Welcome, Class of 2027! The Lewis Center is your Pathway to the Arts. This page offers information for incoming first-year students interested in pursuing the arts while at Princeton.
A Welcome Message from Chair Judith Hamera
Find Your Path to the Arts
Connect with Lewis Center faculty, students and staff in-person at the Academic Expo on August 28 from 1-4 p.m. at the Frick Chemistry Lab Atrium. Faculty, current students and staff will be at the Lewis Center table and will also provide an information session earlier that day at 10:15 a.m. in Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) A32 (across the bridge from Frick).
In case you miss the Expo or information session for a program that interests you, don’t hesitate to reach out to a staff Program Associate with any questions you might have. We’re here to help!
Fall 2023 Courses
Lewis Center for the Arts courses are offered in Creative Writing, Dance, Theater & Music Theater, Visual Arts (including film/video), and through the interdisciplinary Princeton Atelier. Minors are awarded in the areas of Creative Writing, Dance, Theater & Music Theater, and Visual Arts, as well as a degree in the Practice of Art track offered by the Department of Art and Archaeology in collaboration with the Program in Visual Arts. Review a list of FAQs about Lewis Center courses and minor programs or download an LCA advising guide (PDF). You will also find additional courses offered by other departments that may be cross-listed with the arts, as well as Freshman Seminars taught by LCA faculty.
Creative Writing
Creative Writing Courses
Welcome, Class of 2027! We can’t wait to see you in workshops in the Program in Creative Writing. Every fall, we reserve 3 of 10 sought-after spaces in each introductory workshop for first-year students like you so that you can immerse yourself right away in the craft of creative writing by taking a small class with some of the most acclaimed writers in the world.
Marilyn Chin, Michael Dickman, Katie Farris, A.M. Homes, Lynn Melnick, Yiyun Li, Ilya Kaminsky, Idra Novey, Patricia Smith, and Susan Wheeler are among the award-winning faculty teaching introductory workshops open to first-year students. Graduating Princeton seniors often tell us they regret not taking creative writing courses sooner in their undergraduate careers. Don’t delay what may be the best classroom experience you have at Princeton!
Introductory CWR courses are open enrollment but fill quickly. Advanced classes require departmental permission to enroll. Explore fall 2023 creative writing courses and review all course enrollment info. If you’ve always wanted to study creative writing but have never written creatively before, just jump in and try it out: introductory classes are designed for motivated beginners.
Questions about the program? Email Program Manager Erin West: erin.west@princeton.edu.
Dance
Watch a video introduction to the Program in Dance:
Dance Performance Opportunities & Courses
Want to perform? Students in the following dance courses will perform in the Fall 2023 Princeton Dance Festival at the Berlind Theatre (Dec. 1-3, 2023). Mandatory dance placement class (all students who attend will be placed in a course) will be held on Monday, September 4 at 3 p.m. in the Hearst Dance Theater at the Lewis Arts complex. Let your advisor know you want to take a dance course!
Princeton Dance Festival courses:
- DAN 319 B — Dance Performance Workshop with Brian Brooks (Mon./Wed., 4:30-6:20 PM)
- DAN 320 B — Dance Performance Workshop with Shamel Pitts (Mon./Wed., 4:30-6:20 PM)
- DAN 419 B — Dance Performance Workshop with Catherine Cabeen, staging Bill T. Jones’ work (Mon./Wed., 4:30-6:20 PM)
- DAN 420 B — Dance Performance Workshop with Donna Uchizono (Tues., 1:30-4:20 PM)
Note: Students in DAN 319, 320, 419, and 420 must also take a Choreography Workshop “A” section. Your “A” section will be confirmed following the placement class and you’ll be able to enroll on September 5. Please email Cindy Rosenfeld at cr17@princeton.edu with any questions.
Want to perform in Princeton Dance Festival but can’t take a dance course? Audition to be in a guest choreographer’s work! You may audition for both opportunities but would only be cast in one. Guest Choreographer Auditions will be held Saturday, September 9.
- Sept. 9, 1-3 PM — with Amy Hall Garner in Murphy Dance Studio
- Sept. 9, 4-6 PM — with Ishita Mili in Murphy Dance Studio
- Register for Guest Choreographer Auditions
Want to perform in Senior Choreographic Independent Projects?
Rising seniors will hold workshops to introduce prospective cast members to their choreographic processes. Senior choreographic projects offer a great opportunity to perform during the spring 2024 semester in interesting new works exploring a wide range of genres, ideas and techniques. Be prepared to move, meet other dancers, and have fun!
- Sept. 5 + 7 at 4:30-6:20 p.m. in Hearst Dance Theater
- Open to all interested students, no registration required.
- Read more about senior choreographic projects
Take a Dance Course
In addition to the Princeton Dance Festival courses, the dance (DAN) courses listed below are open to first-year students, pending availability. View all fall 2023 dance courses »
- DAN 211/AAS 211 — The American Experience and Dance Practices of the African Diaspora
- DAN 213 — Introduction to Contemporary Dance
- DAN 224 — Experiential Anatomy
- DAN 326 — Introduction to Vortex: A Sacred Dance Practice
- DAN 351 — Inventing Performance
Weekly Drop-In Classes
Just want to take a class or two, or maybe try something new? Attend co-curricular (non-credit) drop-in, free, dance classes. View the dance co-curricular class offerings and schedule »
If you have any questions before you come to campus, please feel free to reach out to Prof. Tina Fehlandt at fehlandt@princeton.edu.
