ANDOVER — People only have a few more days to take in world-class art right in their own backyard.
The Addison Gallery of American Art on the Phillips Academy campus is closing for 18 months while it undergoes a $30 million expansion and restoration.
The museum, home to works of art like Winslow Homer's "Eight Bells," will close at 5 p.m. Sunday and will not open again until the spring of 2010, according to museum director Brian Allen.
Museum admission is free.
"We've had a lot of people walking in to get a last view," Allen said. "I know how they feel because they are saying, 'Wow. It's really happening, so we had to see the Addison one more time.'"
This is the Addison's first expansion since opening in 1931.
The project will add 13,000 square feet onto the left side of the 22,000-square-foot building, creating more office and storage space, a loading dock and an expansive education center with a library and two classrooms.
Improvements will allow the gallery to store all of its 16,000 paintings, photographs, sculptures and other pieces, instead of keeping many elsewhere, which it does now.
The gallery shows about 300 pieces at a time.
While most of the artwork has been shipped away, the museum is showing "Then and Now," which features pieces from its permanent collection like John Singer Sargent's "Cypress Trees at San Vigilio." There also are two traveling exhibits, landscape photographs by Frank Gohlke, and prints from Connecticut native Carroll Dunham.
During the closure, the museum will continue lending pieces to museums around the world. One collection is being displayed at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy.
"We'll be lending extensively to other museums to keep our profile as high as possible," Allen said, adding that staff will be planning exhibits and fundraising over the next year.
The museum staff pledges to continue its community outreach with area schools. The museum has more than 30,000 visitors a year — 6,000 of whom are schoolchildren from across the Merrimack Valley.
"We have some great programs planned for working with schools in the area," Allen said. "The Addison might be closed, but we'll be taking the Addison to the classroom."
The expansion will allow the galleries to return to the sizes intended by the building's benefactor, Thomas Cochran. Galleries have been encroached upon in past years to make room for offices and storage as the building's collection of artwork and staff grew.
"Our goal is to keep the intimate, accessible feel of the gallery the same," Allen said. "The spaces are very elegant. It's one of the great qualities of the Addison. ... The experience will be unchanged. Many of the new features will not be seen."
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.
"There is no community the size of Lawrence, North Andover or Andover in the country that has a museum like the Addison," Allen said.
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If you go
What: Addison Gallery of American Art
When: Today through Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.
Where: 180 Main St., Andover
Admission: Free
*Parking available by the Andover Inn
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Changes in store for the Addison
r Adds 13,000 square feet onto 22,000-square-foot building
r Construction of an education center
r More storage and office space
r New lighting and heating and air conditioning system
