Art donation | Stanford University announced on Tuesday that it will receive a major donation of postwar art from Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson and their daughter, Mary Patricia Pence. Many expected the collection, estimated at $100 million in value, to be donated to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Stanford plans to house the Anderson Collection, comprised of 121 works of painting and sculpture by 86 artists, in a new building to be constructed next to the Cantor Center for Visual Arts. The Anderson Gallery is expected to open in 2014. Its works represent major artistic movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting and Bay Area Figurative. The collection also includes Jackson Pollock’s famous Lucifer (1947), one of his last privately owned drip paintings. The donation represents progress in the University’s Arts Initiative and efforts to revive arts life on campus.
New dean | The University announced Monday that Columbia University Provost Claude Steele will serve as Stanford’s new School of Education dean. Steele’s role becomes effective this September.
Spotted | A protest banner reading “40,000 dead! HOW MANY MORE?” was flown over the University’s 120th Commencement. The banner passed over the audience about 15 minutes into Felipe Calderon’s, the President of Mexico’s, Commencement address, delivered to the Class of 2011 last Sunday. The logo of an antiwar group, “No más sangre,” or, “No more blood,” marked the banner. However a spokeswoman for the group in New Mexico said the group was not involved.
Research | Even a single year of math lessons can significantly impact how children’s brains problem-solve, announced researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Led by professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Vinod Menon, the study examined changes in the brain scans of second- and third-graders.
Overheard | “You’re 100 percent more accountable for your actions online than you are face-to-face,” — Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford Unversity’s Virtual Human Reaction Lab on the importance of social media self-censorship in light of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s public Twitter message.
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