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.
The press has been hounding us for our opinion re: Addison Rae’s new album and name change. Ok, @addisonraee, we’ll be cool with you being referred to mononymously as Addison from now on as long as you allow us to remain THE Addison. We can share both the spotlight and the millions of adoring fans. The new album is great.
Remember when Addison Rae discovered the existence of the Addison Gallery of American Art during a visit to MoMA’s 2020 Judd retrospective? Kourtney Kardashian accompanied her.
Attention @phillipsacademy students, alumni, and families/lovers of beautiful ceramics (honestly, everyone): Commemorate Graduation and Reunion with “Big Blue” Art!
To celebrate Andover’s 2025 graduates and returning alumni, the Addison has collaborated with ceramicist Zeynep Saraçoğlu (@kulakceramic) to produce limited edition, custom-made Limoges porcelain mugs. Glazed in Phillips Academy blue, Abbot Academy blue, as well as a “splatter” version combining both colors, the solid-colored cups are inscribed with Andover’s founding motto: finis origine pendet. The end depends on the beginning. You can also explore a fantastic selection of items inspired by the Addison’s extensive collection as well as other unique finds and keepsakes.
The Museum Shop is open 10:00am – 5:00pm Tues – Sat and 1:00 – 5:00pm on Sun.
The Addison Gallery pop-up shop was generously supported by Christina Erickson ‘88, P’19 and Selcuk Cakir P’19.
Looking for a quiet place to get work done? Join us for Study Hours at the Addison, 5:00-9:00pm on Tuesday, May 27! Tables will be set up for studying in the galleries and free boba will be available until 8:00pm to keep you energized. All are welcome, no reservations required. Please note that the 2nd floor galleries will be closed at this time.
We’re open late ‘til 8 this Friday! Join us for evening open hours at the Addison. Explore the galleries and drop-in art activities hosted by the Addison Community Ambassadors.
- 5:00-8:00pm (ongoing, no tickets required!) - Explore the connections between color, poetry, and memory in the galleries to enter a raffle for gift cards.
- 5:45-6:30pm – Respond to dance and movement in the Museum Learning Center through a hands-on exploration of art materials. Spots are limited, and advance registration is encouraged to ensure that you get a spot! Additional tickets may be available at the door.
- 6:30-8:00pm – Art materials will continue to be available in the Museum Learning Center for self-guided exploration.
Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965). Dancers, 1908. Ink, watercolor, and graphite on wove paper. Gift of anonymous donor, 1941.72.2, 1941.72.3, 1941.72.5
#addisongalleryofamericanart
Some bunny loves you. 🐰
Unidentified photographer. [Child with inflatable bunny and TV], c. 1960s. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2021.72.252
Please join us in congratulating 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, Tommy Kha! As you may know, @tommykha is the recipient of the Addison Artist Council’s 2025 Bartlett H. Hayes Prize and will have his first solo museum exhibition here at the Addison this fall!
In preparation for his upcoming fall exhibition, on Monday Tommy Kha met with 115 students over the course of the school day to jumpstart his Chain Letter Project, a collaborative photography project exploring themes of family and community. Students from Central Catholic High School, Andover High School, Middlesex Community College, and Phillips Academy courses ranging from photography to Asian American literature discussed Kha’s work and ways in which they themselves will exchange shared disposable cameras to make photos in response to Kha’s Chain Letter prompts.
Selections from the resulting images will be on display in the fall exhibition as part of a layered photocollage that explores community and collective memory. Hayes Prize 2025: Tommy Kha will be on view at the Addison from September 2, 2025 through January 4, 2026.
#tommykha #addisonartistcouncil #hayesprize
Join us Thursday, April 10th at 6:30 for a FREE screening of “Another Light on the Road: Robert Frank and June Leaf’s Canadian Home” [work in progress], 2024, directed by Kathryn Whalen and John Parlante. Presented in conjunction with June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart, the film provides a portrait of Leaf and the hardscrabble seaside farmhouse and studio she shared for 50 years with her husband, Robert Frank, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. “Another Light in the Road” stands as a testament not only to the artist couple’s powerfully intimate and creative relationship but also to their enduring ties to the Mabou community of Cape Breton, as we see friends and neighbors gather in the warmth of her kitchen to share colorful stories.
