Join us for an afternoon of artmaking with Saif Azzuz, 2026-27 Doerr Visiting Artist, and cultural fire practitioner Elizabeth Azzuz. In this all ages, family friendly workshop, the Azzuzs will share the significance of cultural fire, or prescribed burns led by Indigenous practitioners to steward healthy ecosystems. Participants will create connections between native flora and fauna, and make pigments and drawings with charcoal from cultural fire burns.

This program takes place on the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm at 555 Fremont Road, Stanford, CA, and is presented in conjunction with the Further Triennial exhibition California Current, on view at the Cantor from October 29, 2026 through 2028, which looks at the ecological, infrastructural, personal, creative, and activist networks that shape life in the region. Visit California Current to see works by Azzuz, which include charcoal drawings made from similar processes.

All public programs at the Cantor Arts Center are always free! Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended.

RSVP here.

About the Presenters

Saif Azzuz (b. 1987, born in Eureka, CA) is a Libyan-Yurok artist who resides in Pacifica, CA. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts in 2013. Working in painting, sculpture and installation, Azzuz’s work reimagines and examines our relationships to nature, privatization and commodification. The use of different mediums allows Azzuz to explore and question complex and often conflicting histories and social contexts of materials, weaving in untold narratives. His work re­flects on the resilience of ecologies, first peoples and our collective need to view nature as an extension of us, in opposition to frameworks that view nature as a resource to be extracted.

Elizabeth Azzuz is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe from the village of Weitchpec in Northern California, and a descendant of the Karuk Tribe, from the Village of Katamiin in Somes Bar. She is the Director of Traditional Fire for the Cultural Fire Management Council, and the treasurer to the Board of CFMC. She is also the Treasurer to the Indigenous Stewardship Network, and a member of the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network with the Nature Conservancy.

Photos taken by Chris Grunder. Courtesy of the Artist and Anthony Meier Gallery. ​

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Directions & Parking

The O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm is located at 555 Fremont Road, Stanford. Free weekend parking is available in the Searsville Lot (Lot 22) at 190 Searsville Rd, directly adjacent to the farm (Stanford "A" and "C" permit spaces are free on Saturdays; just be sure to avoid 24/7 reserved spots). The best way to enter the farm is through the pedestrian gate located about halfway down the north pathway directly bordering the Searsville Lot.

Address: 555 Fremont Road Stanford, Ca 94305 or 175 Electioneer Road Stanford, CA 94305 (please note the gate on Electioneer Rd. is often locked)

Entrance: The best place to enter the farm is from the north gate along Searsville Lot (190 Searsville Rd. or L-22 parking lot) entrance.
 

Accessibility Information or Requests

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is committed to ensuring our programs are accessible to everyone. To request access information and/or accommodations for this event, please complete this form at least one week prior to the event: museum.stanford.edu/access.

For questions, please contact disability.access@stanford.edu or Kwang-Mi Ro, kwangmi8@stanford.edu, (650) 723-3469.