ANDOVER — The artwork has returned to the Addison Gallery of American Art on Main Street.
Next, guests will be able to return to the gallery for the first time in nearly two years.
The gallery, an academic art museum of Phillips Academy, will reopen today after being closed since July 2008 for a $30 million expansion and restoration.
On a recent afternoon, workers installed and adjusted lighting, while others cleaned walls and put decals near various pieces of art.
"It is nice to see the art come back, and it will be nice to see the public again as well," said Brian Allen, museum director.
The first exhibit is titled "Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew.'' It will allow viewers to see new works acquired while the gallery was closed and to rediscover some of the old visitor favorites as well, Allen said. Some of the themes include industry, myth and geometry.
The museum will be open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free to the public. There will be a grand opening celebration on Sept. 25.
People who have been to the museum in the past will notice a difference upon first entering the building.
The rotunda, which was cluttered with a bookstore and a visitor center, has been restored with the bookstore and visitor center being relocated, Allen said. The marble water fountain sculpture, which has not worked since its installation in 1931, has been repaired.
"This is one of the most welcoming, intimate and gracious entrances to a museum in the country," Allen said.
On a recent tour, Allen pointed out that all the marble, railings, floors and chandeliers have been refinished throughout the 79-year-old building.
"The rule with museum renovations is 'to do no harm,'" Allen said. "We wanted to keep the museum intimate."
Allen said he loves how Thomas Cochran, the original architect, created a grand but intimate museum in which art can be seen from the hallways.
Artwork will be displayed only in the original Addison building. But there will be more gallery space because staff offices have been moved into the addition, which includes storage, a loading dock and an expansive education center with a library and classrooms.
The new education center will allow staff to bring items up from storage and discuss it with groups of people.
Allen said the addition was needed because almost all major systems in the building needed to be replaced and there was a shortage of storage space for the approximate 17,000 paintings, photographs, sculptures and other pieces. He said there were only 400 pieces when the museum opened.
"We hadn't picked up an inch of new space since 1931," Allen said. "We were running out of space for the collection and our staff."
The addition brought 13,000 square feet to the existing 22,000-square-foot building.
The gallery shows about 300 pieces at a time with the exhibits changing about three times a year, Allen said.
One of the new permanent pieces has been installed outside on the "green roof," located above the loading dock. The roof is covered with sedum. a low-growing plant which changes colors with the seasons, Allen said.
It is an installation of 10 spheres or "floats" of different sizes by Dale Chihuly, considered by many the world's most creative glass sculptor. The artwork can be seen from the new learning center. This is Chihuly's first major installation in Massachusetts, coming in advance of a 2011 show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Allen, who has been the director for the past six years, called the museum one of the greatest small museums in the country. The museum was recently named one of the 1,000 Great Places to visit in Massachusetts by the 1,000 Great Places commission. The state released the list in July to highlight what's unique about Massachusetts and boost tourism.
The Addison Gallery is considered by many critics to have one of the most important collections of American art in the country. Artists in the collection include Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, John Twachtman, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lang and Robert Mapplethorpe
"Most everything we do is free and open to the public,'' Allen said. "We wish more people in the Merrimack Valley would take advantage of it."
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