The museum will remain open through 6:30 pm on this day so that program attendees may view the exhibition before the film screening.
Following the screening the directors will take questions from the audience.
This FREE program will be presented in Kemper Auditorium. Registration is required—just click the link in our bio!
#juneleaf
Thank you to the hundreds of Addison supporters and art lovers who joined us on Saturday to celebrate the opening of our current spring slate of exhibitions!
In addition to our major exhibition, June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart, we celebrated the opening of three shows drawn entirely from the Addison’s vast permanent collection: Dynamic Duos, On and Off Stage: Performance and Persona, and Playing to Our Strengths: Highlights from the Permanent Collection.
We’re always happy to sing our own praises but leave you with the words of Mark Feeney from today’s Boston Globe review of our permanent collection shows: The excellence of all three shows, as one might infer, testifies to the quality of that collection. Even if it charged admission, which it doesn’t, the Addison would be as good a museumgoing bargain as there is in New England. And that’s not even counting the traveling June Leaf retrospective, which is also up through July 31. As Spencer Tracy says in “Pat and Mike” (a movie with lots of two shots), “what’s there is cherce.”
We hope you agree!
All photos by @kathytphotos.
Exhibition announcement! The Addison Gallery of American Art has entered into a partnership with Lumon Industries to create what will become the very first in a series of temporary exhibitions for severed workers. Selected by members of Lumon’s Optics and Design Department in concert with the Addison’s curatorial staff, the inaugural iteration of this series will be comprised of works from the Addison’s vast holdings of George Tooker’s preliminary drawings. We’re told that Tooker’s renderings of vast, oddly menacing hallways and oppressive grids that speak to the dehumanization and alienation of modern life resonate with many “innies.” Not sure what that’s about but, regardless, praise Kier (PA 1860)!
George Tooker (1920-2011). Study for Landscape with Figures, 1965-66. Graphite and watercolor on paper. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, gift of the artist (PA 1938) in memory of his parents, George Clair and Angela Montejo Roura Tooker, 1996.80.66
Come celebrate June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart and the rest of our fantastic spring exhibitions at our opening reception on Saturday, March 29th from 4-6 right here at the Addison!
Light refreshments will be served and, as always, it will be free and open to all.
June Leaf, White Scroll with Dancing Figures, 2008. Tin, wood, wire, acrylic on fabric, and wood, 17 x 17 x 11 1/4 inches. Private collection. © The Estate of June Leaf. Photo: Johan Vipper
#juneleaf #shootingfromtheheart
2025 #PA Giving Day starts tomorrow (Wednesday, March 26th) at 9am EDT. Unite with fellow @phillipsacademy alumni, families, and friends worldwide to rally for the Addison! Every gift, of every size, truly makes a meaningful difference for our campus community. Kick off the celebration early at the link in our bio.
We’re excited to share that because of the generosity of a small group of Addison supporters, a gift of any size will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $35,000! An amazing opportunity to amplify your gift to the Addison Gallery of American Art!
June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart opens tomorrow (March 15th)!
Across a 75-year career, the artist, storyteller, dancer, and engineer June Leaf (1929-2024) produced an extraordinary body of work that revels in the human experience in all its banality and sublimity. Playfully navigating the planes of the real and the imaged, Leaf’s piercing eye and art powerfully hold a mirror up to essential human truths, reminding us of our shared humanity.
The most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in more than three decades, this retrospective considers the breath of Leaf’s career with more than 150 sculptures, paintings, and works on paper placed in dynamic conversations across media and time to reveal the artist’s sustained engagement with such motifs and themes as the human drama, theater, dance, performance, motion, gender, and interpersonal relationships.
An accompanying catalogue, co-published with @rizzolibooks, will be available soon!
June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart is co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. Major support for this project has been provided by the Estate of June Leaf with additional funding provided by The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation (formerly the Andrea Frank Foundation), John and Sally Van Doren (PA 1980), and the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s John H. ’29 and Marjorie Fox ’29 Wieland Current-Use AMAM Support Fund.
June Leaf, “Mother Goose” Emerging Artist in Studio, 1976. Charcoal, ink, and collage on paper, 22 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches. Collection Estate of June Leaf. Courtesy Hyphen, New York. © The Estate of June Leaf. Photo: Alice Attie
#juneleaf #shootingfromtheheart
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