PRINCETON, NJ.- Reflecting an ongoing commitment to enhanced accessibility, the Princeton University Art Museum will offer extended evening hours, Late Thursdays,each week beginning September 17, 2009. The galleries and Museum Store will stay open until 10 p.m. every Thursday, offering visitors the opportunity to explore the Museum’s special exhibitions and collections, and enjoy such programs as film screenings, musical performances, and drop-in activities. As always, admission to the Museum is free and open to all.

“As one of the greatest but perhaps lesser known art collections in the nation, we have an exceptional opportunity to make the Museum an essential part of the lives of our students and broader community, and an essential element of any visit to Princeton,” says Museum Director James Steward, who assumed his position in April. “We’re re-committing ourselves to reflecting the many ways in which we live our lives, and hope the extended hours and enhanced visitor services will make a visit to the Museum easier and more enjoyable.”

Late Thursdays will launch with a lively open house on September 17, welcoming Princeton University students to a new academic year and affording a chance for community members, students, and visitors to mingle and discover a wealth of art. Of note will be a “Nassau Street Sampler” featuring food from many of Princeton’s eclectic restaurants. Subsequent Late Thursdays will routinely include evenings to explore cinema as an art form and varied performances of world music and other live performances linking the visual arts with the world of creative expression.

The Princeton University Art Museum is at the heart of the historic and beautiful Princeton University campus and only a five-minute walk from the shopping and dining offerings of Princeton. With diverse and encyclopedic collections numbering some 72,000 objects ranging from ancient to contemporary, and over a dozen special exhibitions offered each year, the Museum can be a source of endless pleasure, whether in the form of lively social engagement or quiet contemplation. The upcoming Fall 2009 exhibition season promises to inspire, delight, and inform with a rich range of special exhibitions and related programs including Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, a major exhibition highlighting the little-known but exquisite art of the ancient Arctic hunters from both the American and Russian sides of Bering Strait, on view October 4, 2009, through January 10, 2010. Also on view from September 12 will be Life Objects: Rites of Passage in African Art, highlighting the conjunction of art, religion, and ritual in key phases of the human life cycle in traditional African societies. Emmet Gowin: A Collective Portrait, opening October 24, will celebrate one of the great contemporary American photographers and rounds out the fall trilogy of special exhibitions.