The Addison Reopens Tuesday, September 4th

As our deadline approaches for reopening the museum after our August break, Preparators are scrambling to install artwork, Curators are polishing their text for their wall labels, Registrars are condition reporting the incoming loans, and Educators are finalizing their tours and curriculum packets. The museum may look quiet outside, but the staff is bustling within. I thought I'd post a few images of the galleries to give our readers a sneak preview of what's to come.

Three shows will be ready for September 4th. Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey (see above left) consists of forty large-scale color portraits of high school students taken across the country. Each image is accompanied by the sitter's personal statement, the image and text combining to give unique insight into the personality and mind of each student.

Class Pictures shares our second floor with The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives of the Addison Collection. Our Director, three Curators, and Dawoud Bey have each curated a gallery with different themes. Our own blogger and Curatorial Fellow Jaime DeSimone, has curated her gallery of The Discerning Eye (see right) using artwork that uses contemporary interpretations of word and image.

The third exhibition is hung on our main level: Bernard Langlais: Abstract Wood Reliefs (see left). Also occupying the main level will be Ipswich Days: Arthur Wesley Dow and his Hometown and Angela Lorenz: The Artist's Book as Volume of Knowledge, but you will need to wait until our opening reception September 22nd to see those two shows. We start installing them next week.

Over the next few weeks, keep checking Blog Addison as we introduce our new blogger from the Education Department, bring you up to date on current and future museum events, and continue to give you the behind-the-scenes glimpses of our museum as you've come to expect. We also will soon announce what Building for the Addison's Future is all about. Sharp-eyed viewers have noticed the spot for that new link on the Addison's main web page.

Thanks as always for reading and we hope to see you here at the museum soon!


James Sousa
Associate Registrar for Collections and Archives