Addison Gallery of American Art

Addison Gallery of American Art
Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
addisongallery.org

The Addison Gallery of American Art houses, interprets, and shares with the public one of the most important collections of American art in the world. As one of the first institutions dedicated exclusively to American art, the Addison has pioneered scholarship that illuminates the legacy of artistic innovation in the United States. Today, the Addison’s program aims to catalyze new dialogues on America and what it means to be American, providing a forum for audiences to reflect on the past, present, and future of the United States. Located on the Phillips Academy campus in Andover, Massachusetts, the Addison offers unparalleled resources for students at Phillips Academy and throughout the region to encounter great works of art and engage with important contemporary artists. The museum offers free admission to visitors, creating a vibrant and accessible art experience for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

 Collection
Through the Addison’s collection of over 23,000 works across all media, visitors can trace the cultural, political, and social forces that have shaped the American experience from the 18th century to the present. The museum’s founding collection includes major works by such artists as Mary Cassatt, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler. Since opening in 1931, the Addison has built a far-ranging collection through gifts and acquisitions that tell a textured, inclusive, and pertinent narrative of American art history, encompassing works by artists Mark Bradford, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Charles Sheeler, John Sloan, Lorna Simpson, Frank Stella, and Kara Walker, among others.

Early in its history, the Addison recognized the importance of photography as an art form and has developed expansive holdings in the medium, forging a collection that includes works by photographers Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Roy DeCarava, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Timothy O’Sullivan, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Alfred Stieglitz, and Carleton Watkins, to name just a few. The Addison was also one of the first American museums to actively exhibit photography, presenting images by artists such as Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and Margaret Bourke-White as early as the 1930s.

Exhibitions
Ranging from major traveling shows to intimate explorations of its collections, the Addison’s exhibition program reveals new perspectives on American art through scholarship that expands understanding of the American art canon from the 18th century to the present. The museum’s legacy of organizing groundbreaking presentations continues with recent exhibitions, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer (2022), presenting nearly 100 photographs from a newly examined archive that reveal the American icon’s Modernist approach to the medium; Mel Kendrick: Seeing Things in Things (2021), a long-overdue retrospective that assembled a full range of works that reflect Kendrick’s provocative, ongoing investigations into the fundamentals and possibilities of sculpture; and A Wildness Distant from Ourselves: Art and Ecology in 19th-Century America (2019), which brought together paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs, decorative arts, and natural history specimens to reveal the complex histories and persistent impacts of the 19th-century European American relationship with the natural world.

Education
The Addison was established by alumnus Thomas Cochran (Class of 1890) “to enrich permanently the lives of the students” at Phillips Academy. The museum has deepened this commitment over the years, becoming a national leader in promoting the arts as a central component of a secondary education. Phillips Academy faculty turn to the Addison’s collection and the museum’s team of educators to engage students in object-based learning and rich discussions that reach across disciplines. The Museum Learning Center enables students to engage in object-based learning as part of their daily coursework in a wide variety of subject areas. The museum’s robust education outreach program engages pre-K–12 and college and university students with programs in the classroom and on-site in the Addison’s galleries to promote interdisciplinary learning as complements to curricula.

Visiting
The Addison Gallery of American Art is located on the campus of Phillips Academy at the corner of Route 28 [Main Street] and Chapel Avenue in Andover, Massachusetts. The museum is free of charge and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5, and Sunday 1-5; closed national holidays. The Addison is wheelchair accessible.

For those who are unable to visit in person, the Addison’s website provides a variety of resources for visiting virtually, including virtual tours of shows, a collection database, digital portfolios, creative projects for kids, and videos of presentations and interviews with Addison staff.

 

http://www.andover.edu/museums/addison
978-749-4015

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Addison Gallery of American Art