The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is opening a new 146,000-square-foot facility on October 31, doubling its previous exhibition and education spaces. The original 1880s building, which underwent multiple additions before being demolished in 2021, could only display about 2% of Princeton's 117,000-object collection. Designed by Adjaye Associates with executive architect Cooper Robertson, the new three-story museum features nine interlocking pavilions, 80,000 square feet of exhibition space, classrooms, and a grand hall. Curators have rethought the installation to move away from rigid geographic and chronological categories, instead emphasizing cross-cultural and cross-media pairings, such as placing Andy Warhol's Blue Marilyn (1962) alongside a 14th-century Italian Virgin and Child.
This expansion matters because it addresses long-standing inadequacies in displaying Princeton's vast collection, which previously privileged Western art and relegated other works to secondary spaces. The new building allows for better dialogue between diverse collections and accommodates modern and contemporary art, including large-scale installations and new media. The project also highlights ongoing debates in the art world about institutional ethics, as PUAM continued working with David Adjaye after sexual-assault allegations against him, noting the building was already over 50% complete when the allegations surfaced. The museum's rethought curatorial approach reflects broader shifts toward decolonizing museum practices and creating more inclusive narratives.