‘James Steward is a distinguished scholar, a gifted manager, and a proven leader in the museum world,” says Princeton University provost Christopher Eisgurber about the Princeton University Art Museum’s new director. Steward, an arts administrator who specializes in 18th- and 19th-century European art and culture, was previously the director of the Museum of Art at the University of Michigan, where he was responsble for overseeing the planning, construction, and fundraising for a $42 million expansion and restoration designed by Allied Works Architecture. The museum’s recently completed fundraising campaign secured more than $62 million in capital, endowment, and operation gifts.
Steward earned a bachelor’s degree in French, history, and art history with honors from the University of Virginia. He also studied at the Sorbonne, and earned a master’s degree in the history of art at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from Oxford.
Steward succeeds Susan Taylor, who was director for the museum from 2000 until the end of the last academic year.
