By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Shirley M. Tilghman rose from her seat Friday to take a bow of sorts inside Princeton University’s new arts center, a place she had the vision for more than a decade ago and then helped to realize.
The crowd attending the dedication ceremony of the Lewis Center for the Arts complex gave her a round of applause for about half a minute, in tribute to the erstwhile university president who went back to teaching after leaving Nassau Hall in the summer of 2013. She rose, gave a wave of recognition and sat down for the program to continue.
Tilghman sat a few rows behind from where Gov. Chris Christie was sitting. She had no entourage, no speaking role during the ceremony and no staffer hovering over her.
In an interview afterward, she reflected on the project and how the seed for it got planted almost from the moment she became the 19th university president in 2001.
“This is a dream come true,” she said. “I think it is historic. It’s a statement for the importance of the arts. It’s going to be a magnificent home for our students and faculty and for the community.”
The Lewis Center project was part of transforming that end of town, including a new train station, two new restaurants and traffic circulation improvements.
“A little change in the neighborhood, won’t you say?” Tilghman would tell Mayor Liz Lempert after the ceremony was over.
“If you remember back to what this corner looked like ten years ago, it wasn’t pretty,” Tilghman said. “And today, it is not just beautiful but it’s functional.”
In the infancy of her administration, she was approached by students telling her how difficult it was to do the arts at Princeton, she recalled.
“I can’t think of another area of this university where students were so adamantly concerned that their aspirations were not being met,” she said. “So literally two days into the job, I knew I had to pay some attention to the arts.”
Tilghman, a scientist by training and a Canadian by birth, grew up around music and the performing arts. Her father moonlighted as a jazz pianist, while she played piano and guitar.
“So the arts were part of my growing up,” she said. “And I did deeply believe that it feeds the soul.”
The university would conceive of its arts and transit project, to include new campus buildings and a new train station, among other things. The some $330 million project included a $101 million gift from Peter Lewis, the billionaire businessman, university alumnus and later trustee who died in 2013, at 80, before seeing the finished product. Lewis’ daughter, Ivy, spoke on behalf of her family and singled out Tilghman in her remarks.
She said her father “loved Princeton, he loved pushing boundaries and he thrived on creativity.”
“Our dad credited Princeton with cementing his drive for excellence,” she said. “He treasured his involvement with Princeton because of Princeton’s unwavering dedication to excellence, which is reflected in this amazing complex, which has literally expanded the boundaries of Princeton’s campus.”
But moving the NJ Transit Dinky train some 460 feet south was, and remains, controversial. The then-Princeton Borough Council — several members of whom attended Friday’s dedication — narrowly approved the zoning changes the university had sought for the project, in 2011.
“The only debate was about where the train would be, there was no other debate,” said current Council President Jenny Crumiller, who voted six years ago against the zoning change.
“I’m very happy that this is open and that the community can now heal,” said Kevin Wilkes, a former borough councilman.
“I think that there was mostly enthusiastic support for an arts complex,” said Mayor Liz Lempert, formerly of the township committee, “and the controversy was more surrounding the Dinky.”
