The past year was also notable for several works acquired in preparation for the opening hang of the collection, most particularly a collaged painting by David Driskoll and a major painting commission by Julie Mehretu. The museum also received as a gift/purchase a large sculpture of a male figure from the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea from Valerie Franklin, who also donated a significant group of works from the Franklin Family Collection of Melanesian Art that have been on long-term loan. Purchases of two major ceramic works by artists Roxanne Swentzell and Rose Simpson, as well as a large photograph by Will Wilson, a large painting of a Standing Rock protest by Yatika Starr Fields, a remarkable beaded bag by Ken Williams, a painted paddle by Alison Marks, and a "treaty quilt" by Gina Adams have greatly enhanced the collection of contemporary Native American art. Other ceramics acquisitions include gifts of the work of Maria Superior. Students in Museum Collecting 101 acquired a work by South African photographer Zaneli Muholi, and the museum also purchased work by artists-in-residence Gina Adams (noted above) and Judy Glantzman. In the realm of American art, the museum purchased an important charcoal drawing by Joseph Stella of workers' houses in Pittsburgh made soon after the turn of the 20th century and a painting by Enrico Riley, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Rome Prize recipient who is also a Dartmouth alum and chair of the Studio Art Department.

In the area of photography, the museum received a major gift of a 1925 photograph by Alfred Stieglitz that was selected by members of the 2018 Museum Collecting 101 class, who were given the opportunity to choose a work for the museum from the large and important photography collection of Weezie and Launny Steffens. The museum also purchased a 1931 portfolio of photographs by photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White selected from her forays to the fledging Soviet Union, and we received two large gifts of photographs: the works of New York Photo League members William Witt and Lou Stoumen, as well as of Ken Heyman, from Marina and Andrew Lewin; and works of 19th- and 20th-century photography, as well as vernacular photography, from photographer Jon Gilbert-Fox, who also donated a group of his own photographs, including some of those featured in his book Intimate Vermont. A gift of a portrait of Samuel Beckett by Henri Cartier-Bresson joins a long and illustrious list of previous gifts of works of art by Jane and Raphael Bernstein.

The museum's print collection was greatly enhanced by the gift of Chris Ofili's portfolio Black Shunga from Maud and Jeffrey Welles. The Hood purchased three additional print portfolios, one by contemporary Native American artists titled Lasting Impressions and two by the Dominican printmaking collective York Proyecto GRAFICA, including the compendium titled Here + There. In the area of European prints, collection additions included a print of a Mannerist engraving by Jan Harmensz Muller, purchased in honor of retiring Professor of Art History Joy Kenseth, and a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, acquired in honor of art history Senior Lecturer Jane Carroll.

In preparation for the Hood's reopening, staff sent a number of works for conservation, including paintings in the American galleries by Edith Cook, Thomas Doughty, and Thomas Hill, and also arranged for conservators to visit the museum. Also sent for examination was a bronze ewer that had been donated to the collection by Mark Lansburgh. There was no accompanying information on the ewer, save for the supposition that it might be Celtic. While we continue to await a final analysis of a lead isotope from the vessel, an examination of the ewer's metals has led us to believe that it was made in the ancient Roman period in either Spain or Germany. In addition, the Manton Endowment, which provides for the care of works related to the Orozco mural in Baker Library, enabled the museum to send a number of preparatory drawings for treatment and matting. This long-term project for the care of the drawings involves the selection of a group for treatment each year.

During the on-site visits by conservators ahead of the museum's reopening, the Assyrian reliefs were cleaned, as were a number of European bronzes (which were either waxed or dusted) and an Abelam figure of a woman giving birth. Site visits also led to work by conservators on Dartmouth's public sculpture, including the Kiki Smith and Joel Shapiro works, the latter of which was moved to its current site in front of the Charles Moore south façade of the Hood Museum soon after the reopening.

Another major project in preparation for the reopening involved the return to the Hood Museum of some major collection objects our on loan. These works were lent during the construction phase of the museum and gradually came back at the end of fiscal year 2017–18 and the beginning of fiscal year 2018–19. In the area of loans in general, it was a quiet year, as the museum's own collections were the focus of its first year of reopening. There were several loans, however, that enhanced the museum's presentation, including a contemporary intervention in the Kim Gallery by the artist Morehshin Allahyari, Japanese prints from the collection of Joseph and Judy Barker, a painting by Glenn Ligon that was on long-term loan from Trevor Fairbrother and John T. Kirk, and a sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye that was also a long-term loan.