www.themorris.org.

Changes at the Morris Museum of Art

Change is in the air at Augusta’s Morris Museum of Art—everything from admission fees to a refreshed look in the galleries. It all begins this month, and will continue well into 2010.

“Change is in the nature of good public institutions, but it often happens in such small increments that it’s almost not perceptible. Most of what’s happening here at the Morris will be readily noticeable to all. These changes represent significant improvement in the way we see to the needs of our guests, as well as to the display and interpretation of the art. These changes will provide fresh and visually exciting ways to see the Morris’s wonderful collections,” said Kevin Grogan, director of the Morris Museum of Art. “Our ambition is to make the museum easily accessible in every way to as many people as we can.”

• First, the museum recently changed admission fees to increase accessibility. Now, children age 12 and younger are free. (Previously, only children under the age of 6 got that free admission.) Admission for visitors between the ages of 13 to 18, seniors, military personnel, and students with IDs are $3; adults are $5; museum members always get in for free; and all visitors are free on Sundays.
• Second, cell phones, once banned, are now allowed in the galleries. Visitors can text or take photographs; however, phone ringers must be silenced and phone conversations are discouraged in the galleries (but allowed anywhere outside).
• Third, still photography is permitted in the museum’s permanent galleries for private, noncommercial use only—photos cannot be published, sold, reproduced, transferred, or distributed (through publication or via the internet). In addition, flash photography and tripods are not permitted. There will be signs designating some galleries as “No Photograph Areas.”
• Finally, the Morris is launching a new web site in the Fall and will be reinstalling the entire permanent collection from mid-December of 2009 through early March of 2010.

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The Morris Museum of Art, the first museum in the country devoted to the art and artists of the South, is one of the region’s premier cultural institutions. Noted for its multifaceted permanent collection and a rich program of continuously changing special exhibitions, the Morris Museum is dedicated to the ongoing interpretation of Southern art in all its forms and the preservation of the region’s rich cultural legacy. It is dedicated to sustaining artistic inquiry, providing a rich visitor experience, and exercising civic responsibility, while advancing public understanding of the South.

The museum holds nearly 5,000 works of art, including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculpture, dating from the late-eighteenth century to the present. These works are displayed in galleries dedicated to antebellum portraiture, the Civil War, genre painting, still life, landscape, Southern impressionism, contemporary painting, and works on paper.

In addition to its permanent collection galleries, the museum presents eight to ten special exhibitions every year and a rich variety of public programs, including lectures, readings, and concerts for a general audience, as well as more specialized programs for the museum’s affiliate membership groups-Friends of African American Art, Friends of the Library, Young at Art, and the Morris 100 collectors group-children, families, and school groups.

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Exhibitions: