Staff photo / Andy Gray Associate Director Katelyn Amendolara-Russo, left, and Director John Anderson stand in one of the new galleries being added to the Medici Museum of Art in Howland. The large gallery has 35-foot ceilings and was designed to display everything from automobiles to large sculptures.

HOWLAND — A $1.6 million expansion of Medici Museum of Art is nearing completion and should be open to the public in early June.

The expansion doubles the number of galleries at the East Market Street location from five to 10 and will include a gift shop and larger classroom space and storage. Architect Robert Buchanan of Poland designed the expansion to the original structure designed by the late Thomas Schroth.

“Tom designed the original building with the possibility of expanding in this direction,” Director John Anderson said, although Schroth envisioned an amphitheater-like performance space behind the original galleries.

That space now includes a massive gallery with a 35-foot ceiling and large double doors that will make it possible for the museum to display everything from large sculptures to automobiles there.

“The space provides an endless opportunity to display different art and different mediums,” said Katelyn Amendolara-Russo, associate director of the museum. “It will provide us an opportunity to display art that couldn’t be displayed elsewhere in the region.”

Last week crews were painting in the new galleries, and flooring will be installed starting this week.

The original galleries are dominated by 65 works by Norman Rockwell that are part of the permanent collection belonging to the Boy Scouts of America. However, the Rockwells are only a fraction of the 300-plus works owned by the BSA, and the Medici Museum is the current custodian of that collection.

Other works owned by the BSA will be shown in the new gallery, including more than 50 paintings by Joseph Csatari, who worked with Rockwell and succeeded him as the official artist of the Boy Scouts.

“He called last week, and he’s planning on coming,” Amendolara-Russo said of the 92-year-old artist, who lives in New Jersey. “We wants to do a final walk-through of all his paintings while they’re up.”

Also going into one of the new galleries will be the art collection of Rennie and the late James Grohl of Howland. James Grohl was the father of musician Dave Grohl.

“We’re so grateful we received her collection to display in the museum,” Amendolara-Russo said.

Visitors can expect a wide range of work at Medici.

“We’ll be international, contemporary, diverse,” Anderson said.

“We’ve spent many nights talking about John’s vision for Medici,” Amendolara-Russo added. “We’re so excited to unveil it to the community because it’s a blank canvas. There are no restrictions. That’s the beauty of it.”

Ever-changing guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult to make exact plans, but Amendolara-Russo expects to start hanging the shows in May. The new galleries to be open to the public in June with plans for an official grand opening later in the summer.

“With the vaccine, we hope we can resume some normalcy and invite a larger crowd,” she said. “It’s been a long time. We’re definitely planning on something.”

The gift shop should be open to the public at the same time as the new galleries. While there will be some Boy Scout-related merchandise, that won’t be the focus of the shop.

“We’re working hard at getting really unique pieces and merchandise that isn’t your average museum shop (offerings),” Amendolara-Russo said. “I’ve spent a lot of time researching and finding vendors to really make it one of a kind.”