Stanford’s annual “Party on the Edge,” held every October at the Cantor Arts Center, is debuting student art this Thursday night. Aptly held on the “edge” of campus north of the Oval, “Party on the Edge” has been a Cantor tradition for the last 12 years, drawing in more than 2,500 students last fall.

The party is, at its core, a fall open house for the pieces created by summer and continuing winter student-arts grant recipients. However, the annual party also showcases myriad student arts and performing groups on campus.

According to Kristen Olson, one of the organizers of the event, an open call was held to allow as many student groups to perform as possible at the party. Performances will be happening all over the premises; students can check out a cappella groups singing in the Rodin Rotunda, intimate poetry readings and singing duos upstairs in the European gallery, interactive artwork in the courtyard and larger performance groups out on the back lawn.

Students arriving at the event will even be greeted with performances in the front of Cantor for the duration of the evening. Attendees can expect to see many popular student groups, including Talisman, Mariachi Cardenal, Alliance Streetdance, Urban Styles, the Spoken Word Collective, Everyday People and Catch a Fyah.

Along with the performances, student films ranging from documentaries on traditional hat-making to the life of one of Cantor’s beloved maintenance workers will be screened. And finally, students not interested in art can at least stop by for some food provided by the organic Cool Café at museum. Expect hot, sugary churros.

Attendees also will be able to preview the new exhibitions on display this fall. The new “Mami Wata” exhibition explores representations of the African water spirit through sculptures, paintings, masks and other forms of art. Also on display is a contemporary photography exhibit on “vodoun,” colloquially known as voodoo, which delves into the ceremonies and practices of this religion through 25 diptychs.

For students who can only stay for a short amount of time, the jam-packed lineup may be daunting to navigate. But don’t be concerned with trying to hit up every exhibit; the motivation behind the party is to let students know “that there are outlets for their creativity,” according to Olson, so attendees are encouraged to wander freely, enjoy the atmosphere and keep an open mind.

Meet the artists:

Sophi Newman

Sophi Newman is a sophomore from Sunnyvale, Calif., double majoring in American studies and studio art. With her arts grant, Newman chose to produce a series of photographs she says were “inspired by imagery from a theology book published in 1903,” which she found as she was taking out the recycling in the photo lab where she works. She printed these images on the actual pages of the book using a process called type cyan. Her intention was to explore the relationship between images and texts, especially the underlying sub-text of images themselves. When not creating art, Newman is very active in the Stanford Sexual Health Peer Resource Center and has her own fashion blog.

Jimmy Chion and Jason Chua

Jimmy Chion recently graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s in psychology and is now receiving his master’s in mechanical engineering. Jason Chua is a senior from Chicago majoring in product design. With their arts grant, Chua and Chion collaborated on a “Visual Windchime.” This interactive piece of art consists of hanging panels of light that twinkle when students run their hands through them. Their motivations for this project were, according to Jason, to create an “interactive, gratifying and delightful experience” that evokes “fireflies on a warm sunny day.”

Jin Zhu

Jin Zhu is currently a senior in art practice (photography). She began pursuing photography seriously after making sound for films at the Expression College for the Digital Arts. Her project, “Water in the West,” explores the use of water in California and the American Southwest and the conflicts that arise when deciding how to allocate this precious resource. She questions how we use our water, who has water and who does not and the consequences of taking this water. She drew her inspiration from long drives through the deserts of California’s Central Valley.

Nabila Abdallah

Nabila Abdallah ‘13, an Indian-American raised in Tanzania, created five works she calls “spiritual struggle” that were partially inspired by her experience in Structured Liberal Education (SLE) during her freshman year. She says she approaches art as a spiritual process, and her pieces address her own inner conflict over identity. She drew from texts like St. Augustine’s “Confessions,” Homer’s “Odyssey” and “The Aeneid.”

Santhi Elayaperumal

Elayaperumal is a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering with a concentration in design methodology and robotics. Her research focuses on medical robotics and sensors for MRI-compatible devices. Elayaperumal created the “Krotoscope,” a device that lets students control musical elements with their minds. This is done through monitoring levels of attention and mediation in students through a wireless EEG that then controls the music created by the Krotoscope. The Krotoscope is also an expansion on a brain-noise machine debuted at the SOCA’s “An Art Affair” in April. Santhi collaborated with other mechanical engineering doctoral students on this project: Greg Kress, Joel Sadler and Jakob Wallsten.

Sam Pressman

Sam Pressman ‘10 created three short films whose technological themes address and evaluate modern forms of communication.

Jorge Olarte

Jorge Olarte ‘13 created a collage of portraits that display human emotions and other abstract themes through large charcoal drawings.

Ariana Koblitz

Ariana Koblitz ’12 created three multi-layered glass panels that echo Stanford’s interdisciplinary approach to academics by mixing artistic and academic materials.

Kiran Malladi

Kiran Malladi ’11 created three kites that, coupled with photos that document local interaction with these kites, display the joy found in carefree childhood activities.

Magdalena Gross

Magdalena Gross ’13 documented graffiti murals in Lublin, Poland with youth groups and other various organizations. These murals exist in order to promote historical awareness and combat the anti-Semitism still present in modern society.

Nick Mendoza

Nick Mendoza ’12 took a series of photographs that display the culture of elderly Hispanic ranchers in Aragon, N.M. These unique photographs were taken during the annual cattle run.

Surabhi Nirkhe

Surabhi Nirkhe ’13 created abstract and mixed media portraits that depict the consequences of physical separation on families. In particular, Nirkhe’s work delves into ties between different individuals and American and Indian cultures.

Vaeme Afokpa

Vaeme Afokpa ’13 made a photo book that depicts the impact on South African art of hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup this summer.

Viviana Arcia

Viviana Arcia ’13 created a piece consisting of slips of index cards assembled in a grid of clothesline to positively explore feminism and sex through answers to the question, “What does being a woman mean to you?”

Pablo Garcia del Real

Pablo Garcia Del Real ’11 created photomicrographs of mineral rocks on a light source in order to allow the viewer to discover the beauty of nature.

Sashendra Aponso

Sashendra Aponso ’11 used the summer arts grant to create 10 mixed media paintings that combine traditional and modern forms to tell the story of an island from a native Sri Lankan perspective.

Blake Miller

Blake Miller ’11 painted a triptych oil work in the style of a Thangka painting and Chinese Mao-era propaganda to examine the consequences of Chinese nationalism on human rights in Tibet.

Charity Fluharty

Charity Fluharty ‘11 made children’s pop-up books on flowers, emphasizing what she calls “the underappreciated medium of paper.”