The Addison Gallery, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, is free and open to the public. Plan your visit >
Our Mission
Home to a world-class collection of American art, the Addison Gallery, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, presents an adventurous exhibition program, hosts a vital artist-in-residence program, and works collaboratively with students and faculty at the Academy and in neighboring communities. Through our ongoing query What is America?, the Addison seeks to engage with the history of American art and American experience—past, present, and future.
About Our Collection
Comprised of more than 29,000 works in all media—painting, sculpture, photography, drawings, prints, and decorative arts—from the 18th century to the present, the Addison Gallery’s collection of American art is one of the most important in the world.
The museum’s founding collection included major works by such prominent American artists as John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, John Twachtman, and James McNeill Whistler.
In the nine decades since, aggressive purchasing and generous gifts have added works by such artists as Mark Bradford, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Kerry James Marshall, Eadweard Muybridge, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Charles Sheeler, Lorna Simpson, John Sloan, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Frank Stella, Kara Walker, and Stanley Whitney.
Tommy Kha, Other Things Uttered book launch party this Thursday (January 15th) from 6 to 8! Be there!
Join us to celebrate the arrival of our most recent publication, Hayes Prize 2025: @tommykha, Other Things Uttered. The second in our ongoing Hayes Prize series, this fully-illustrated volume documents Kha’s Addison exhibition and includes an essay by @janeursulaharris and poems by @ocean_vuong inspired by Kha’s work. Tommy Kha will be present to sign copies of the book; a limited number of advance copies will be available for purchase on a first-come, first-served basis.
No registration required!
Remembering our friend and champion, John Axelrod (1946-2026).
The Addison Gallery of American Art was fortunate to enjoy a close and enduring relationship with @phillipsacademy graduate and vanguard collector, John Axelrod (PA 1964), as a benefactor, mentor, and most importantly, friend. Over the course of many years, the museum’s exhibitions and collections were significantly enhanced by John’s notoriously keen and prescient eye and deep knowledge and connoisseurship. Guided by his motto “buy only what you love,” his passion for art knew no bounds, encompassing an astonishingly wide range of media and time periods. The Addison’s numerous collaborations with John have included exhibitions and installations focused on Art Deco silver, 1980’s “Loisaida” and New York City street art, magic realism, and Precisionism, to name a few. In addition to lending work, John was an extraordinarily generous donor, making a number of transformative gifts to the collection including works by artists such as Clayton Bailey, José Bedia, Paul Cadmus, Ralston Crawford, Chris “Daze” Ellis, Peter Hujar, PaJaMa, Jackson Pollock, Betye Saar, George Tooker, and Martin Wong. In recent years John established the John P. Axelrod (PA 1964) Acquisition Fund, ensuring his continued impact on the Addison, Phillips Academy, and the broader community.
We will miss John dearly.
John at his 60th Andover reunion in 2024 smiling in front of George Tooker’s Market, one of his many magnanimous gifts the Addison
This Sunday! Join us for an afternoon of explorations while we place works of art, spoken word, and your lived experience in conversations with each other.
• Spoken word performance and workshop with special guests @adobofishsauce.
• Spotlight tours and activities inspired by the exhibition Hayes Prize 2025: @tommykha, Other Things Uttered.
Free and open to students 13 years of age and older. We welcome your presence, vulnerability, and willingness to share.
Light refreshments will be available.
Hosted by @addisoncommunityambassadors from Andover High School, Greater Lawrence Technical School, Lawrence High School, and Phillips Academy. Co-sponsored by Andover Bread Loaf @voicesofabl.
Register online via the link in our bio!
The Addison will be closed December 24th and 25th. We’ll be back on Friday! Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate!
Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Christmas Card, 1930. Collage on paper.
The Addison Gallery needs you in 2025! Your year-end gift, before midnight on Dec. 31, will help sustain everything you know and love about the museum and its commitment to American art—remarkable exhibitions, transformative programming, and more. Bonus: donors who give $100 or more will receive a NARM card for reciprocal museum admission nationwide. Don’t delay! Support the Addison with a gift of any size now at the link in our bio. #Andover #PhillipsAcademy #NonSibi
It’s always sunny at the Addison! Looking to escape the crippling depression that goes hand in hand with today’s winter solstice? Go see Making Their Way: The Florida Highwaymen Painters—which, by the way, closes on January 4th! ☀️ 🌴
This exhibition explores the improbable story and prodigious output of the Florida Highwaymen, an amorphous group of primarily self-taught African American artists who forged often lucrative careers as landscape painters against the backdrop of racially segregated Jim Crow Florida. Hailing largely from the communities of Fort Pierce and Gifford along the Atlantic coast of Florida, the Highwaymen produced hundreds of thousands of expressive and shockingly vibrant landscape paintings that captured the rapidly disappearing natural beauty of their region from their emergence in the late 1950s through the early 1980s.
We’re open today from 1-5! Come escape the New England winter for a while!
