Art, Artists, and the Addison: Building a Collection

The Addison -an international, national, and regional treasure-has one of the most important collections of American art in the country. The Boston Phoenix described the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy , "one of the most significant jewels in the crown of New England Museums." and The Boston Globe wrote of a recent exhibition, "Once again, the Addison has demonstrated why it is one of this region's artistic treasures." Come see for yourself the richness of the Addison 's holdings and celebrate the role the Addison plays in bringing art, artists, and students together.

This spring the Addison's galleries will be filled with masterworks by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, George Bellows, as well as artists/alumni John McLaughlin, Joseph Cornell, Carl Andre, Carroll Dunham, Peter Halley, and Frank Stella, in celebration of the artists, alumni, collectors, and donors who have had the vision and generosity to build this national collection. Since the museum opened its doors in 1931 with five hundred great works of art, the collection has grown so that today it numbers over 13,500 works in all media-paintings, prints, sculpture, photographs, and more-from the eighteenth century to the present. These works enrich the lives of students and visitors alike.

Art, Artists, and the Addison pays tribute to those donors who have been captivated by the museum's lively programs, great art, ambitious exhibitions, and teaching mission. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the deep and fruitful connections that have existed between art, artists, and the museum over its seventy-three year history.

In the first two decades after its founding the Addison forged rich and productive relationships with living artists. Formative projects -the first retrospective exhibition of the work of John Sloan, a groundbreaking traveling exhibition developed with the artist Edward Hopper and based on his great painting, Manhattan Bridge Loop : a series of four exhibitions with Josef Albers, the first museum exhibition of the work of an abstract expressionist painter, Hans Hofmann-set the tone for all of the museum's following history.

Edward Hopper, Manhattan Bridge Loop , 1928, oil on canvas, 35 x 60 inches, Gift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq. 1932.17
© Addison Gallery of American Art

The first official artist-in-residence at the Addison was Charles Sheeler, who was invited to live and work on campus for a period of four weeks in 1946. The artist explored Andover , painted the mill buildings of Ballardvale, showed his work, and engaged with academy students. This important interaction between artist and Addison 's audiences was formalized as the Edward E. Elson artist-in-residence program in the early 1980s. Since then, a remarkable number of nationally-recognized artists-Wendy Ewald, Tony Feher, Robert Frank, Anna Gaskell, Sol LeWitt, Kerry James Marshall, Joel Shapiro,and Sue Williams-have spent time at the Addison, working with students, both from the academy and the surrounding area, showing their work, and enlivening and enriching the educational experience at Andover.

Most recently, the Addison was one of only 16 institutions chosen nation-wide to receive the first ever Nimoy Visual Artist Residencies Grants. The Nimoy Foundation-established in early 2003 by Susan Bay Nimoy and actor/director/photographer Leonard Nimoy-was designed to recognize, encourage, and support the work of contemporary artists. In addition to the Addison Gallery, awards were given to other Massachusetts organizations including the Institute of Contemporary Arts , the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , and MASS MocCA in North Adams . "All the institutions," said Leonard Nimoy, "are internationally significant in their extraordinary commitment to individual artists."

Seeing, learning, exploring, teaching have gone hand in hand at the Addison from the start. Unique in its association with a secondary school, the Addison has engaged students, teachers, art lovers, and artists in this common enterprise. Art, Artists, and the Addison is a tribute and celebration of those who have made the collection what it is today.