The Museum: Between Preservation & Action

Date: Wednesday, February 21
Wine Reception: 6:30PM
Lecture: 7:00PM
Cost: Free for members; $15 for guests

Museums have long been committed to the preservation of the past. But they are increasingly asked—and are asking themselves—to be engaged with issues of the moment, to be relevant to today’s audiences, and even to be change agents. James Steward, director of the Princeton University Art Museum, will discuss the role of the modern-day museum, the surprising ways in which preservation and activism may intersect, and will connect these issues to what’s happening at Princeton.

James Steward joined the Princeton University Art Museum as its director in 2009. Prior to Princeton, he served as director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Steward holds his B.A. from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in the History of Art from Trinity College, Oxford University, where he studied with Francis Haskell. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the British Council, the American Ireland Fund, and the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation.