Poised above the Mississippi River, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum boasts a fine marine art collection. Founded in 2006, the Winona, Minn., museum is also home to works by Impressionist, modern and contemporary masters and notable Hudson River School gems. Newly acquired are five American masterpieces, some of which will be housed in a major expansion, announced on Sunday.

A growing collection, and the large size and high-quality of the four 19th-century painting acquisitions, calls for new gallery space at MMAM. The $1.8 million, 4,000 square foot addition, named the Richard and Jane Manoogian Gallery, will be completed by October.

The Detroit-based Manoogians are avid American art collectors and proponents, with a $1 billion fortune from building and home-improvement products. The couple is giving $500,000 to the MMAM building project over five years through their family foundation.  Another $1.4 million was funded by local museum supporters.

 “A Mountain Stream,” by Richard Hubbard; “View on the Deer River,” by William Mason Brown; “Winter on the Hudson,” by James Hart; and “Rainbow Falls, Watkins Glen New York,” by James Hope; are the four masterworks recently added to the MMAM's Hudson River School collection.

“If you look at European-inspired 19th-century American artwork, Winona now has some of the best in the country,” MMAM executive director Andy Maus said to Lacrosse Tribune of the museum’s latest acquisitions. “It’s kind of a game-changer.”

A 1941 work by 20th-century master John Marin, “Two Boats and Sea, Cape Split, Maine,” will bolster MMAM's modern holdings.

The relatively young museum has an annual budget of just $500,000. It was founded by local residents Robert Kierlin and his wife, Mary Burrichter, who are the museum's primary benefactors. Their collection of marine art and Impressionist paintings is on long-term loan to MMAM.