Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University

The Lewis Center for the Arts is an academic unit made up of the programs in Creative Writing, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts and the Princeton Atelier. It is designed to put the creative and performing arts at the heart of the Princeton experience. This mission is based on the conviction that exposure to the arts, particularly to the experience of producing art, helps each of us to make sense of our life and the lives of our neighbors. The Lewis Center is named in honor of Peter B. Lewis of the Princeton Class of 1955. A Charter Trustee of the University, Mr. Lewis is Chairman of the Board of the Progressive Corporation. Among his many gifts to Princeton, Mr. Lewis made a $101 million gift to the University in support of a new vision for the creative and performing arts on campus. It is through this extraordinary generosity that the Lewis Center was established in November of 2007. The Lewis Center for the Arts will allow Princeton to fully engage with a range of programs that integrate the creative and performing arts into a broad liberal arts education. The Center will give a new focus and force to the Programs in Creative Writing, Dance, Theater and Visual Arts, as well as to Film and Video, Musical Theater and to the Princeton Atelier. It will also have close links to the Center for African American Studies, School of Architecture, Department of Art and Archaeology, Council of the Humanities, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of English, Department of Music, Princeton University Art Museum and the McCarter Theatre Center.