Weekly News Roundup: Pacita Abad Archives Acquired by Stanford University

Stanford University has announced the acquisition and stewardship of Pacita Abad’s archives through a collaboration with the Cantor Arts Center, its affiliated Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI), and the Department of Special Collections at Stanford University Libraries. Gifted by the Pacita Abad Art Estate, the collection spans more than three decades of the late Philippine American artist’s career and comprises photographs, unpublished works, sketches, exhibition records, letters, and other personal artifacts. These materials offer further glimpses into Abad’s peripatetic life, beginning with her time in the San Francisco Bay Area during the ‘70s—when she met her husband, Jack Garrity—up until her passing in 2004. The acquisition contributes to Stanford’s growing archival collection of Asian American artists such as Bernice Bing and Ruth Asawa, underlining the AAAI’s mission to honor these trailblazing figures. The Abad archives will complement her other works on view at Cantor—such as her Foothill Cabin (1976) painting of Garrity enveloped by a vibrant patchwork quilt—and will be publicly accessible to students, professors, scholars, curators, and artists both at Stanford and around the world.

May 30, 2025