On Thursday, May 12, the Cantor Arts Center will host a birthday celebration for Leland Stanford Jr., open to all Stanford students and faculty. Throughout the school year, the Cantor has hosted one large event per quarter; previous events included Party on the Edge during fall quarter and a student showcase for Parents’ Weekend during winter quarter.

The Cantor Ambassadors, a group of Stanford students who put on social and outreach events at the museum, have planned a masquerade-themed celebration for Leland Stanford Jr.’s 148th birthday. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., the event will feature desserts, non-alcoholic beverages, a DJ, supplies for guests to craft their own masquerade masks and a photo booth to document it all.

Nathalie Weiss ’16, co-chair of the Cantor Ambassadors, has led the effort in planning the event. The Cantor Ambassadors, founded three years ago, is a “student-run group whose mission is to enrich student engagement with the arts at Cantor,” Weiss said. “We love to bring students to the museum, and we found that an effective way to do that is to throw parties that are open to everyone.”

The Cantor Ambassadors and Kim Mansfield, coordinator of student engagement at the Cantor, saw Leland Stanford Jr.’s birthday as a great way to give students an additional opportunity to visit the Cantor and to celebrate Stanford’s founders.

As a young boy, Leland Jr. was quite the collector, amassing art from all around the world. Inspired by their son’s love for art and artifacts, the Stanfords built the Leland Stanford Jr. Museum, now recreated and called the Cantor, as a memorial.

“The museum wouldn’t exist without [Leland Stanford Jr.’s] interest in art,” Mansfield said. The Cantor would be a “natural place to celebrate Leland Jr. and to learn more about the Stanford Family,” she added.

In addition to one-time events hosted by the museum, the Cantor Arts Center has many opportunities for student involvement, including classes, research internships and displays of hundreds of unique pieces of art for viewing.

Weiss expressed that students shouldn’t be afraid to take advantage of what the Cantor has to offer: “[On campus] there can be a little bit of an idea of the museum as an institution, but obviously my experience has been nothing but a welcoming resource.”

Contact Glenn Baxter at gbaxter ‘at’ stanford.edu.