Campaign residen the P -litics - Princeton University

of the visual arts program at the Lewis
Center. He declined to give details
about who was behind the duck, but
acknowledged it was the culmination
of a student’s project for his advanced
sculpture course. “Art is all about persuasion,”
Scanlan said, and the project
“worked well as an artwork and as a
kind of social experiment on the allure
of privileged access and society.”
The student behind the project,
Diana Li ’13, attended the event, but
denied any involvement. A few days
later, though, she set the record straight.
The ducks were “an arbitrary choice,” Li
said, but the goal was “pushing boundaries
and eliciting reactions — having
people wonder how much trust can
you put into this game, and reconsider
what they feel qualifies as art.”
For Li, the most rewarding part of
the project was being able to see the
responses from the audience — some
of them unpredictable. Even after Scanlan’s
revelation about the art project, a
group of students remained on the
floor, waiting for something to happen.
Said Sarah Schwartz ’15: “I came here
hoping for an explosion.” π
ing Harvard and Rutgers, offer chaplaincies
that support humanist, atheist,
agnostic, and other nonreligious campus
communities.
One of PUSH’s primary functions is
to provide a welcoming community for
students questioning religion, said Jackson,
the group’s president.
“Princeton is a pretty open environment,”
said Michael Pretko ’13. “No one
would put you down for your religious
beliefs or lack of religious beliefs.”
Still, some students feel a stigma
attached to atheism, not just on campus
— where they say it is sometimes
expressed with “a weird look” — but
especially in their hometowns. Some
describe themselves as “closet atheists.”
“People want to talk about their
background, their history, how their
beliefs are changing, and whether their
families are accepting of them,” Schiff
said. “You want to make sense of an ethical
system and talk with other people,
without having to invoke religion —
and feel safe and comfortable.” π
From
Princeton’s
vault
Aframefit
for a king
What: A 2010 restoration
regilded a picture frame that
Princeton University Art Museum
curator Karl Kusserow calls
“among the most storied in
American art.”
As every tourist learns at
Nassau Hall, the 252-year-old
frame (shown here in original
condition and during restoration)
contained a portrait of King
George II until his image was
decapitated by a cannonball in
the Battle of Princeton. Another
portrait was inserted: that of
George Washington (below).
The monarch was revered for
giving the college its charter, but amid Revolutionary tumult a gilded crown
was hacked off the top of the frame. No one knows exactly when.
Where: Princeton University Art Museum
By W. Barksdale Maynard ’88
In the 1777 battle, a fusillade of cannonballs
drove British stragglers out of
Nassau Hall, ruining the portrait in the
process. The trustees commissioned
Charles Willson Peale to paint “Washington
at the Battle of Princeton” at just
the right size to fit the handsome frame.
Twice rescued when the building caught
fire, Peale’s portrait continued to grace
Nassau Hall until it was removed in
2005, with its frame, to the art museum
for safekeeping. A replica picture hangs
in the Faculty Room today.
Restoration has added palm leaves atop
the famous frame – but no crown.
paw.princeton.edu • May 16, 2012 Princeton Alumni Weekly
PHOTOS: ELIZABETH HARKINS BAUGHAN; JEFFREY EVANS/PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM
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