After numerous delays, the Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) will be opening in October 2025. The date was not previously announced until University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 briefly mentioned it at the meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) on Monday.
The construction for PUAM began in 2021 and the project was originally scheduled to be complete by Fall 2024, opening in Spring 2025. In September 2024, the project opening was delayed to Fall 2025.
In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, PUAM spokesperson Morgan Gengo wrote that “we are not yet ready to officially announce an opening date but expect to do so this spring.”
She added that the opening date will be announced “hopefully by the end of March” with “pre-opening festivities, including a very special event for all Princeton students” to accompany the opening of the museum.
“The opening of the museum in October will be an amazing event on this campus,” Eisgruber promised at the CPUC meeting.
Much of the fencing behind the building near Brown Hall was removed last semester. More fences are set to come down in the near future, with most of the fencing northwest of the art museum set to come down in the next week, Gengo said. An art piece, “(Any) Body Oddly Propped” by Doug and Mike Starn, was moved back to the museum in December, although it has been surrounded by fences since.
Gengo noted that the fencing on the north side of PUAM, near Murray-Dodge Hall, is also scheduled to be removed later this semester after landscaping has been completed.
Art has already begun being moved into the museum, with most of the construction in the galleries complete. Gengo added that “some of the most monumental” pieces have been returned to the building since September 2024 “to be embedded into the building’s architecture.”
The museum has been in the spotlight in recent years as a number of artifacts have been found in its collections which have links to accused art smuggler Edoardo Almagià ’73. Almagià was charged with conspiracy and fraud in October 2024.
The construction of PUAM is one part of a slew of construction detailed in the 2026 campus plan.
Although some may argue that PUAM does not fit in with the rest of upper campus, University Architect Ronald McCoy GS ’80 maintained in a December interview with the ‘Prince’ that the museum brings together the various architectural styles found in the upper campus.
“When you look from, say, in front of Witherspoon, down the diagonal, you see the echelon of the different pavilions linking to Brown Hall,” McCoy said at the time. “If you look at the base of Brown Hall, you see that the gray granite of Brown Hall is picked up by the precast concrete [of PUAM].”
Gengo added that “construction on the majority of the museum is complete.” There are various aspects that need to be finished before the opening, however, including the facade replacement for the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, which is temporarily being housed in Firestone Library.
Art@Bainbridge, a PUAM gallery project on Nassau Street, has exhibits scheduled until Nov. 9, 2025, while Art on Hulfish closed on Jan. 5.
“We’re enormously excited to announce our opening date,” Gengo wrote. However, for now, the Princeton community must wait a little longer for PUAM.
“Patience,” said McCoy.
Victoria Davies is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Plymouth, England and typically covers University operations.
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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