The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, which includes artworks in all media—from paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings to time-based media, photographs, self-taught art, and contemporary craft—reveals key aspects of the rich artistic and cultural history of the United States from the colonial period to today. The museum's curators in recent years have focused on bringing into the nation's collection artworks made by a broadly representative and diverse group of American artists including Black, Latinx, Asian American, LGBTQ+, Indigenous and women artists.
In 2020, SAAM began an acquisition campaign to celebrate the 50th anniversary in 2022 of the museum’s Renwick Gallery as the nation’s premier museum dedicated to American craft. Many of these artworks are featured in the exhibition This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World.
Selected recent acquisitions are highlighted below. Learn more about artworks new to SAAM on our blog.