Bring the Smithsonian American Art Museum to your institution! Book one of our touring exhibitions today and share our inspiring collection with your community.
For more than 70 years, SAAM has been dedicated to making its permanent collection and special exhibitions available across the United States and internationally through our traveling exhibition program. This program is designed to offer institutions ready access to showcase new scholarship and collaborate with SAAM’s expert team. In turn, these traveling exhibitions allow us to expand our audience and to ensure that more Americans enjoy one of the most significant collections of American art in the world.
Ready to bring a SAAM exhibition to your institution? For more information about booking traveling exhibitions, pricing for U.S. and international institutions, checklists, and spacing requirements please contact SAAM's registrars at AmericanArtTravel@si.edu.
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Museum professionals are encouraged to sign up for our regularly circulating email newsletter. Be the first to know about what exhibitions are available for booking and learn more about ways to bring SAAM artworks to your institution.
General Requirements for Exhibitors
- The exhibitor must be a nonprofit institution, essentially educational and aesthetic in purpose, that collects works of art and exhibits them to the public.
- The exhibitor must have available professional staff trained in handling artwork.
- The exhibitor must meet climate and security requirements and must submit an American Association of Museums’ standard facilities report.
Scheduling and Participation Fees
- Exhibitions are usually scheduled for twelve-week periods, allowing a few weeks between venues for packing and shipping.
- Participation fees vary by exhibition and location. They include costs of preparing the works for travel, packing, crating, transportation (including couriers if necessary), and insurance under the museum's policy.
- For information about current and international fees, please contact Edward Bray, Acting Senior Assistant Registrar, Exhibitions & Loans at AmericanArtTravel@si.edu or call (202) 633-8408.
Available Exhibition Materials and Services
- Published catalogues, brochures, and additional materials may be available.
- Three working copies of the catalogue will be provided free of charge, with additional copies available to be ordered at a discount.
- Posters, notecards, and other items may be available at a discount for resale in the exhibitor’s shop. Visit our online shop for examples of our products.
- A sample press release may be sent to each exhibitor, along with images that can be used for publicity.
- Exhibition labels and intro panel text are provided electronically in Microsoft Word format.
- Standards-based educational resources for grades K-12 may be available online and adaptable to traveling exhibitions and with support from the Education Department. Including artist interviews, lesson plans, and interactive online activities. Ask about real-time videoconference programs for schools and adults. Curators may be available to lecture on request.
Exhibitions Available to Book Now
William H. Johnson painted his Fighters for Freedom series in the mid-1940s as a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international heads of state working to bring peace to the world. In Fighters for Freedom, Johnson reminds us that individual achievement and commitment to social justice are at the heart of of the American story.
This exhibition sheds new light on a beloved body of work by Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961). Grandma Moses used creativity, hope, and togetherness as tools for shaping a life that she metaphorically likened to “a good day’s work.” It examines the sociocultural forces that Moses would variously reflect on or obscure in her paintings and positions her as a central figure in the history of twentieth-century American art. Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work introduces the artist to new generations and examines her legacy in the context of America today.
From the California coast to the Kansas heartland to the streets of New York City, the photographs in Much Here is Beautiful offer an expansive and evocative portrait of America in the 1970s and early 1980s. Explore selected images from photography surveys that document people and places in the United States from the 19th century to the years before and after the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.
Learn more about this exhibition and featured artists.
Step right up to the first major exhibition to survey American state fairs’ extraordinary and unconventional crafts from the nineteenth century to the present. The customizable exhibition includes exceptional examples of American craft, highlighting personal stories and regional and cultural traditions.
Learn more about this exhibition and featured artists.
From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Photorealist painters helped define the image of postwar America. Artists such as Tom Blackwell, Audrey Flack, and Ralph Goings trained their eyes on the everyday places and things in world around them. Unreal explores the movement’s artistry and artifices, showing how its practitioners created an image of modern life that made it appear as though it just existed.
This exhibition features 22 iconic works by 19 artists and celebrates a major gift to SAAM by Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel of paintings from their collection.