ANDOVER.- On July 31 at 10:00 a.m., the Addison Gallery of American Art, the academic art museum of Phillips Academy, turned its keys over to Shawmut Design and Construction, thus beginning the first major building project in the museum’s 77-year history. Praised for its commitment to world-class exhibition, publishing and education programs that cultivate a love of the beautiful in students from Phillips Academy and the surrounding region along with the public at large, the museum will undergo its first physical expansion beginning on the 31st and lasting through Winter 2010.

The $30 million “Campaign for the Addison,” will provide new spaces, the restoration of the current space and needed endowments to secure the museum’s financial future. Goals of the campaign include:

Create the Addison Gallery Museum Learning Center
Provide appropriate collection storage and art preservation space
Construct new office space
Renovate and restore the existing Platt Building
Ensure the Addison’s future financial stability
“After a thorough, creative, well-researched planning period, we are thrilled to see the construction underway,” remarked Brian T. Allen, Mary Stripp & R. Crosby Kemper Director of the Addison. “The expanded space will allow the Addison to continue to support the tremendous growth of our mission, collection, staff and programming.”

As the restoration project unfolds, interested individuals are welcome to visit the Addison’s website for regular progress updates, including photographic documentation of the construction. The site will also feature information on the Addison’s education program, which will continue to operate within the Andover community and beyond. In addition to sustained educational efforts, the Addison will coordinate critically-acclaimed traveling exhibitions consisting of works from the permanent collection throughout the United States and in Europe, details of which will also be available online.