“I am absolutely
shameless about
what it takes to
get someone over
the threshold. But
once they’re in
the door, I’m very
concerned about
the high quality of
the experience.” —JAMES C. STEWARD,
UNIVERSI TY ART MUSEUM
DIRECTOR OF
THE PRINCETON
in question and justifying the publicity
York state politics, the director of
as a way to bring art to the people. If a
the Princeton University Art Museum
TV show can reach “millions of people
reached his current position via the tra-
higher profile it deserves. Princeton is
halfway between New York City and who’ve never seen the Brooklyn Museum ditional path: as an art museum curator,
before and who might decide, if they
with a specialization in 18th- and 19th-
Philadelphia, with especially important
come to Manhattan, to come on out,” he century European painting.
holdings in Chinese scroll paintings,
says, then “I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
True to form, Steward is adamant
photography and pre-Columbian art.
A tireless pitchman, Lehman reminds that “art museums are different from
To that end, Steward is ready to
readers of Arrive that passengers stopping other forms of entertainment and
embrace some of the same techniques
at New York’s Penn Station can reach the enlightenment,” warns against the
as Lehman, including simpler language
Brooklyn Museum in just half an hour by danger of dumbing them down in an
in explanatory labels and evening hours
subway—the same length of time it takes effort to make them more accessible,
with music and food.
to ride a city bus uptown to the Met.
and disdains the recent fashion of hous-
“I am absolutely shameless about
ing museums in “splashy vessels, as if
what it takes to get someone over the
Welcome to the Third Space
the container matters more than the
threshold,” he says. “But once they’re in
James C. Steward is in some respects a objects inside” (see sidebar). Yet, Stew-
the door, I’m very concerned about the
very different type of museum director ard shares with Lehman the challenge
high quality of the experience.”
than his counterpart at the Brooklyn.
Unlike Lehman, who combines an
of taking a well-located museum with
a first-class collection and giving it the
Steward says his model for the
art museum is not a temple but a
