AUGUSTA, GA.- After months of planning and preparation—fresh paint, new carpet and lights, interior construction, and rearranging and hanging hundreds of works of art—the Morris Museum of Art reopened. This is the first time since the Morris opened in 1992 that its renowned permanent collection has been completely reinstalled.

“The museum’s staff has done an outstanding, outstanding job under great pressure and in a very short span of time. They have completely transformed the permanent collection galleries at the Morris,” commented William S. Morris III, the museum’s founder and chairman.

“The museum is nearing its eighteenth birthday, which we will celebrate in September 2010, and, in anticipation of that, this seemed an ideal time to expose the community to the richness and breadth of the museum’s collections,” said Morris Museum director Kevin Grogan. “The Morris’s permanent collection has nearly doubled in size over the past eight years to approximately 5,000 objects. While, over the years, it has been possible to integrate some of the newly acquired works of art into the ongoing display of the permanent collection, it just hasn’t been possible to display them all. It isn’t now, either, but many more paintings than have ever been seen before are on display now, and the rearranged works of art really sing to each other.”

The galleries highlight such previously unseen work as Charleston portraits by Samuel F. B. Morse, still-life paintings by Elliott Daingerfield and Isabel Cohen, and landscape paintings that represent an expanded view of the geography and topography of the South. A completely new gallery, Southerners at Play, that features paintings depicting horse racing, quail hunting, playing baseball, and shooting marbles, as well as a greatly expanded selection of contemporary art, that includes work by internationally-renowned contemporary artist Jasper Johns, Columbus, Georgia-native William “Bo” Bartlett, and famed Gullah artist Jonathan Green are particular highlights.

In addition to its reopened galleries, the museum is premiering a special exhibition, Regional Dialect: American Scene Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection. As museum director Kevin Grogan has noted, “It is very special indeed—a selection of more than fifty works of art by some of the most influential artists who worked outside the major art centers between the world wars. Though their styles differ, they shared a common commitment to the portrayal of American life—everything from Depression-era sharecroppers in the rural south to monuments of industry in the upper Midwest. We are very pleased to welcome Susan and John Horseman to Augusta and to share their collection with a large, eager, interested, audience.”