It’s a 24-hour party, more than a decade in the making.

Planning for the new Princeton University Art Museum began in 2012, and after a multiyear design and construction period, the new museum is throwing open its doors to the general public with an invitation to celebrate art from across the centuries and around the world in its stunning new building on central campus. The price of admission? Free, as always. 

From 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, the museum will host activities for all ages — from collections highlights tours to artmaking, live performances and more — designed to showcase the museum’s expansive galleries and community spaces. 

“The new museum was designed to be a kind of town square for the arts and humanities, a place of coming together, and so we are excited to begin the process of welcoming our communities to discover the experiences we have been shaping for so many years,” said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher-David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director of the Princeton University Art Museum.

Princeton University students have been invited to preview the museum on Oct. 25 — featuring live performances by the student ensembles eXpressions, Princeton University Ballet, Tigressions and Quipfire! — ahead of a members’ preview on Oct. 26. Preview days for University faculty and staff are also planned during the week before the 24-hour public opening. 

“Since our students are our core audience, it was important to me that we invite them first, and give them a time to gather just for them, with an event that will model something of what this new museum makes possible,” Steward said. “The response from faculty and staff has been amazing: as of Oct. 1, we had over 1,000 people tell us that they were planning to come on each of the two days we’ve set aside for those previews.” 

Steward said he is especially excited about the Oct. 31–Nov. 1 “art around the clock” public event. “The 24-hour open house is when anyone — no invitation needed — can come to discover what we’re about, from the galleries to music to spoken word performance to film screenings and poetry readings and morning yoga. It’s part of a commitment to meeting our audiences where they are, rather than expecting everyone to adapt to the traditions of museum operations.”

The world and thousands of years of art under one roof

The new art museum, located at the heart of the Princeton campus between Elm Drive and Chapel Drive along McCosh Walk, roughly doubles the space for the exhibition, conservation, study and interpretation of the museum collections. Pictured: Display cases above the Grand Hall create a versatile space for showcasing items from the vast collections.

Photo by Richard Barnes, Princeton University Art Museum

The University began collecting works of art in 1755, always with an eye toward their importance to teaching and to the crafting of an institutional identity, Steward said. Its first purpose-built art museum opened in 1890.

“Not least because of its age, the museum has collections that span the globe and thousands of years of human history, in ways that only a museum already collecting in the 18th and 19th centuries could,” he said. “Especially in this moment, that ‘under one roofness,’ as I call it, is really interesting and powerful to me.”

The opening of the new museum offers endless possibilities for engaging with art from around the world — and across time — in meaningful ways, he said. 

“The world of art sets a potent model for the importance of the things that unite us, and for expanding our understanding and empathy for that which is different,” Steward said.

“How much more can we do because we can bring together objects from so many disparate cultural traditions? Or because we can present objects that represent so many of the values and realities that unite us as human beings, from love to death to birth to faith to yearning and curiosity, to our own frailties in the wider forces of nature?” 

The new art museum, located at the heart of the Princeton campus between Elm Drive and Chapel Drive along McCosh Walk, roughly doubles the space for the exhibition, conservation, study and interpretation of the museum collections, and includes new gathering spaces and visitor amenities. Gallery space has grown from 17,000 to 80,000 square feet.

Designed as a hub and free resource for campus and the larger community, the museum includes a restaurant, two “artwalks” that allow people to walk through the parts of the building as they cross campus, a gathering space called the Grand Hall, an auditorium, art-making studios, and outdoor terraces for community and University programming. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and on Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday; and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. The artwalks and Grand Hall are open daily 8 a.m.-10:45 p.m.

Designed as a hub and free resource for campus and the larger community, the museum includes a gathering space called Grand Hall (pictured here), two “artwalks” that allow people to walk through parts of the building as they cross campus, a restaurant, an auditorium, art-making studios, and outdoor terraces for community and University programming

Photo by Richard Barnes, Princeton University Art Museum

24-hour open house highlights

The 24-hour open house from 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, will feature dozens of events and activities — including a Halloween fair, costume contest, dance party and family-friendly film screenings. The museum’s galleries will be open for visitors to explore during the entire event. The museum’s website has the full details. Admission and all events are free; a few require advance registration. Highlights include:

