SPRINGVILLE — It's taken more than a decade of planning and fund raising, but work is complete on a new $4.6 million wing of the Springville Art Museum.

Completion of the George S. and Dolores Eccles Centennial Wing will be celebrated Saturday at the 28th annual Art Ball. The event also will mark the beginning of the 80th annual Spring Salon, one of the major Utah art shows of the year.

The George S. and Dolores Eccles Centennial Wing, built to match the original 1937 architecture, expands the museum to 40,000 square feet.

Springville's was the first art museum project of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The "art movement" in Springville started in the 1900s with the schools.

The museum owns 1,750 works of art, including the largest collection of Russian art in North America. It boasts more than 300 such pieces.

During construction, some $5 million in art has been donated to the museum, said Brent Haymond, president of the museum's board of trustees.

The addition, which encloses a courtyard, has a bookstore, an elevator to access all three floors and was designed so visitors can more easily view paintings, sculptures and photography on display. A new kitchen also has been built in the new wing.

The building has a new east entrance to match the original north entrance.

Planning for the addition started in 1992, although drawings date to the 1980s.

"We decided not to build until we had enough money," said Vern Swanson, museum director. The state government chipped in $300,000. The Eccles Foundation gave $875,000. The rest of the money came from small donations by art lovers and Utah Valley residents, said Haymond.

Work on the addition, which pushed the number of galleries from 11 to 25, started in 1997. Youth galleries, dedicated to art education, are on the lower level.

There also is some reclaimed space, a basement dug out by six Boy Scouts and their troops working on Eagle Scout badges.

Dozens of artists have their work on display, including early Utah artists John Haven and Cyrus E. Dallin, who were founding artists of the museum.

Art by Minerva Tiechert also is displayed at the museum. Tiechert's painting "Touch Me Not," which depicts the resurrected Christ with Mary Magdalene, is being shown at BYU.

All the paintings in the museum are being digitized for the museum's not-yet-launched Web site.

In the future, patrons will be able to buy art prints on display over the Internet.

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