Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery

A person stands on a balcony and looks up at an artwork made of golden cast arms.
Welcome to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery

Explore the sweep of the American imagination across four centuries at the nation's flagship museum for American art and craft. Dive into inspiring artworks, the reimagined collection, and an array of special exhibitions including Glenn Kaino: Bridge. Experience our offerings both online and in person at our two locations, including national educational programs, innovative research, video interviews with artists, virtual artist studio tours, lectures, audio guides, and more. Admission is always free.

Featured Exhibitions

Patterned, multicolor quilt with a central Akuabaa figure.
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists
February 21, 2025June 22, 2025
Artists featured in We Gather at the Edge honor the Black story quilt tradition with work that envisions a more just and connected world.
Painting of a man lying on the floor. He is looking away from the viewer.
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo
November 15, 2024 – August 172025
Pictures of Belonging celebrates three trailblazing Japanese American women artists and asserts their rightful place in American art.
Sculpture of a person completely covered with multiple colorful, intricate patterns standing against a neutral background.
The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture
November 8, 2024September 14, 2025
SAAM's groundbreaking exhibition examines the ways in which American sculpture has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race in the United States.

Upcoming Featured Events

Featured Stories

Five screen video installation.
Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation "Lessons of the Hour" interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass.
This is a photograph of curator Saisha Grayson
Saisha Grayson
Curator of Time-Based Media
Three paintings on a light blue background.
A new exhibition that restores three American women of Japanese descent to their rightful place in the story of modernism 
SAAM

New Acquisitions

Aaron Douglas, Inspiration, 1967, oil on canvas panel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Steven L. Jones in memory of his father Dr. William M. Jones Sr., Chicago educator and a storyteller for the soul, and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2024.36
Inspiration
Date1967
oil on canvas panel
On view
Cecilia Vicuña, Quipu Viscera, 2017, version 2025, site-specific installation of dyed and unspun wool, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, 2023.28A-B, © 2023, Cecilia Vicuña
Quipu Viscera
Date2017, version 2025
site-specific installation of dyed and unspun wool
On view
Binh Danh, El Capitan in Winter, Yosemite, June 20, 2014, 2014, daguerreotype, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the William and Christine Ragland Family Photography Endowment, 2025.3.4, © Bihn Dahn. Image courtesy of Binh Danh.
El Capitan in Winter, Yosemite, June 202014
Date2014
daguerreotype
Not on view
Joey Terrill, A Bigger Piece, 2008, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2025.5, Image courtesy of the artist, Ortuzar, New York and Marc Selwyn Fine Arts, Los Angeles. Photo: Steven Probert. Artwork © Joey Terrill
A Bigger Piece
Date2008
acrylic and mixed media on canvas
On view