Art Practice Program & Materials Guide

General Program Guidance

The guidance and deadlines outlined in this section apply to all areas of the Art Practice program. They are intended to assist instructors in their teaching preparations and to ensure that all materials, equipment, facilities, and staff are available when needed for classes. Thank you for your help and attention with the items listed below.

Request resources for your AP course and submit your syllabus

(deadlines & expectations are listed below)

Class Requests Deadlines

Instructors (faculty & lecturers) are to submit the A&AH Class Request and Syllabus Submission Webform for each class to request lab space, equipment, safety training, and class-specific materials. Including the syllabus helps lab managers understand the class's objectives and direction. Since studio classrooms host numerous classes each quarter, we appreciate your prompt communication about any significant changes to your original class requests as soon as possible.

Your lab manager needs to receive all these class requests by the following deadlines. These dates will remain the same for each academic year:

  • Fall Classes: August 15th
  • Winter Classes: November 15th
  • Spring Classes: February 15th
Lab Availability
  • Start of Each Quarter: Class access to studio and lab facilities will begin at the end of week 2 of the quarter, based on the training coordinated with your area lab manager. Honors/Capstone/MFA students who wish to use specific facilities can attend group training sessions presented by lab managers at the beginning of every quarter. If projects arise outside of these timeframes, work with your lab manager to find an available time to schedule a training session.
  • Thanksgiving Break: Staff support is limited over Thanksgiving week, with Thanksgiving Day and the day after set as official staff holidays. With this in mind, access to the facilities in McMurtry that week will be limited. Lab managers may be able to provide limited hours for open lab, but often this is dependent on student worker availability over the period. Please discuss McMurtry access with your area lab manager in advance so that you and your students can plan accordingly. Honors/Capstone/MFA students who wish to use the facilities at this time must receive permission in advance from the respective lab manager.
  • End of Fall Quarter and Winter Closure:  All classwork is expected to be completed by the last scheduled day of classes and removed from the studios promptly. With this in mind, no open labs will be scheduled for students over the break. Please confer with your area lab manager on studio clean-up expectations so that you can schedule accordingly. Stanford campus is closed during Winter Closure. This includes the studio classrooms in McMurtry and the Art Gallery (Honors). No access will be provided, and there is no staff support onsite. Due to university staff policy/rules around winter closure, we cannot accommodate exceptions. After Open Studios, access to McMurtry facilities will be limited leading up to Winter Closure.
  • End of Winter Quarter and Spring Break: Staff support is limited over Spring Break due to the quick turnaround of quarters at this time. All classwork is expected to be completed by the last scheduled day of classes and removed from the studios promptly. With this in mind, no open labs will be scheduled for students over the break. Please confer with your area lab manager on studio clean-up expectations so that you can schedule accordingly. Honors/Capstone/MFA students who wish to use the facilities at this time must receive permission in advance from the respective lab manager.
  • End of Spring Quarter and Summer Break: All classwork is expected to be completed by the last scheduled day of classes and removed from the studios promptly. With this in mind, no open labs will be scheduled for students after the last day of class. Please confer with your area lab manager on studio clean-up expectations so that you can schedule accordingly. Studio classrooms in McMurtry are closed for the summer, starting two days after Spring instruction through the first day of instruction in the Fall.
Maintaining Classroom Spaces
  • Please confer with your area lab manager on studio clean-up expectations so that you can schedule accordingly.
  • Stanford EH&S requires that all making spaces are kept neat, clean and safe at all times. In accordance with this requirement, Faculty, Instructors and Staff will maintain the expectation that students will clean up after themselves in the studios, and be respectful of the facilities, equipment, and materials provided.
  • Students are expected to remove their artwork and materials promptly at the end of the quarter, per the guidelines set by the area lab managers. Anything left behind will be thrown away. (Keep in mind that this abandoned work creates both waste and additional labor for the area lab managers, which takes away from prep for the next quarter.)

Area-Specific Material and Equipment Guidance 

To facilitate a class, the following materials may be used or requested:

  • Base Lab Materials: each studio classroom is stocked with limited materials used for instruction in the space. These materials do not need to be requested, and are supported by area-specific program funds. An overview of available base lab material is provided below.
  • Class-specific materials: These materials are requested by the instructors per the A&AH Class Request Webform and need to be approved by the lab manager in advance of the quarter. These materials are supported by specific class budgets or a restricted program budget line item.
  • Special materials: Materials that are special project requests from students, or ad hoc material requests made by the instructor during the quarter cannot be accommodated by the lab manager. These purchases need to be made with the requestor’s own funds (i.e. student’s personal funds, or faculty research funds). A list of financial support resources for students can be found here.
    • An exception may be approved by the lab manager if the special requests concern materials that are generally used in the discipline and may be used in other classes.

Please refer to the Art Practice Lab Materials List for a breakdown of what is available in each area.

Foundations

Foundations 2D (Artstudio 101) courses have access to the base materials listed in printmaking. Instructors request other class specific two dimensional art making materials. Foundations 3D/4D courses have access to the base materials listed in Sculpture. Instructors request other class specific three dimensional art making materials and follow EMA guidelines for requests to 4D equipment.

Honors

Honors studio will be maintained with paper rags, clean-up supplies, butcher paper, and replacement track lighting bulbs.

In addition to base lab materials, Honors students will have a specific materials budget allotment to create their final projects. The lab managers, who purchase materials for honors students, offer the following quarterly purchasing windows to submit material requests:

  • Fall Quarter: the first purchasing window is offered by October 15th and should facilitate buying start-up materials and testing materials.
  • Winter Quarter: the second purchasing window is offered by November 15th.  This is typically the largest purchase since the honors projects are in full development.
  • Spring Quarter: a final purchasing window is offered by February 15th to procure materials necessary to finish the project. 

Regarding Honors Material budget allocation, please note:

  • Once an allocation is spent down, no more materials will be purchased by the Department of Art & Art History. Students may seek additional support here.
  • Any materials that remain unused after the completion of the Honors projects, and purchased by Stanford funds, will stay with the department. These remaining materials must be preserved for future years and as such may not be given away to students.

Purchasing Policies for Art Practice Materials

All Art Practice material purchases are subject to university, school and department-specific purchasing policies. As such, Lab Managers generally purchase all materials used in Art Practice studio classrooms. Some exceptions may apply:

  • Faculty may purchase class materials if cleared in advance with the lab manager. This communication and transparency is necessary to stay within program budgets, avoid duplicate purchases, and guarantee logistical support. Failure to coordinate class material purchases with the lab manager may result in the allocation of these charges to your research funds.
  • Students should not expect reimbursement for materials that they purchase. If there is an exceptional circumstance that might warrant a materials reimbursement, it must be pre-approved by the lab manager prior to purchase, but these are extremely rare cases.
Food Purchases

In general, class-specific budgets do not include line items to which food purchases are allocable. If the instructor wants to purchase food for class, they should consult with the finance team regarding available funds. Please note that food purchases are highly restrictive and heavily audited. As such, please make sure you have clarity on the funds before making purchases. If available, faculty research funds are unrestrictive and an allocable fund for food purchases. 

Software Purchases

To safeguard Stanford’s digital infrastructure and avoid financial risks, software purchases are subject to additional (and department-wide) guidance. Please see the Software Purchasing Guidelines for in-class use. 

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