This Fall, Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music will celebrate the opening of the new Lewis Arts complex, designed by Steven Holl Architects, with a multi-day Festival of the Arts on October 5 through 8 on the Princeton campus. The Festival, which is open to the public, will feature dozens of concerts, plays, readings, dance performances, art exhibitions, multidisciplinary presentations, community workshops and quirky site-specific events at venues across the campus, most of which will be free.
In anticipation of these inaugural events, Steven Holl Architects will open Designing the Lewis Center for the Arts, an exhibition celebrating the culmination of a ten-year process designing Princeton University’s newest campus arts space. Featuring concept drawings, models and construction details the exhibition will be open to the public in the CoLAB Forum from September 15 through November 1, 2017.
Additional highlights of the Festival include a panel discussion on the architecture of the Lewis Center for the Arts, featuring University architect Ron McCoy; American architectural critic and educator, and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine, Paul Goldberger; and Museum director James Steward. On October 5 at 4:30pm, these three will discuss the architecture of Steven Holl, its relationship to contemporary design, its meaning, and its potential for shaping and reshaping the experiences of diverse users.
About the Lewis Center for the Arts: The new multi-building arts complex on the south edge of campus, adjacent to McCarter Theater, will take the arts at Princeton to even greater heights by significantly expanding the performance, rehearsal and teaching spaces for the arts in new state-of-the-art, facilities. The Center creates a new campus gateway; shaping campus space while maximizing porosity and movement.
The Center will house the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Programs in Dance, Music Theater, and the Princeton Atelier, and the Department of Music’s expansion of its instructional and research facilities in the New Music Building. The complex houses the Wallace Dance Building and Theater; the Arts Tower, which includes the Hurley Gallery, administrative offices and additional studios; and the New Music Building. The three buildings are integrated below ground in a Forum, an 8,000 square-foot open indoor gathering space that serves the various arts venues in the complex. Above the Forum is an outdoor plaza with a reflecting pool. Skylights in the pool filter natural light into the Forum below.
Encouraging curiosity and interaction, the new Quadrangle has overlook views into the dance and theater practice spaces and the orchestral rehearsal space. As an open public invitation, this gateway space aims to connect the local community to the University.
To learn more about the Lewis Center for the Arts, the Festival, and the more than 100 public theater and dance performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts and lecture presented each year, by the Lewis Center, please visit: arts.princeton.edu
To learn more about the Department of Music’s renowned music programs and ensembles, and to experience its diverse range of concerts and lectures by accomplished students, award-winning faculty and celebrated guest artists visit www.princeton.edu/music
To learn more about the Festival of the Art, please visit: https://lcaopening.princeton.edu/