Bay Area native Veronica Roberts stepped into her new role as director of the Cantor Arts Center in July, around the time the museum opened The Faces of Ruth Asawa.
Bay Area native Veronica Roberts stepped into her new role as director of the Cantor Arts Center in July, around the time the museum opened The Faces of Ruth Asawa.
Veronica Roberts may be new to the director position at the Cantor Arts Center, but she is hardly a stranger to the Stanford museum. The Bay Area native shares that her grandmother, whom she describes as a “guiding force in my life,” was a docent there for more than 35 years. “I remember most how much she cherished her role as a docent and how meaningful it was to her life and identity, especially as a woman of her generation,” says Roberts.
In 2017, when Roberts was curator of modern and contemporary art at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art, she organized the Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser touring exhibition, which opened at the Cantor that year. She fondly recalls experiencing the show with her grandmother. “I remember how many people wanted to talk to her and tell me how lucky I was to be her granddaughter,” says Roberts. “It is one of my last memories with her.”
Roberts grew up in San Francisco and, after graduating from University High School, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history from Williams College and UC Santa Barbara, respectively. She worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum and, most recently, the Blanton.
With tenures at institutions in large cities and academic settings, what does Roberts see as the advantage to being on the Stanford campus? “One of the most exciting aspects of working at a university is student engagement and making the museum accessible to some of the brightest minds around,” she says. In a nod to Stanford’s commitment to encouraging its undergrads to have a truly interdisciplinary experience, Roberts adds, “I have already noticed how many science students come to the museum, and I admire the breadth of genuine intellectual curiosity that is overflowing on this campus.”
Although her new role will not allow time to curate exhibitions, Roberts maintains, “I remain deeply committed to artists and to helping shape the artistic program and collection with the great curators and other colleagues here.” Indeed, one of the main motivations for her taking the job was the museum’s Asian American Art Initiative, cofounded by Cantor curator Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander and art history professor Marci Kwon. “When I learned of the initiative — to foster scholarship, exhibitions and collecting of Asian American art — I thought it was visionary,” says Roberts.
Having lived all over the country, Roberts seems to revel in a return to her roots. “I have really missed the mountains, the ocean, the produce and Asian food,” she says. “I will miss spring-fed swimming pools and breakfast tacos in Austin, but I have a love of redwoods and dumplings that runs deep.”
Her arrival at Stanford in early July means that she is now settled in and ready for arguably the biggest fundraising event on the Peninsula cultural calendar: Museums by Moonlight. The biennial gala — which includes alfresco cocktails in the company of Richard Serra’s “Sequence,” followed by dinner and dancing in the fabulous setting of the Rodin Sculpture Garden — takes place on September 17. (It was skipped last year because of the pandemic.) The greatly anticipated affair benefits both the Cantor and the Anderson Collection, allowing for free admission for all as well as school programs for grades K through 12 at the pair of neighboring museums.
The honorary chairs for the gala are Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg. Known as both a Silicon Valley tech power couple and important art collectors, they also sponsor Stanford’s highly regarded Artists on the Future series of talks (the most recent, in June, featured Amy Sherald and Calida Rawles in conversation). Shah and Garg’s personal art collection focuses on women artists and artists of color.
“Discovering the Cantor museum almost 31 years ago was an immensely fortunate serendipity,” says Shah, who holds a master’s in computer science from Stanford. “I remember being mesmerized, calmed and uplifted, all at once, as I lingered amongst the old Chinese and Indian artifacts, trying to decode the paintings and the process. The Cantor was such a wonderful escape from the programming assignments du jour!”
For both Shah and Roberts, the goals of inclusion, diversity and equity are in the forefront as they usher the museum into a new era. “An art museum in a university setting has to feel open and inviting to all by showcasing art that speaks to every member of the student and larger community, regardless of race and gender,” explains Shah. “It is also imperative that the Cantor lead other university museums by example, in the way it honors diversity and addresses social justice.”
