Princeton University Art Museum to open new downtown gallery on Palmer Square Dec. 4

ByKrystal Knapp Updated
The “Orlando” exhibition on view in San Francisco in 2020, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco. Copyright Henrik Kam 2020, courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum.

The Princeton University Art Museum’s new gallery on Palmer Square will open this Saturday, Dec. 4. The art gallery was approved by the Princeton Planning Board earlier this month. The gallery, called “Art on Hulfish,” will be located in the space that once was occupied by fashion retailer Zoe at 11 Hulfish Street.

Construction for the university’s new art museum building on the university campus is expected to be completed in late 2024. The 5,500-square-foot art gallery on Palmer Square will host exhibitions and public education programs while the main galleries on campus are closed for the massive constriction project. The museum also owns Bainbridge House on Nassau Street and hosts smaller exhibitions there.

The Palmer Square space will host temporary exhibitions, artmaking events, hands-on workshops, discussions, and visits with artists over the next three years. Four exhibitions featuring 50 to 100 works of art are planned each year and will occupy about two-thirds of the space.

“Orlando” will be the first exhibition at the new gallery space. The exhibition will run from Dec. 4 through Jan. 23, with an opening reception on Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. The exhibition will showcase 50 photographs taken by 11 artists. Curated by Tilda Swinton, the exhibition is inspired by the themes of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 revolutionary novel “Orlando: A Biography”—the story of a young aristocrat who lives for three centuries without aging and mysteriously shifts gender along the way—and Sally Potter’s equally groundbreaking 1992 film “Orlando,” which featured an androgynous Swinton in the starring role. Woolf’s tale has continued to hold sway over Swinton, who invited photographers to create photographs inspired by “Orlando.”

Art on Hulfish will be free and open to the public seven days a week. Hours are Sundays through Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The gallery will be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.