Oct. 31

• Artmaking. The museum’s new Kathleen Compton Sherrerd and Laporte Family Creativity Labs will be open for the duration of the open house with plenty of materials available for hands-on artmaking.
• Self-guided gallery activities. Puzzles, writing and other activities will be available for the duration of the open house. All galleries will be open throughout the event.
• Halloween fair, 5-10 p.m. in the Grand Hall. The museum will offer temporary tattoos, bejeweling stations, artmaking, a live pianist and more.
• Halloween dance party on the West Terraces. WPRB Princeton radio alumni DJs John “Jay” F. Weaver Jr. and Dale Williams will spin danceable tunes under the stars.
• Halloween movies at 6 p.m.: “The Nightmare Before Christmas” screens in Tuttle Lecture Hall; “Hocus Pocus” plays in Malkin Amphitheater.
• Collections highlights tours at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Check in at the Information Desk.
• Collections costume contest. Guests are invited to compete in a costume contest wearing an outfit inspired by a selection of artworks from the museum’s collections. Advance registration required online, and a number of important rules apply — see the museum website for details.
• Music and mocktails, 8 p.m.-midnight. Ahead of launching food service the next day, the museum’s third-floor restaurant, Mosaic, will offer seasonal mocktails and host live jazz.
• Performances of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at 9 and 10 p.m. in the Tuttle Lecture Hall. The 30-minute performance, presented by Haunted History Productions, is appropriate for all ages.
• Silent disco, 9 p.m. to midnight in the Grand Hall.
• Sky gazing, 9 p.m. to midnight in the Malkin Amphitheater.
• Dreaming and Drawing, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Drawing materials will be available at the Information Desk.
• Staged reading of “Britannicus” at 11 p.m. in Tuttle Lecture Hall. Students in the University’s French Theater Workshop, L’Avant-Scène, perform.

Nov. 1

• Artmaking. The museum’s new Kathleen Compton Sherrerd and Laporte Family Creativity Labs will be open for the duration of the open house with materials for hands-on artmaking.
• Self-guided gallery activities. Puzzles, writing and other activities will be available for the duration of the open house. All galleries will be open throughout the event.
• Movie at 1 a.m. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” screens in Tuttle Lecture Hall.
• Late-night trivia at 1:30 a.m. in the Grand Hall. A live host from TriviaHub will lead the event.
• Outdoor gentle yoga class at 7:30 a.m. in Malkin Amphitheater. Space is limited. First come, first served. Mats will be provided.
• Movie at 7 a.m. “Ratatouille” screens in Tuttle Lecture Hall.
• Movie at 9 a.m. “Coco” screens in Tuttle Lecture Hall.
• Live-music meditation at 9 a.m. in the Grand Hall. Princeton University Concerts presents a guided meditation with Matthew Weiner, associate dean of religious life, with music by the University’s Richardson Chamber Players. Beginners welcome.
• Morning yoga at 9:30 a.m. in Malkin Amphitheater. Space is limited. First come, first served. Mats will be provided.
• Tai Chi at 10 a.m. outdoors on the north terrace. Beginners welcome.
• Collections highlights tours on the hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check in at the information desk.
• Performance by the Westrick Boys and Girls Choir at noon in Tuttle Lecture Hall.
• “The Art of Song: A Broadway Cabaret” at 1 p.m. in the Grand Hall. Presented in partnership with McCarter Theatre Center. Advance registration required (check the museum website beginning Oct. 15).
• Reading by Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Namesake” and “Interpreter of Maladies” at 2 p.m. in Tuttle Lecture Hall. Advance registration required (check the museum website beginning Oct. 15).
• Conservation Studios drop-in hours from 2 to 4 p.m. Visit the studios and meet chief conservator Bart Devolder and objects conservator Elena Torok.
• “The Art of The Moth: A Storytelling Salon” at 3:30 p.m. in the Grand Hall. Presented in partnership with McCarter Theatre Center. Advance registration required (check the museum website beginning Oct. 15).

Inaugural exhibitions

Two special exhibitions celebrating the museum’s collections will be on view when the museum opens. Learn more online.

“Princeton Collects” (Oct. 31, 2025–March 29, 2026) highlights 150 extraordinary works of art from a total of 2,000 works gifted or promised in celebration of the museum’s new building.

“Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay” (Oct. 31, 2025–July 5, 2026) features the ceramic art of Toshiko Takaezu, who taught at Princeton for nearly 30 years and whose pioneering closed form ceramics position her as one of the most important ceramic artists of the 20th century.

The museum’s inaugural season continues into the spring with these special exhibitions:

“Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50” (March 14–July 26, 2026) focuses on an essential period for the founding figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement, during which he was experimenting with the play between figuration and abstraction.

“Photography as a Way of Life” (April 18–Sept. 7, 2026) offers a new understanding of mid-century photographic modernism by examining three central figures of the period: Minor White, Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan.

All galleries will be open during the 24-hour opening event, and self-guided gallery activities including puzzles, writing and other activities will be available. Pictured: The pavilion of European art. 

Photo by Richard Barnes, Princeton University Art Museum