BANGOR – In this season of sharing, the University of Maine Museum of Art at 40 Harlow St. has received two gifts that will keep on giving.

It was announced Dec. 6 that museum admission will be free to the public through the end of 2008 thanks to a donation from Machias Savings Bank. The donation was made in memory of Ted Leonard, a Bangor lawyer and UM alumnus who championed the art museum. Ed Hennessey, the bank’s president, and Leonard were close friends.

In addition, University of Maine new media art professor Jon Ippolito has donated eight works created by his father, Angelo Ippolito, an abstract expressionist painter of far-reaching reputation. The paintings are valued at $350,000.

University of Maine President Robert Kennedy made the announcement during the opening reception for the museum’s current exhibit, “A Legacy of Collecting 1983-Present.”

“By any standard, today has been a tremendous day for the University of Maine, especially for the museum of art,” Kennedy said.

Ippolito’s gift of his father’s paintings expresses his love of the museum and the university.

“I knew my father’s work had to fly the nest, but I love it and I wanted it to be close to me,” Ippolito said of the decision to donate the paintings to UMMA. His father’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, all in New York City.

Now that admission to the art museum is free, the general public has the opportunity to stand face to face with the work of the artists in the museum’s current exhibit, including:

. Photographs by 19th century French photographer Eugene Atget of hat shop and wine shop interiors that are filled with mystery and the stillness of the time.

. Black and white portraits of elegantly posed people by photographer Berenice Abbott.

. Helen Frankenthaler’s woodcut, “Essence Mulberry” – a block of gold, a fall of red, streaks of blue and puddles of orange.

. Picasso’s “Jacqueline in a Straw Hat” – a marvel of lines in black, yellow, green and orange.

. Four sea-themed sketches by John Marin – three in pencil, one in crayon – a melange of curved and straight lines invoking the deep, both literally and figuratively.

. An abstract wood relief by Maine sculptor Bernard Langlais, a mosaic of naturally weathered board and smaller pieces of woods painted gray blue, which proves that in the right hands recycling is truly an art.

. “Mick Jagger,” by Andy Warhol, an iconic image created by the artist in 1975.

And that’s just to single out a few of the artists and their works comprising the visual feast awaiting museum visitors – that and the anticipation of viewing Angelo Ippolito’s paintings in the future.

To learn more about the museum, call 561-3352. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.