The Lewis Center is named in honor of Peter B. Lewis of the Princeton Class of 1955. A Charter Trustee of the University, Mr. Lewis is Chairman of the Board of the Progressive Corporation. In his 35 years at the helm of Progressive, he transformed the firm into the nation’s third largest auto insurance company and introduced consumer conveniences that have influenced the entire industry. His significant philanthropy has supported organizations in the arts, science, education, and progressive reform. His many gifts to Princeton include the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and the Peter B. Lewis '55 Science Library, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry and scheduled to open in 2008. In 2006, Mr. Lewis made a $101 million gift to the University in support of a new vision for the creative and performing arts on campus. It is through this extraordinary generosity that the Lewis Center was established.

The Lewis Center for the Arts will allow Princeton to fully engage with a range of programs that integrate the creative and performing arts into a broad liberal arts education. The Center will give a new focus and force to the Programs in Creative Writing, Theater and Dance, and Visual Arts, as well as to Film and Video, Musical Performance and to the Princeton Atelier. It will also have close links to the School of Architecture, Department of Art and Archaeology, Council of the Humanities, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of English, Department of Music, Princeton University Art Museum and the McCarter Theatre Center.

Students concentrating in molecular biology or mechanical engineering will be heartened to find that chemistry and physics, not to speak of mathematics, are all central to the idea of art-making. Students who are first and foremost interested in choreography, costume design, screenwriting, printmaking, photography, painting or poetry, or indeed any aspect of the creative or performing arts, will discover that Princeton’s faculty and facilities will be second to none. Another significant component in the Lewis Center for the Arts will be a Society of Fellows in the Arts, bringing to the campus some of the most exciting artists and performers—and scholars of art and performance—of our era.