Open daily, 11:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

The nation’s first collection of American art, an unparalleled record of the American experience.

Open daily, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Located just feet from the White House, a branch of the museum that is home the nation's collection of contemporary craft and decorative art.

Plan your visit

How Do I Research My Art?

Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? For answers, be prepared for a little detective work.

How to Care for Your Collections

Regardless of the monetary value of your artwork, if it is personally meaningful, you should consider having the object conserved.

Recording a Changing Nation

This resource uses images from photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.

Critical Thinking in Action

These 60-to-95-minute units pair thinking patterns with works of art to instill a thinking disposition transferable across classroom curriculum and into the wider world.

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Detail of brown ceramic jar with writing and the signature "Dave" inscribed around the top.

David “Dave” Drake: Potter and Poet

Craftsman David “Dave” Drake, enslaved for most of his life, produced uncommonly large ceramic jars in 19th-century South Carolina adorned by his poetic verses

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga wearing a suit made of glass elements while standing next to the U.S./Mexico border wall

Exploring Border Stories with Artist Tanya Aguiñiga

Curator Mary Savig details an artist’s journey to create the powerful performance work Metabolizing the Border that explores the physical and psychological experiences migrants face while crossing the borderlands.

Director’s Circle

A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nation’s artists.

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SAAM Creatives

A membership group for young professionals who are interested in immersing themselves in the American art experience.

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Artist

Edward Kienholz

born Fairfield, WA 1927-died Sandpoint, ID 1994

Also known as: Edward Ralph Kienholz
Ed Kienholz
Born: Fairfield, Washington, United States
Died: Sandpoint, Idaho, United States
Active in: Hope, Idaho, United States
Nationalities: American

Exhibitions

Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965 – 1975

March 15, 2019–August 18, 2019

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975 makes vivid an era in which artists endeavored to respond to the turbulent times and openly questioned issues central to American civic life.

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Edward Kienholz

Exhibitions