Theater & Music Theater
The Program in Theater & Music Theater welcomes all new students, beginners and experienced alike, to explore theater and collaborate with award-winning professional theater artists and scholars in the classroom, rehearsal studio and onstage! Performing roles, production, design and musical opportunities are available to all first-year students in a diverse student-initiated season of classic, contemporary, musical and student-created pieces. No experience is required. Join us at our Try On Theater Days to get started on September 5 (annual theater community day) and September 6 + 7 (casting and recruitment workshops) in the second-floor theater studios at the Lewis Arts complex. Also look out for information and dates for our Princeton Playhouse Ensembles, a choir and orchestra focused on music for the theater and open to all. Students considering a minor are encouraged to explore all sides of theater making and can begin working towards student show support requirements in their first year. Keep an eye out for theater workshops including fall co-curricular classes open to all on performance, design, and production.
There is no application, audition or portfolio to begin pursuing a minor in theater and music theater — all students are accepted into the program.
Hear from Jane Cox about opportunities in theater in the video below:
Theater & Music Theater Courses
The Program in Theater & Music Theater offers courses in performance, directing, writing and composing for theater and music theater, design, technology in live entertainment, dramaturgy, theater and music theater scholarship, history and criticism, and special topics. First-year students who are committed to theater are encouraged to take THR/MTD 101, a mandatory course for the minor, and an introduction to many different kinds of theater making from a collaborative and multicultural perspective. View fall 2023 theater & music theater courses. Most available courses are open enrollment.
Questions about the program? Email Program Associate Joe Fonseca: jfonseca@princeton.edu
Visual Arts
The Program in Visual Arts encourages you to immerse yourself in the process of making. Whether it is a film, sculpture, photograph, painting, or design project, our faculty of contemporary artists will guide you through the conception, creation, and exhibition of your works of art. Our 200-level courses are all geared toward first-year students and require no previous art making experience. Learn the skills and strategies to explore and express your life experience through art. View fall 2023 visual arts courses.
Interested in film/video?
Within the Program in Visual Arts, courses are offered at introductory and advanced levels in film and video production. View fall 2023 courses in film/video.
Questions about the program? Email Program Associate Kristy Seymour: kseymour@princeton.edu
Every fall, junior and senior students open their studios at 185 Nassau to the public for Open Studios. In this video, see the artists’ spaces and works-in-progress from last year’s Open Studios event:
Princeton Atelier
The Princeton Atelier offers unique interdisciplinary courses taught by guest artists and focusing on the creation of new collaborative work. A number of seats in all fall Atelier courses are held for first year students — consider one of these not-to-be-missed experiences.
- In ATL 494, learn how to create comedy for television with Baby Wants Candy comedy writer Al Samuels and Saturday Night Live comedy writer Michael Koman
- Movement artist Bill Bowers, multi-disciplinary extended reality artist LaJuné McMillian, and director Scott Illingworth will teach you about building story through movement and embodied technologies in ATL 495
- In ATL 496, go beyond the obvious aspects of penning a script and drawing characters and develop a graphic novel alongside New Yorker cartoonist E.S. Glenn
- Take the chance to live in the musical language and vocal style of Saint Hildegarde von Bingen! Sarah Kirkland Snider’s first opera, Hildegarde, is slated for 2025 and students in ATL 497 will work with Kirkland Snider and Gabriel Crouch to develop the eight lead vocal roles of the opera.
Visit the Princeton Atelier page to learn more about fall 2023 Atelier courses. Please contact Mindy Solis with questions: ms2958@princeton.edu.
Explore past Atelier collaborations through photos, words, and videos in the Princeton Atelier course archive.
Music
For information on programs of study and courses in music, visit the Department of Music website.
Freshman Seminars
First-year students have a unique opportunity to begin their Princeton journey with a Freshman Seminar, working closely with an instructor and a small group of fellow students on a topic of special interest. Consider taking one of these seminars that focus on the arts, led by LCA faculty:
- FRS 123 — “Poetry Makes History, History Makes Poetry: Reading and Writing Documentary Poems” with Kathleen Ossip
- FRS 125 — “Unbeaten Paths: Crosslinking Majors and the Arts, Revitalizing a Renaissance View” with Anne Eder
- FRS 138 — “Representation in Documentary Filmmaking” with BJ Perlmutt
- FRS 143 — “Is Politics a Performance” with Aaron Landsman
- FRS 147 — “How People Change: the Short Story and Life’s Transitions” with Sheila Kohler
- FRS 169 — “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Wisdom of Crowds” with Susanna Moore
- FRS 173 — “Respuesta Teatral: Social & Political Performance Inspirations from Latin America” with Vivia Font
- FRS 175 — “Performance and Analog Photography” with Jennifer Calivas
Each Freshman Seminar requires an application, which open in early July. Browse all Fall 2023 Freshman Seminars and review the student application process.
