Electronic Superhighway
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. Inspiring artworks and special exhibitions online and in person at our two locations. National educational offerings. Innovative research. Video interviews with artists and virtual studio tours, lectures and more. Admission is always free.

Featured Exhibitions

 The Protagonist of an Endless Story by Angel Rodríguez-Díaz
Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea
July 28, 2023January 14, 2024
Ideas about the American West, both in popular culture and in commonly accepted historical narratives, are often based on a past that never was, and fail to take into account important events that actually occurred.
Tour Dates
  • 1
    Smithsonian American Art Museum
    Washington, DC
    July 28, 2023January 14, 2024
Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_2 - 139600
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
June 23, 2023January 29, 2024
Musical Thinking explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music.
Artist Lily Hope with an ornamental headdress
Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023
May 26, 2023March 31, 2024
Artists Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy), and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) present a fresh and nuanced vision of Native American art.
Quilted artwork depicting eight African American soldiers
Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery
Ongoing
SAAM’s branch location for contemporary craft, the Renwick Gallery, showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft today. Currently on view are more than 100 works in a range of mediums from fiber and ceramics to glass, metal, wood, and mixed media.
Media - 1967.129 - SAAM-1967.129_1 - 65164
Artist to Artist
October 1, 2021May 18, 2025
Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.

Upcoming Featured Events

Featured Stories

A man stands drawing on a white board.
The second part of an interview with Tom di Maria, director emeritus of the Creative Growth Art Center
A woman with brown skin and short hair stands holding an African-inspired mask close to her face, covering one eye. In the background are bright, geometric shapes in red, blue, and yellow.
08/03/2023
Celebrating the renowned artist with a comic about her life and work
Two off-white, beaded bonnets on display in a glass case. In the background is a large painting.
07/28/2023
Many Wests brings a reimagining of this iconic region to SAAM
Two traditional robes with traditional Alaskan Native designs side-by-side on mannequins in a gallery.
An in-depth look at Lily Hope and Ursala Hudson’s work and the traditions behind Chilkat weavings
SAAM
A photograph of a woman in front of artwork
SAAM's director on current exhibitions, acquisitions, and the newly reimagined and reinstalled modern and contemporary galleries

New Acquisitions

Media - 2022.13 - SAAM-2022.13_1 - 146150
Monumental
Date2019
woven linen with madder dye and tea stain
Not on view
Media - 2022.25 - SAAM-2022.25_1 - 146159
Don’t Tread on Me, God Damn, Let’s Go! — The Harlem…
Date2021
cottons, silk, wool, and velvet
On view
Media - 2022.31.1.1-.10 - SAAM-2022.31_1 - 146324
Metabolizing the Border
Date2018-2020
Performance. Unique objects worn by artist/performer (glass, neoprene, rusted metal fragments of U.S./Mexico border fence, leather, cotton twine, flashlight) and photodocumentation of the performance (digital files)
Not on view
Media - 2021.76.1 - SAAM-2021.76.1_1 - 142514
Untitled (Verse Jar)
Date1860
stoneware with alkaline glaze
On view