30 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} Sometimes, your passion takes you far from home, only to bring you right back to where it all started. For Veronica Roberts, a career as a museum curator sent her crisscrossing the country before leading her back to an institution that has always occupied a special place in her heart. Now the director of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, this Bay Area native couldn’t be happier to have come full circle. Born in San Francisco, Veronica reveled in the city’s vibrant art scene, especially at the Legion of Honor and De Young museums. “I have an early memory during middle school of getting dressed up in my Esprit clothing and visiting a show of Amish quilts,” she shares with a smile. By high school, she knew that in college she wanted to study art history. That decision was largely influenced by her grandmother, who lived on the Peninsula and served as a lifelong docent at the Cantor Arts Center. Veronica speaks of her with great fondness, recognizing the impact she had. “She had a great love of learning; when she was active here, she audited over 45 classes!” Veronica marvels. “I am incredibly proud that I followed an interest she had.” She admits that leaving California to attend Williams College in Massachusetts was difficult but ultimately life-changing. Its prestigious art history program has been a springboard for many high-level curators and museum directors. While there, Veronica realized that her career path had to include not only curating but also education. “My passion is sharing art with a wider audience and making it accessible and alive.” Finding that she missed California, Veronica opted to return for graduate studies at the University of California, Santa
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