic connection. Goldenvoice, the creators of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, has partnered with Stanford Live to program contemporary music performances to continue Frost’s tradition of bringing today’s best artists to Stanford. The Stanford Live-Goldenvoice concert series begins each April and continues through October. Stanford Live also programs a five-week summer Arts Festival in Frost, presented in partnership with Bay Area arts organizations including SFJAZZ, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, and Stanford Jazz Workshop. Additionally, Frost has become a meaningful site for large-scale University events, from signature programs of New Student Orientation to Blackfest, the largest free hip-hop event in the Bay Area, hosted by Stanford’s Black Family Gathering Committee.

Despite an unpredictable last few years, Stanford Live successfully weathered challenges throughout the pandemic and has come back strong for its current 2022-2023 season, with performances fully returning to all venues. Stanford Live has attracted more than 300,000 people to its events, with over 12% representing students since 2013.

THE ROLE OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The next Executive Director of Stanford Live will inherit an organization ready and willing to help imagine and implement the future of arts presenting and the arts at Stanford University and beyond. Reporting to the Vice President for the Arts, the ED will assume leadership of a dedicated team of 29 full-time staff members and will enjoy the engaged support and advice of the 16-person Stanford Live Advisory Council (SLAC) and the broader VPA leadership team. They will be expected to develop collaborative and close relationships with staff, faculty, advisors, fellow arts leaders, and more and find ways to inspire them so that they invest their best ideas, resources, and efforts.

Stanford Live is situated within a vibrant and growing arts community, both on the university’s campus and in the broader region. The ED is called upon to interact with and see themselves as an essential part of that rich arts ecosystem. As a steward of the arts at Stanford, an important part of the VPA, and an enthusiastic spokesperson for Stanford Live, the ED will be an engaged community member, seeking moments of collaboration and synergy with campus and local partners to forward Stanford Live’s artistic mission and vision in service of the broader vision for the arts at Stanford. The ED will also communicate this vision with internal and external audiences, leading to a demonstrated uptick in clarity and awareness about Stanford Live’s mission, values, and programming.

Internally, the ED will be a visionary leader, ensuring that the organization is financially and operationally sustainable today and into the future. They will be expected to continue to develop, sharpen, and enact Stanford Live’s brand as an innovative program that is known for centering artists and supporting a wide range of powerful and impactful programming. In addition to long-range planning and strategy, they are responsible for Stanford Live’s overall management, including artistic and educational programs; front- and back-of-house operations; physical, financial, and human resources; and future growth and development. With the support of and in partnership with SLAC and Stanford’s Office of Development,

the ED ensures the current and long-term financial health of the organization through a combination of committed funding from the university, creative fundraising, partnerships, and earned revenue pursuits.

Stanford Live has a balanced operating budget of approximately $13 million, comprising earned income, contributed income from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and university support.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

The Executive Director will address the following specific opportunities and challenges:

Advance Stanford Live’s mission in tandem with the University’s vision

The ED will collaborate across Stanford’s professional, academic, and public communities to manifest the potential of Stanford Live in a university that is globally renowned as a nexus of discovery, innovation, and forward thinking. 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. As a core part of Stanford’s arts ecology, Stanford Live is expected to contribute meaningfully to that vision. In return, the ED enjoys the support of the VPA and the arts community at the university. Notably, Stanford Live can contribute to a well-rounded educational experience at Stanford, adding a strong artistic presence to the disciplinary mix, infusing complexity, ethics, and culture into discussions around what the future may be. The ED must also fully understand Stanford Live’s business model within the university context and continually refine and improve the organization’s sustainability.