Harold Newton (1934-1994). River Grass, c. 1970. Oil on board. Collection of Jonathan Otto.
We’re inquisitive and ACQUISITIVE here at the Addison! We thought we’d share just a few of the remarkable works that have entered the Addison’s permanent collection over the past year. These works variously build on extant strengths, fill gaps in our holdings, and expand the scope of our remarkable collection of 29,000+ objects that chart the course of the art of the United States across media from the 17th century to the present day. Most of all, these works offer greater nuance to our ongoing inquiry—what is America?
Of course, none of this would be possible without the incredible generosity of our dedicated supporters—some of whom are mentioned by name in the credit lines accompanying each work (see the pinned comment below). Thank you all for making this year a banner year for acquisitions at the Addison!
1. Betye Saar (b. 1926). A Different Destiny, 2024. Mixed media assemblage.
2. F. Holland Day (1864-1933). Pilate, 1906. Platinum print.
3. Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, b. 1978). Untitled, 2023. Basket relief print.
4. Ralston Crawford (1906-1978). Lifeboat Davit, 1940. Oil on canvas.
5. Peter Hujar (1934-1987). Man in Park, c. 1969. Gelatin silver print.
6. Liz Collins (PA 1986, b. 1968). Spring, 2025. Linen, polyester, and silk.
7. Robert Frank (1924-2019). Mabou Winter Footage, 1977. Gelatin silver print.
8. Martin Puryear (b. 1941). Jug, 2001. Spit bite aquatint with drypoint and chine collé.
9. LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982). Grandma Ruby’s Refrigerator, 2007. Gelatin silver print.
10. Nina Katchadourian (b. 1968). Lavatory Self Portrait in the Flemish Style #10, 2012. Chromogenic print.
GivingTuesday is here, and the Addison Gallery of American Art needs your support! We’re so grateful for your donation of any size. Together, we can sustain world-class exhibitions and inspire lifelong learning. And don’t forget—as thanks for your contribution of $100 or more, you’ll receive free admission and discounts to more than 1,000 museums through the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association. Thank you! Visit the link in our bio to make an impact.
The Addison will be closed tomorrow (Thursday, November 27th) in observance of Thanksgiving. We’ll return to our regular hours on Friday—come for a visit! Remember, we’re 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 free!
Winslow Homer (1836-1910). Thanksgiving Day in the Army. After Dinner: the Wish-Bone, 1864. Wood engraving on paper. Gift of Thomas E. Weil, Jr. (PA 1966), 1991.169
Please join us in wishing our dear friend @dawoudbey a very happy birthday! You can find Bey’s work on view right now at the Addison in two exhibitions—Family Portrait and Captive Lands!
Did you know that Dawoud Bey has been an Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence here at the Addison a record-breaking four times?
In 1992, Addison director Jock Reynolds invited Dawoud Bey to campus, offering him access to Polaroid’s large studio camera if he would spend a number of months working with both @phillipsacademy and Lawrence High School students. Bey was intrigued by the idea of an intensive photographic portrait project and accepted. Immersing himself within the community, he met with students and faculty in classrooms and the museum while also making multiple trips to the Polaroid studio at @massartboston to take their portraits. The resulting work was exhibited at the Addison and the experience was a formative one for the artist:
“It provided the sustained environment and support that made it possible for me to figure out where I wanted to be in my work, and it also allowed me to wrap my ideas about picture making around a single subject— teenagers—for two months of unrestrained creative and intellectual whorl. It was tremendously important to my growth as an artist. I do believe that the whole of my career since 1992 rests on the ideas, processes, and methodologies that I was able to develop during that initial Addison residency.”
Bey made additional visits to Andover in 1997, 2005, and 2007, all of which resulted in new and increasingly innovative work.
See Bey’s spectacular Polaroid triptych portrait of the celebrated Harvard sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and her son, Martin David, and daughter, Tolani, on view now in Family Portrait.
Dawoud Bey (born 1953). Sara, Martin David, and Tolani, 1992. Polaroid ER prints (triptych). 30 x 66 inches. Museum purchase, 1993.36a-c
#dawoudbey
Looking for a quiet place to get work done? Join us for Study Hours at the Addison on Wednesday evening, November 19, from 5:00 to 8:00pm. Tables will be set up for studying and a coffee cart and snacks will be available to keep you energized. All are welcome, no reservations required. Please note that the 2nd floor galleries will be closed at this time.
MINI PRINT VENDING MACHINE ALERT!
Portland, Maine–based artist Ana Inciardi’s Mini Print Vending Machines can be found throughout the United States and are rapidly expanding. The Addison Gallery is excited to offer a rotating selection of limited-edition works, including the museum’s iconic Venus Anadyomene fountain by Paul Manship.
The mission behind this project is to share art that is accessible and affordable, so please be considerate and limit your prints to 10 per person. Visit the front desk to exchange up to $3 in quarters (cash only).
Come for the mini prints, stay for the world-class exhibitions and collections.
Addison Stories
